I'm what you'd call a highly emotional person. I guess for a guy that's a bit rare. I feel deeply. I weep. I sob. I convulse. I grieve. I lose sleep.
The election results had me stressed for a week. Just when I was getting back to normal, understanding we all just have to deal with it and accept the loss of hope for the immediate future, I got a call from a dear friend, one like a brother. We can argue from both sides and not feel personally attacked.
But here I am weepy again...losing sleep...
I have friends from the LGBTQ and other minority communities and they're dear to my heart as any and all friends are, though in my opinion they face different challenges navigating from the fringes of this evolving society we're creating as we go. And let us not forget the women and their underpaid, under appreciated stance in this culture of white guys in ties making the decisions for everybody.
The stories shared with me recently of the backlash they're confronted with from the arrogant and ignorant opposition is indeed heart wrenching. No one deserves to be mistreated, disrespected or served up a pie of inequality. NO ONE!
They've had racial slurs thrown at them in public. They've had homophobic gestures, death threats and even property damage cast upon them like they're the scourge of the earth. Like they're lower than human. They are highly educated and highly productive citizens. How can this be in this day and age? Their pain is real and their fear is understandable and valid. I can't help but feel that pain and fear. It is a regression, not a progression.
If my friend like a brother, could witness the love they share as I have, maybe his view would be different. As it stands, he claims he does not care who does what to whom, he just doesn't want to see it. He's, a very non religious person, but spouts the religious right's claim that "union" is okay, but not marriage. Marriage is between a man and a woman. Too much Fox News I'd say.
Call it a union, a partnership, whatever, now we're just down to semantics, but the baseline problem still exists. That people tend to reject what is unlike them. What they don't understand. And rather than try to understand it they just reject it. At the cost of growing, evolving and learning to love and accept while building a calmer, more peaceful society.
IMAGINE
The term marriage is not exclusive to the bible or any religion or any gender for that matter. Hell I can marry a nut and bolt together. To marry, or to join.
Calling two consenting adults in love and choosing to spend life together anything other than married is divisive. It is casting them into the pits of hell fire in a rage that demeans them as sub, unworthy, unequal, less than, stay on the fringe, you're not welcome here and maintains what society and millions of humans, millions of the so called "god's children" have worked to over come.
But the system has selected to regress. Like people of color have had to create their own television network, I'd imagine one for the gays will have to appear as well. I must admit that I love Shonda Rhimes' TV shows. They challenge me. They make me uncomfortable. They stand for equality while presenting the injustice. They present what is real in society, even if I don't witness it daily.
Let me go further here to say that when I see two men kissing, I'm a bit uncomfortable. Not as much as I used to be but still uncomfortable. It doesn't bother me a bit to see two women kissing. I'm programmed. I need to be de-programmed. I need to be uncomfortable and accept what is real. Love is love is love is love. I admire so very much my friends Dave and Tony who have been a couple for 33 years as well as other gay and lesbian couples I have come to know and love and share life with.
Inclusion not Exclusion. Appreciation and Reciprocation. Acceptance and Equality.
IMAGINE
Another dear friend, like a sister, is pro gun and pro life. me too. But we differ significantly.
As to guns, I support the constitutional right to own guns, but in my opinion, not without limits. No one needs a bazooka.
As to life, I am not for abortions. My first wife aborted our second child. It hurt. It hurt like hell. But I support her constitutional right to choose. If we value life, then we must see that everything is living. We kill and eat living things in order to live. Now if you value humans over all other species, as though their life and plight is any different or came from some other place, than all the other life forces that breathe the same air, whose hearts pump the same blood through similar bodily systems, then you elevate your self to the authority to decide when life begins and who does and does not have the right to their own bodies.
I can understand wanting to be a voice, a champion for the weak, the unborn in this case. But to then be pro death penalty, pro war, anti welfare, anti birth control etc, is not respecting human life one bit. It is an attempt to legislate from a religious bent and unconstitutional.
IMAGINE
Maslow's Hierarchy of needs demonstrates that a healthy growth/evolution of self will become empathetic to the plight of others, especially the less fortunate.
Democracy is not perfect but it's great. I hold on to belief and hope that we will evolve. As the establishment crumbles it will strain to maintain power and control but change is inevitable. Change is good and evolution will bring equality.
After telling my friend like a brother that I'd be fine financially and as a white guy and a disabled veteran I'm not going to be the recipient of any discrimination or hate. I'm as privileged as it gets. But I told him, it's for the women and the minorities and the communities on the fringes that I worry and feel bad for. He asked, "why is that? Why should I give a crap?"
Being asked that, by someone I love and have known for fifty years, hurts. It means they don't really know me... at all.
IMAGINE
IMAGINE
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