Florida Bans Water Breaks & Pregnant Women are Now Being Turned Away from Emergency Rooms
MTG Dubbed Moscow Marjorie, Republicans Want to Ban "Plan B" Pill Without Understanding What it Does, Women Run 80% of US Elections and are Routinely Threatened, Bee Gees Sing
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: This line from Hamlet is one of my go-to quotes for inspiring action instead of excuses.
Florida baffles experts by banning local water break rules as deadly heat is on the rise: Florida wants to become one giant plantation with the wealthy as masters. As for the rest…
GOP Lawmakers Oppose the Abortion Pill and ‘Plan B.’ They Hardly Understand Either: They are campaigning to eliminate pills that help women, even though they don’t understand what the pills do. These are our misogynistic leaders in action.
Women run 80% of US elections – but are targets of misogyny-laced threats: How exactly does threatening women promote American ideals?
Rise in pregnant women turned away from US emergency rooms: GOP anti-abortion laws have put women’s lives at risk. Why?
Kareem’s Video Break: Nothing is more moving than when a child cries with joy.
Whiplash as Russia Toasts Derided Marjorie Taylor Greene as Their Top New Hero: Moscow Marjorie wants to be VP under Trump. A heartbeat from the presidency—and Putin’s plaything.
What I’m Reading—Plays: These two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays are exceptionally insightful and moving. I hope to convince you to read them.
Bee Gees Sing “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”: The answer to that question is to listen to this beautiful, heart-wrenching song.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Conscience doth make cowards of us all.
Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
This quote pops into my mind all the time whenever I am contemplating what, if any, action to take in a tricky situation. In this context, Hamlet doesn’t mean a moral conscience, but consciousness of the ramifications of his actions. His fear of death—“the undiscovered country”—gives him, and all of us, pause when making decisions. We also balk at risking our material goods, our reputation, and other comforts that symbolize our lives so that losing them would be like death.
I’m going to customize the quote a bit to explain how I use it to push myself toward action whenever I fear the consequences. I use the word conscience in its moral sense. So, for me, conscience makes cowards of us all means that we use faux moral justifications to avoid making the ethical choice we know we should make. We make excuses for not taking the action that the Person We Want to Be would take.
I use the quote in that way as a litmus test to ask myself whether I’m truly doing the right thing or if I’m making excuses for not doing the right thing out of fear. It’s so easy to justify inaction: “It’s not my responsibility.” “It’s complicated.” “Let somebody else do it.” Believe me, those phrases come to my mind just as quickly as everyone else’s. When they do, I try to force myself to confront them. I use that Hamlet quote the way a monster hunter holds up a cross to a vampire. If I recoil then I know I’m justifying something I shouldn’t. Justifying cowardice. Justifying not being the person I want to be.
After all, if I’m not the person I want to be, who am I?