iSotomayor es lo Mejor!

Hi Everyone,

So, this whole post is just about that statement in the title. I still don't know how to do the upside down exclamation mark that the Spanish language uses, so I used the lower-case "i" to create the effect seen above. The hearings to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court began this week. By this point, you've all seen or heard Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) or Jeff Sessions (R-AL) make fools of themselves by basically giving Sotomayor all their attitude. Perhaps it's because Sen. Graham is mad because he's a dude named Lindsey.

I discussed Sotomayor with you in a post last month. Not much in the way of new revelations about Sotomayor has surfaced since. She did sprain her ankle a few weeks ago, while catching a plane to Washington in LaGuardia Airport. So she has had to attend her confirmation hearings in a cast. Imagine having to deal with these Senators backtalking you while recovering from an ankle sprain. She must be tough. According to Lindsey Graham, too tough. He talked about lawyers who supposedly said she was a "bully," but aren't judges supposed to ask challenging questions of lawyers? People claim that she'd be some sort of radical, but her record shows no indication of this. She usually went along with the majority of her colleagues. She's just the kind of even-handed, judicial, but nevertheless empathetic (remember, empathy is good), Justice the Supreme Court could use. So, let me repeat the Spanish phrase (which may or may not be phrased correctly) I proclaimed above: iSotomayor es lo mejor!

This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.

How About Some Empathy?

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm sure many of you have been following the coverage of Sonia Sotomayor in the last week. Some choose to complain because President Obama has picked a minority woman to be on the Supreme Court. They complain that this means that white men are now somehow the oppressed minority. How this works, I'm not sure, since most of the justices are still white males.

There is also her qualifications. She would bring the most qualifications to the bench of anyone in a very long time. She practiced for years in New York, she graduated with honors from Princeton and Yale Universities. She has ruled on both sides of the issue when it comes to businesses vs. employees, and in discrimination suits as well. So this charge of her being a racist makes no sense.

But here is the central point of this post. One criticism raised against her is that she would bring empathy into her decisions. Many conservative critics are up in arms about empathy. They just can't stand the thought of empathy working alongside the rule of law. If that happened, it owuld be a lot harder to justify focusing wealth in the hands of those at the top while everybody else suffers. This method seems to be a pattern with the right in its current form: take something admirable, like empathy (or community organizing or helping the environment), and mock it, barf all over it, in effect.

On the topic of empathy in law and government, I will offer this quote. You may recognize it, but it has been shifted to fit our current context:

"The point is that empathy, for lack of a better word, is good. Empathy is right, empathy works. Empathy clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Empathy, in all its forms; empathy for life, for other people, animals, points of view has marked the upward surge of mankind. And you mark my words, empathy will not only guide Judge Sotomayor, but that other burgeoning servant of justice called the USA. Thank you."

Recognize it? That was taken from Michael Douglas's (as Gordon Gekko's) famous "greed is good" speech from the movie Wall Street. I took out the word "greed" and put "empathy" in its place. This was my chance to take a hateful message, and by changing the idea, make it good. It is a chance I do not often get, but I just love when it comes along, don't you? Well, I'll have more material for you soon.

This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.