Living in NYC I was on the same street and used the same subway entrance as Elizabeth Cady Stanton did in the last decade of her life. On days when I walked passed the building she used to live in, I often thought about how the arguments about rights have changed over the past two centuries. And the progress we’ve made.
Progress? No doubt. Fair and equal? Far from it. Planned Parenthood has born the brunt of the anger and backlash against the gains women have made in the past few decades. And women’s rights to control their on bodies and lives along with it.
The Hobby Lobby decision is sad in so many ways. It reinforces my belief that health care should not be provided through insurance paid by employers. It drives home the inanity of the of position of corporate personhood.
Finally, I agree that everyone has the right to their beliefs and to behaviors that conform to those beliefs. But with freedom comes responsibility. And as often happens, in the Hobby Lobby case one person’s rights conflicts with another (and I am talking about the owners of Hobby Lobby, not the person Hobby Lobby). I find it sad that we live in a country that continues to prefer the rights of one wealthy person over all the thousands who work for them.
Which leaves me with one last thought.
Where have all the wobblies gone?