Civil Disobedience

Hello. I really do not like Quora, the website mostly devoted to insipid questions and dumb-ass answers about insipid subjects. But I still have agreed to get their alerts, just in case. Here is a pitch for casting a wide net: Sometimes you get surprised. Quora seems to be connected with another website called The Galactic Void, and today Quora sent out the following two items, from TGV. I didn’t write these: They did.

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Helen Hulick (photo above) was a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher from Los Angeles. On November 9, 1938, she went to court to speak out against two men accused of breaking into a home.

But Judge Arthur S. Guerin stopped her from testifying and delayed the case for five days. Why? Because Helen was wearing pants.

She told the Los Angeles Times, “Tell the judge I’m standing up for my rights. If he tells me to wear a dress, I won’t. I like wearing pants. They’re comfortable.”

So at the next hearing, Helen came back wearing pants again. The judge got angry and said:

“Last time she was in court, dressed like this and with her head tilted back, people paid more attention to her than to the trial—including the prisoners and the court. She was told to wear clothes proper for court. Today she came back in pants again, clearly refusing to follow the court’s order [...] Get ready to be punished for not obeying.”

Helen, now making a stand for what she believed in, wore pants to court once more—and was sent to jail for five days for disobeying the judge.

Her lawyer appealed, and the higher court agreed with them. The judge’s decision was overturned. Thanks to Helen Hulick, women won the right to wear pants in court.

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And this one:

The late Muhammad Ali, the boxing legend, gave this powerful answer in an interview when he was pressured to go fight in Vietnam, or face prison, which is what happened:

"I'm not going to run away. I'm not going to burn any flags. I'm not going to Canada. I'm staying right here.

“You want to send me to jail? Fine. I’ve been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for 4 or 5 more, but I’m not going to travel 10,000 miles to kill other poor people. If I want to die, I’ll die right here, fighting you if I need to. You’re my enemy, not the Chinese, not the Vietcong, not the Japanese. You’re my opponent when I want freedom. You’re my opponent when I want justice. You’re my opponent when I want equality.

“You want me to fight for you? But you won’t even defend my rights or my religious beliefs right here in America. You won’t even stand up for me at home."

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That’s it for today, except:

Last night, at the annual meeting of the Washington Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Rachel Manteuffel’s Washington Post story “Electing to Suffer” won their top prize for Daily Newspaper opinion stories. It was published just before the 2024 elections.

I linked to it many months ago. If you have not already done so, I would suggest you read it, but only if you are a woman between 18 and 100 years old, or a man who loves such a person.

It is linked to in this past Gene Pool post.

Here is the free link, if you are not a subscriber:

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Today’s Gene Pool Gene Poll:

Good, then.

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