I've been putting off writing this.
Usually writing helps me feel better about whatever it is that's bothering me, but I've had a really bad time getting started with this one.
It's not just the topic; I've written about plenty of difficult topics in the past.
It's not the possibility of "losing friends" either; I'm no stranger to tackling politics or controversy.
I think it's mostly that I shouldn't fucking have to.
People are simply more important - regardless of color, gender, sexuality, national origin, religion, whatever - than your petty little squicks and cash money.
Look, I'm a cis- (opposite of trans- for those who aren't aware), straight, white female. I get some flack for the female part, and I'm definitely subject to fatphobia from some people, but what most of you see is a straight white woman, and the fact that I'm a widow tends to make people more forgiving (as though I needed forgiveness) of the fat. But I don't come in for the kind of stupid -isms I see around me all the time. So please forgive me if I'm stepping out of my lane here; I'm trying to use my privilege for good.
In our country - and to some extent our planet - money for political bigwigs is more important right now than human life. And some people bought that swill hook, line, and sinker; they even get violent (verbally as well as sometimes physically) with people who disagree... even though they themselves are also hurting financially. I can't even with this brand of (il)logic.
For these people, money is evidently Almighty God, and the Trump Administration is its profit. And yes, I did spell that wrong. It was deliberate.
I don't understand how to get it through people's heads.
Immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ+ folk, Muslims, black women playing fictional characters based on mythological creatures, wheelchair users using food stamps, whomever... they're not hurting anybody. They're not taking away your livelihood or your toys or anything.
Yeah, yeah, a few Muslims this, a couple gay people that, two or three Central American refugees on the other hand. Sure, some of them are bad people. You know why?
Because they're fucking people, that's why.
Human beings, with skills and flaws like everyone else.
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"But they're taking our jobs!"
No, they're not. They're taking whatever they can get; if that's a job you could have had if you deigned to do so AND you were willing to take less than minimum wage to do it, then why didn't you go and get it? Oh, because you had the good fortune to be an able-bodied straight white person born in the USA?
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"But they killed us on 9/11!"
And you, who deny reparations or even apologies to Native Americans and the descendants of slaves want what? A whole people to be punished for what a few fanatics did? Please note Westboro Baptist and the Spanish Inquisition and the Burning Times and slapping Native children into indoctrination "residential schools" and coverups of assorted clergy raping little boys before you weep.
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"But (smugly) they entered the country illegally!"
Not all of them. Not even most of them. Going to a checkpoint and applying for asylum is the way to do it. Never mind that a lot of them are fleeing from horrible systems that we helped create back in the 80s. Never mind children being included with their parents for fleeing. Never mind separating the parents from the kids because a few of the adults might be bad actors. Never mind the way they're treated in custody; we don't treat convicted murderers as badly as we do these people.
None of that is the real reason, and if you bother to open your eyes you will see it.
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"But OMG, the gays! The Bible says..."
First of all, the Christian Bible, which most of you purport to adhere to, says nothing about it. The Old Testament does, in the same places as the Kosher Laws, but the so-called "Christians" who say this sort of bullshit are supposed to be going by the New, not the Old (I've never heard a Jewish person decry LGBTQ+ folk as much as these people who call themselves Christians do. Again, there are probably a few, because... that's right, they're human).
Secondly, all the LGBTQ+ folk I have ever known - and I live in Seattle - just want to be, you know, not-killed-or-beaten-up because of who they sleep with. You don't like Drag Queen Story Time? Don't take your kids to it. But also don't be surprised when kids who have attended don't want to date your indoctrinated homophobic little dears when they grow up.
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I'm not going to even discuss the combined idiocy and evil of this administration, or whether Pence is such a homophobe because he's a closeted gay man (irrelevant), or the good old days when the worst we dealt with was the Bush family's passive-aggressive brand of racism, or the utter fallacy of you-have-to-be-Christian-to-be-good, or the idiots denying climate change, or the way we treat disabled people. We've covered all that before.
All this is a very roundabout way of saying how disgusted I am with our country right now. I'm a patriot. I love my country. I also - as with everything I love - recognize its faults. And they are fucking legion.
I do what I can. I haven't the income to give much in cash and I really don't have the emotional bandwidth or physical health to go out marching for justice. But I have the ability to write, the electronic bandwidth, a degree in intercultural communications, and I call out the bullshit when I see it.
The people who need to hear this most will either ignore it or won't read it at all. Or they will read it... but not realize it applies to them.
And that's just sad.
