Don't worry your soul

In a week of devastating reports out of Ukraine of Russian atrocities and continued douchebaggery out of US Republicans, we have had one bright spark of hope. Yesterday Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed by the Senate to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. She will take her seat on the bench following Stephen Breyer’s retirement in July.

In addition to being objectively the best qualified nominee in living memory, Brown Jackson becomes the first African American woman to join the court.

I freely admit that as I watched the smile on Vice President Kamala Harris’ face as she presided over the vote, my eyes watered. I haven’t felt like that since Barack Obama’s inauguration (among a crowd that dwarfed anything the Kleptocrat has seen in his political career).

And let me remind you: this confirmation 53-47 was brought to you by the senate run-off in Georgia. And every vote counts, so get the hell out there and perform your civic right and duty.

Oh, right—it’s National Poetry Month, isn’t it? And Friday. So let’s have a little something from the gospel tradition; something uplifting and joyful. Like Hezekiah Walker, pastor of Brooklyn’s Love Fellowship Tabernacle. What I like about Walker’s videos is his lining out of the lyrics, a Protestant practice going back to the 17^th Century, when books were expensive and literacy low. A leader chants each line of text for the congregation to sing. I first encountered the practice in To Kill a Mockingbird, where Jem and Scout go with their housekeeper Calpurnia to her Black church.

Right about now, we all need to be “Better”, so here’s Walker and his choir showing us how. Crank up the volume. And maybe dance a little.