What kind of America is your America? The beauty of this country is its ongoing evolution – hard-fought and frequently too slow – that allows its citizens greater means of living their lives in their own way.

I think about how, within my lifetime, I’ve seen huge strides forward in civil rights, in gender equality, in recognizing being gay as neither a crime or a mental illness and the legalization of gay marriage, among other historic events.

We still have a very, very long way to go, though.

The flip side is the reaction to these established freedoms from those in this country who wish to impose their values on you and your private life. They believe their ideals are superior and should be accepted by all – if necessary, by force.

In May the Pew Institute released a poll about what Americans think about abortion. The results were interesting: “About three-quarters of white evangelical Protestants (74 percent) think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. By contrast, 84 percent of religiously unaffiliated Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do 66 percent of Black Protestants, 60 percent of white Protestants who are not evangelical, and 56 percent of Catholics.”

Looking at party lines, “Six-in-10 Republicans and those who lean toward the Republican Party (60 percent) say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. By contrast, 80 percent of Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.”

The majority of Americans see the value of reproductive rights. They understand this is a woman’s personal decision. And as yet the religious values of one group are legally overwhelming the majority.

Why is that? We don’t live in a theocracy, do we?

In an opinion concurring with his conservative colleagues, Justice Clarence Thomas signaled several other Supreme Court decisions of the past should be reconsidered. He cited cases involving gay marriage, same sex intimate relationships and the availability of contraceptives. What is his obsession about the sex lives of Americans?

Now the five other conservative justices disagreed with this point of view, according to a report in the Washington Post, but three of those justices told Congress they saw Roe v. Wade as established law, something that shouldn’t be revisited.

I’m just saying. I’m hoping they are telling the truth.

Do the same Americans who are against abortion also see gay marriage as a threat? To whom, exactly? We’ve had gay marriage for years and how has it made American society worse? It hasn’t. It’s made it better.

Contraceptives? Who wants to go backwards on that?

Of course, we just saw a new decision that gives greater rights to someone who wants to pray at school. I have no problem with prayer in a private religious school, but it has no right being forced on students in a public school.

I’m old enough to have prayed in school before the Supreme Court decision. We said the Lord’s Prayer or heard a New Testament verse. The assumption school districts made was that every student was Christian and vaguely similar in theology. It did not take into consideration kids who weren’t Christians or the values of the individual denominations.

Forcing prayer onto kids goes counter to what prayer is all about.

All I know is this: if you actually believe in allowing people to run their owns lives – a standard talking point for many conservatives – then why do you care about the personal lives of your neighbors or people you don’t know?

With the mid-term elections looming, it’s clear the conservatives on the court have handed the Democrats a very potent talking point, whether they have meant to or not. I hope voters will understand what is at stake here.