EDITORIAL & OPINION

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Protesters at the Supreme Court this week. Photo by Jeff Malet.

The Patrons’ Party on April 20 for the 2022 Georgetown House Tour at the Langhorne residence was a happy affair with grateful Georgetowners gathering to support the tour and saying hello again in this almost postpandemic city. We are happy to report that your hometown newspaper (since 1954) was honored at the event.

The House Tour opened its doors on April 23. Thanks go to Donna Leanos, chair of the 2022 Georgetown House Tour, and party co-chairs, Emily Sower and Kathryn Minor Jones — as well as to the volunteers and, of course, Rev. Gini Gerbasi, rector of St. John’s Church Georgetown. The proceeds from the party benefit the St. John’s ministries to homeless adults and children, the unemployed, senior citizens and young children in D.C. schools.

We are thankful to the work and legacy of Frida Burling, the House Tour’s guiding light for so many years. Many of us at The Georgetowner knew her and remember her with great affection. So, that is why we at The Georgetowner feel so honored and grateful to receive the Frida Burling Service Award this year for the many years of serving Georgetown and keeping the community connected.

Thanks also go out to the sponsors of the Georgetown House Tour: Platinum level, Long & Foster Real Estate; Gold, Washington Fine Properties; Silver, TTR Sotheby’s International Real Estate; Bronze, Sarah Minard Residential and Truist.

Again, thank all of you involved in Georgetown House Tour for this award — and see you next year.

Leaks are pernicious things. You often don’t know you have one until water starts to drip down your wall or a stain creeps across the ceiling. It’s not a good look and tracing its origin is likely to be expensive and time consuming. At this moment, the U.S. Supreme Court is discovering just how destructive a leak can be. If you’re a woman, however, the “leak” is the least of it. It’s the content that’s so dangerous. Who actually shared the draft decision with Politico is a sidebar, but one that Mitch McConnell, et al. are desperately grasping.

The real issue, of course, is what the leaked document says and the mendacity that allowed it to unfold. Surely, you remember when Justice nominees Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett swore to uphold stare decisis so help them God. Well, God -- and precedent -- were apparently out of the building when deliberations were taking place. And women, once again, will pay a horrible price.

And it will not stop at the right to choose. It will metastasize into other intimate areas of our lives that depend on privacy and discretion. Conventional wisdom suggests that

Frida Burling and Sonya Bernhardt in 2011.

BY SUSAN BODIKER the right to contraception, same-sex marriage and inter-racial marriage could be next on the chopping block.

Republicans and their fundamentalist allies have been fighting to overturn Roe vs. Wade since it was enacted 50 years ago. Their reasons range from the sublime (potential life) to the ridiculously false (abortion causes breast cancer). They are entitled to their beliefs, but not to the imposition of those beliefs on the rest of us. The Establishment Clause guarantees us that freedom from religion, but in the current climate, perhaps that right is in jeopardy too.

The hypocrisy surrounding this issue is stunning. For a country that claims to be “pro-life,” the social safety net that supports families and children is pretty threadbare. In states set to immediately ban abortions upon Roe’s overturning, a return to dangerous back-alley procedures is all-but-guaranteed for those determined to end their pregnancies but who are unable to afford or access safe but covert procedures to which the privileged have always turned. And for all the anti-mask and mandate rhetoric, you would think “Keep your bans off my body” applied to all of us.

Leaks are like that. They force you to pay attention to what’s been hidden for far too long. Welcome to America where misogyny rules.

Discouraged by ‘Sound & Fury’

I was encouraged to see you address the issue “how we may come together as a community....” [“Sound & Fury,” April 13] and very discouraged to see you undermine the essence of your editorial by going out of your way to use disparaging, toxic language to make your “point.” I believe it was Shakespeare’s Cassius who said, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves.” You might reconsider that you not only wrote about this problem but you are part of the problem!

— Gary Newman, Washington, D.C.

Thank you so much for your wonderful piece on our church [in the April 13th Georgetowner]. You’ve given us precious publicity that can only help our efforts to reach new audiences and potential prospects for a new generation of Dumbartonians. As you probably know, Dumbarton — like so many other mainline churches in the D.C. area and beyond — is struggling to grow and diversify its membership, and your unsolicited editorial shout-out couldn’t have come at a better time. Our actual 250th anniversary was not in March but will be on Christmas Eve. Many thanks again for lifting us up to your many readers.

— Rob MacDougall, Volunteer Communications Coordinator, Dumbarton United Methodist Church