Let's Talk About Morality

Is morality a statement of our own ethics as defined by society or have some of our ethics been handed to us by a religious body of people? As the good Reverend in Moral Orel said, "...some random guys." are always the ones who seem to be making decisions for us. That Those of us who chant or meditate would like the world to understand that prayer is a matter of asking for help where as we are declaring something to ourselves in or actions. I defer that nonsense to my friends at AdultSwim.com and their videos surrounding the character named "Moral Orel". But we have to admit that it exists. The supreme court can't keep the self-righteous and self-proclaimed morally fit people who make up their own rules on the fly in everyday life to stomp on someone else's constitutional rights. Recently the Supreme Court allowed corporations, as if they are individuals, to be considered people with the right to self expression, in reference to who they want to donate money to, in order to get around the soft money contribution limits set by our government to give the average person the chance to get elected to political office. In that, they expressed that no one should be allowed to surpress someone else's right to free speech and free expression.
Lately someone else got tromped on. The lady who was running for office a seat on the Wisconsin State Assembly was told she had so many words (5) to express who she is and what she is about that would be on her ballot selection button, in the ballot box during the election. Her Choice of words, instead of some common catch phrase like, "A Law and Order Candidate" or "A man of the people", was instead, "Not the whiteman's bitch". The state election board declared this was not acceptable and I will rather let Ieshu Griffin explain herself as to what her intent was and her argument with them. She stated that, "I was not trying to be derogatory towards any one person, I said, "The Whiteman",..." and she went on to describe and detail accounts of different entertainers who made similar statements. She said she was referring to the government, not a specific race when she made the comment "...the white man", and stated that bitch pertains to a dog that rolls over and that her statement meant that she wasn't going to roll over and that she saw nothing in the actual state statutes or election rules that said that her statement was wrong. She also used a case of a judge using the "N" word to make a statement to a person.
My personal comment is that this woman did not come across as being ignorant or disrespectful and only seemed confused that her statement, in light of the Supreme Court's decisions on use of speech, was considered out of bounds and asked that they reconsider.
My only fear for Ms. Griffin is that she will become, because of all of the notoriety in the media over this, the "Not the white man's bitch" bitch. There are already comments all over the internet from certain people who are obviously trying to be disrespectful by saying, "I am a white man and I never asked this bitch to be MY bitch." As a white male who happens to love black women and has made the choice to allow myself to date, live with, and love women outside my own race who are African American because of my physical preference to them, then I feel I need to say, I would never consider using that language towards my girlfriend or any other black woman. But, as a citizen of the United States who has watched most of Congress become a rich old white man's club, I can fully understand, especially for a female who is facing what a lot of people still consider a mostly male arena (politics) to want to make that statement. She does not want anyone to believe she is a grateful to be a token and will roll over in order to keep that position. Unfortunately, in Wisconsin, she made a statement but it didn't win her an election. The San Francisco Chronicle's AP story is available at www.sfgate.com One judge was absent, three agreed with Ms. Griffin and two opposed and she needed a 4 person vote. It is too recent to tell but I am going to be watching that race, even though it is outside my state, to see how she does. I am alright with the ideat that her message was not aimed at "the white man" but to her potential minority voters who are wary of politicians who actually are the "token opportunistic minority" candidates that will kiss up to anyone in order to get the job instead of the responsibility to represent ALL of their constituents.