Today the US Supreme Court stripped a rogue Kentucky county clerk of her power -- a clerk who bullied same sex couples applying for marriage certificates by refusing them service.

I'm not quite ready to celebrate.

Nearly thirty years ago, a clerk refused to issue me a marriage certificate because I would not take my husband's name. 

I can't help wondering if my clerk was her rebel mother.

Photo of moss in Milwaukee's Third Ward. Moss might look dead at times but, with even slight nourishment, resurrects repeatedly.   

 

 My friend is not hard of hearing. But when she does not understand something the waitress or the hotel clerk or her husband says, she delivers the most uncivilized response. “What?”

And I realized no matter how you emote the word – what? – you either sound like a shrew or a teenager or someone too lazy to say, “pardon me.”

Photo is a piece from my “One Word” series.