2020 Year Of The Sweatpants

 I was going through my closet drawers looking for a camisole when I realized that I haven't been wearing most of my clothes for almost 9 months now. When the weather was warm it was shorts and t-shirt. My uniform du jour since about late September is some version of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Only the professional tops get worn for the length of Zoom calls; the jackets and wool pants stay on the hangars. 

In thinking about all we've been through this year I think it's appropriate that 2020 should be the Year of The Sweatpants.  In January I was coming home from a trip to see my kids in Austin and planning to return to see them again in March. In February I was at Spring Training in Arizona. Covid-19 was there, over the horizon but it was distant. I think there was one case in Mesa. In March, the hammer fell and we were in quarantine and there we have stayed. 

 I never thought a trip to the grocery store would be life threatening, that people would spray  their Amazon boxes with Lysol before opening, that little kids would have to spend their days in front of screens instead of on the playground and that fist fights would break out over health orders. 

Who knew that we'd have an election that has gone on seemingly forever; that we'd have fist fights and people bringing guns to peaceful protests over voting rights; that reading the daily news feed would require an act of fortitude in the face of learning about awful behavior by so-called adults?

 There are things to be grateful for, too, in 2020. Zoom was barely a blip on my radar in March and now is a verb.  Originally designed for businesses, Zoom quickly pivoted, adding features and security becoming a much needed mainstay for staying in touch with our families and friends as the phrase "social distancing" entered our lexicon.  I am supremely grateful to Stephen Colbert, James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Trevor Noah, and Seth Myers for making me laugh at the insanity of the twin rabbit holes of COVID-19 and politics we are experiencing.

 I've gotten quite the education on constitutional law this year. I've reviewed the First and Second Amendments over and over. I reread the 19th and  26th Amendments on voting rights and just last night I read the Fourteenth Amendment, paragraph 3 that Representative Bill Pascrell cited in demanding Speaker Pelosi not seat certain Republican congress members elect for the upcoming 117th Congress. 

Technology brought us the cell phone camera and that camera came into its' own this year as America and the rest of the world saw the reality of injustice live and up close and decided to rise up and demand a change in the way we treat each other. I hope it's real and it lasts.

Science hit a moonshot and brought us hope at the end of a miserable year. Just maybe I will be able to retire my mask collection in 2021 but I just ordered masks with a Valentine's Day theme. 

And what about those sweatpants?  I understand I am now wearing at-home leisurewear.  

So long 2020, don't let the door hit you on the way out. 

Still Down the Rabbit Hole. God Save Us From The King

 On Monday acting U.S. Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall  argued to the U.S. Supreme Court "that it is the sovereign's prerogative to define the political community".  The case is about including illegal aliens in the House of Representatives reapportionment numbers derived from the census. The Trump administration wants to exclude them.

I nearly spit up my breakfast orange juice when I read that sentence. And then I  looked up the definition of sovereign. Merriman-Webster defines it as "one possessing supreme political power". 

As far as I know we do not have a sovereign. We fought a war to not be led by one back in 1776.  I learned in my high school history class that the people have the supreme political power through the power of the vote. I assume Mr. Wall attended a constitutional law class when he was in law school or at the very least a high school civics class. But these days, you never know so I looked up his background. It turns out he actually taught high school civics.  He is also a member of The Federalist Society, a group which argues for states rights and against "activist" rulings. 

So how could he make that statement with a straight face? Who are all these people that think nothing of flushing our legal heritage down the drain in the pursuit of their goals, in this case making one man King?  I don't know what's worse the ones acting or the ones staying silent (e.g. McConnell and almost the entire Republican Party).

And who are the nincompoops who would give away their power? They stand on the state house steps with their signs, waving their Trump flags and proclaim they were cheated and want the Supreme Court to give them their King.  Didn't they attend high school civics, too? 

Oh wait. They must have attended Jeffery Wall's class.