The phrase "a day that will live in infamy" was coined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt referring to the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941.
Since then the phrase has been used to describe the commission of an act so heinous and with such a calamitous impact on America and Americans that it is fitting to use the phrase as a means of tying such acts to the devastating Japanese attack that heavily crippled the U. S. Navy and cost the lives of 2,403 American military personnel and civilians.
Some infamous days:
- 11/22/1963: Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
- 4/19/1995: Bombing of Oklahoma City federal building
- 9/11/2001: Attack on World Trade Center and the Pentagon
- 1/6/2021: Insurrection and attack on Congress and the Capitol
- Today, 6/24/2022: Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
Set against the violent nature of the other events, a ruling of the Supreme Court may seem tame, but make no mistake: this is a declaration of war on American women.
With this ruling the Supreme Court has told the majority of Americans¹ that their reproductive health will henceforth be at the mercy of state legislatures, which are predominantly male.²
The House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack has shown in great detail how former president Donald Trump plotted for months to stay in power. The committee's focus is his attempt to overthrow a valid election, but his machinations included loading the Supreme Court with conservative justices who he expected to support him in his bid to deny the will of the American people.
That ploy did not work, but it is those justices who are responsible for the overthrow of Wade, carrying forward the hateful work of the ultra-right even when Trump is absent.
Like so many injuries and insults the American people and their Constitution have suffered since 2016, the responsibility for this outrage tracks directly to Donald Trump, whose tyrannical impulses have brought this nation close to dissolution.
I have returned to Vox Populi because the times require action, not silence. Every American who loves justice should take a moment to grieve over the grave injustice committed today by a court whose members should be but are not impartial.
Then pick up your phone, call your congressional representatives, and tell them in no uncertain terms that if they want your support they will begin posthaste to develop legislation that will secure and safeguard women's right to control their own bodies.
--Diogenes, 24 June 2022
¹ Several sources bear this out, including the U.S. Census: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/SEX255220
² Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP). 2022. “Women in State Legislatures 2022.” New Brunswick, NJ: Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University-New Brunswick. https://cawp.rutgers.edu/facts/levels-office/state-legislature/women-state-legislatures-2022 (Accessed June 24, 2022)