And There Was Great Rejoicing -- Along With Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

Good grief, what a week!  First the horror of the Charleston shooting --  followed by the amazing grace and dignity of the response from the victims' families.  Couple that with the beginning of a national conversation about the perceived symbolism of the Confederate flag and the sudden rush of various entities (WalMart, Amazon, Sears, EBay, KMart, NASCAR, ) to disassociate themselves from what is, at best, an extremely polarizing symbol.  
                              
Amid all of this, I kept thinking of the shooter's answer to the question of why he sat there in the church for an hour before opening fire. And he said (paraphrasing) 'They were so nice to me. But I had a mission..."

The words of a person who has allowed brainwashing to overpower a natural response.  A mission.  It breaks my heart.
But then there was the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the ACA -- or Obamacare as the Right derisively tagged it. Millions get to keep their coverage and Obamacare is starting to look like a legacy -- like Social Security or the Civil Rights Act.

Had the ruling gone the other way and a whole lot of newly insured people lost their coverage, I suspect it would have been dire news for the future hopes of the GOP. So, good news and bad. 

And then, in the second half of a one-two punch, the SCOTUS delivers yesterday's knockout blow to marriage discrimination. Oh, calloo, callay!  It's no longer gay marriage, it's just marriage. Equal rights.

We're not done. There's still Citizens United that needs overturning, environmental issues galore that need addressing, minimum wages, women's issues -- and, as they say, many more. And there are quite a few hateful legislators and governors I, for one, would love to see the back of. But for this one brief moment, I'm feeling kinda hopeful, even celebratory. I don't doubt that some of you disagree. Feel free -- just stay civil.