Azzi: Called to embrace the invisible, the shrouded, the non-being

"They made me invisible, shrouded and non-being

A shadow, no existence, made silent and unseeing

Denied of freedom, confined to my cage

Tell me how to handle my anger and my rage?"

This reflection by exiled Afghan human rights activist Zieba Shorish-Shamley embodies, I believe, the feelings today shared by many Americans being confronted by misogyny and ignorance.

It is widely-known that in Afghanistan the Taliban are a well-known, marginally-educated Islamist fundamentalist and militant political movement that, after years of insurgency and terror, reemerged in August 2021 to take full control of the country and reimpose its draconian religious and cultural views on its people.

Sadly, as outrageous as it may appear, America is today threatened by the rise of an American Taliban movement, a mostly Christian fundamentalist and militant white nationalist political cult more interested in power and imposing its draconian religious and cultural views upon our nation than in preserving America's constitutional republic.

Their quest for power, mirroring that of the Afghan Taliban, is a threat to the nation and isn't limited to marginalizing and controlling the rights of American women in a manner contrary to the 14th Amendment where:

"... No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ..."

This week, in a brilliant riposte to Justice Alito's draft opinion, Jill Lepore, in the New Yorker, describes a rancorous 1868 exchange over the 14th Amendment between Senators Reverdy Johnson (MD) and Jacob Howard (MI) over a James Madison quote that “those who are to be bound by laws, ought to have a voice in making them” to which Howard answers: "I believe Mr. Madison was old enough and wise enough to take it for granted that there was such a thing as the law of nature which has a certain influence even in political affairs, and that by that law women and children are not regarded as the equals of men."

Not just unequal to men. The reality of our history is that Alito is relying upon a white patriarchal18th century text where women weren't guaranteed anything.

Neither in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution were women, people of color, indentured or enslaved peoples, or Native Americans considered; indeed, if one wasn't one of the 55 Anglo-Saxon Protestant property-owning white men - including 25 who owned enslaved peoples, you weren't really considered a person for other than token purposes.

I'm a little flabbergasted that so many Americans are surprised at the content of Alito's draft opinion and what to expect from so-called originalists and their eisegetical impulses. We know fully well who he is, who Justices Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Thomas, and Barrett are, and who they represent, and don't represent.

They don't represent me or anyone I know or love.

They, reflecting a continuation of privileged patriarchal interests articulated by 55 white men long ago yearn for a country that exists only in their fevered imaginations, abetted by others seduced by religious interests or proximately to whiteness willing to stand alongside them in opposition to the aspirational promises of the American Dream.

Let's be clear: this opposition to equitable access for women’s health care and rights to reproductive health care is only the beginning of a radical and at times racially-based assault on our freedoms.

If successful on overturning Roe v Wade, they will next target access to birth control, same-sex marriage, and interracial marriages. They will accelerate attacks on LGBTQIA peoples, on voting rights, on education and on the environment.

They have no shame.

The roster of states opposing women's rights today include most of the states that committed treason by joining the confederacy, that opposed the 14th Amendment in 1868, opposed the 1980s Equal Rights Amendment, and are most virulent in opposing Voting Rights for people of color, minority communities and the poor.

It includes states that are among the lowest levels in educational attainment and highest levels of teen-pregnancy; states opposed to government programs that support children once born.

States like New Hampshire, which just defeated a bill to spend 40 cents a day to feed needy school children.

Understand, these so-called pro-life supporters aren't interested in supporting life. They're only interested in controlling a woman's womb. They offer no support for children once born.

Many who oppose abortion defend the death penalty. Many oppose supplemental programs and tax relief for needy families, oppose creating communities where children have equal access to educational opportunities.

The reality is that Alito's opinion is only about ending abortion for poor people, mostly people of color, the weak, the vulnerable, ending abortion for victims of rape and incest.

Those with privilege will find their own way.

I was encouraged this week to read a statement from the Episcopal Church which reaffirmed that since 1967 it "has maintained its 'unequivocal opposition to any legislation on the part of the national or state governments which would abridge or deny the right of individuals to reach informed decisions [about the termination of pregnancy] and to act upon them ... [ ] .... which we view as an integral part of a woman’s struggle to assert her dignity and worth as a human being."

We must choose, at some point, whether to continue to embrace a narrow and privileged "Originalist" view of a document written by 55 white men reflecting their world view or to fully embrace the aspirational brilliance of a nation where all people are created equal.

We must choose in the end to embrace the invisible, the shrouded, the non-being, for that is who we are.

Robert Azzi, a photographer and writer who lives in Exeter, can be reached at theother.azzi@gmail.com. His columns are archived at theotherazzi.wordpress.com.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Azzi: Called to embrace the invisible, the shrouded, the non-being