Vote is the weapon

The latest decisions coming from the Supreme Court clearly show the direction that our country is headed. After all, the Supreme Court interprets the laws of the land.

We have depended on our Supreme Court to build on the intent of our Constitution by making decisions that clarify and add to the laws of our land. These laws are supposed to help and protect all of its citizens. The Supreme Court has just said that if something is not implicitly in the original constitution, it is not a guaranteed right.

News flash: The constitution is a bare-bones document with powerful ideas of freedom and rights but it was written more than 200 years ago by white men who owned slaves and thought of women as chattel. It has never contained specific reference to a lot of things including women’s rights or LGBT rights, and the rights of nonwhite Americans certainly were not mentioned. This Supreme Court has just destroyed decades of progress and stripped rights from its citizens that previous courts have upheld.

Our weapon to stop this catastrophe is our vote. We need to take people out of office who do not believe in equality for all. If we sit this one out and do nothing, then the great American experiment is a failure and we end as an authoritarian country. Think Nazi Germany. Think Russia.

I do not intend to spend my last years on this earth in fear for myself or for my loved ones. I will get off my aging rump and do whatever I can to change this. I hope you will see that this is truly a dangerous time for democracy and help. I hope we all have enough resolve to get the job done. I hope it will be enough. SUSAN EMERSON

Fayetteville