Love Spreads, Hate Seeps

Is anybody else just absolutely worn out from all this disruption of normalcy? It seems to be making me physically ill and we won't even get into what it's done to my fragile mental state.

Jenn gets me

NOTE: Because of my depression and the darkness of this post, I will be throwing in some images that may make you smile a little or think a lot.


I no longer want to read the news but can't help myself. It's like not wanting to peel back the bandaid to peek at a nasty injury but you have to know if it's getting better or worse. I'm just so tired and discouraged. Even if we do manage to start righting the ship that is our country, it's going to take a long time to fix the damage. And I am not even going to hold back when I say that it's got to start with getting Trump out of office. The man is a walking virus on peace and trust and cooperation.

A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that I didn't vote for Obama for his second term. I felt that he wasn't in line with my personal values as a Christian. Still, I look back and think today that he's such a stark contrast to Trump - and not because of Trump's so-called "Christian" values. Face it, the man is the antithesis of even human values. The contrast is in how the two men affect people just in holding the Office. My brother and I were talking about this the other day and my broken brain had a moment of intense clarity. I said, "Obama represented hope and unity while Trump represents hate and division."




I don't care whether you like Trump as a man or not (I like Obama as a man) but when it comes to the power he has to lead and rule, he's gone so far down the wrong road that we may never make it back.

When people tell me that Trump doesn't represent hate or white supremacy, I want to tell them about the incidents of racism and hate that's happened locally in the name of Trump. A family member called me crying in frustration because some of their family members have started flying Confederate flags and Klan and Nazi symbols.

Okay, let's say that Trump isn't the problem - if you can fix your mouth to do so...  Maybe he personally doesn't support racism and hate but he sure makes it acceptable for others to do so.  There are so many normal citizens who feel empowered to act out on their own ignorance and violence and they do this because they feel good about "their man in Office".

I won't go on like I could for days about this horrendous state we've gotten ourselves into but I have this personal idea about life. Love spreads from one person or situation to another. Hate seeps and creeps. It infects good people and bad. I know this is true because I think of myself as a good person but I am starting to feel hate. I hate the fools who are shaking all the tiny bits of progress we have made away from lynching, beatings, and "midnight rides" of the Klan days. I hate people who are so dangerous that they almost make me forget that not everyone is hateful and dangerous to me.


Back to Obama - and I have to say this - there is a joke among some black people about his contrast to Trump. When Obama was elected, some people joked that he would be the worst stereotype of a black man. He wasn't. He was married to one woman, had no known past disgraces, and did not hate "whitey". He tried to represent every citizen - of every race, gender, creed, and sexual orientation. Trump, on the other hand, has become the David Duke of the White House. He's had multiple marriages, dalliances, and bad business practices. Allegedly. The only thing left for him to do is don a white robe and one of those silly hats.

The worst thing about Trump though is not what he's doing but to whom. He's not benefitting the white supremacist as a person any more than he's benefitting my black ass. He's benefitting the House of Trump. He's benefitting the people who look and live like he does. I probably have more of a chance of being invited to a Trump family dinner than any of the poor whites who are fooled by him.


So I want to say to my fellow citizens - regardless of skin color - Trump has screwed us all. We are going to be living with and trying to clean up his mess of madness for a long time. He and his family will most likely still be rich and insulated from the daily life we have to cope with. He cares as much for you as he does for me.

We better all get it together and start working to make the government work for us again instead of the other way around. We are going to need to ask ourselves if we - regular people who shop at Target and Walmart and have to worry about gas prices and the cost of a loaf of bread - are better off than the people in charge of us.


Peace
--Free


P.S.: Happy 4th.

Black History Month

Let's talk about this: Black history, people, race and why we do talk about it so much.

I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about Black History Month. On the one hand, I am happy that  the history of black people is officially acknowledged. On the other hand, I am sad that there has to be a separate history for one race of people in a country made up of many races.

I feel the same way about racial designations. Why are there hyphenated Americans? And, since we do hyphenate, why not hyphenate everyone?

This is not the first time (nor will it be the last, God willing) that I post about racial issues. The issues exist, but we are all just people. Black, brown, white, red, light, dark, tanned; attractive, plain, unattractive; silly, sweet, ignorant, kind, caring, dumb-ass; smart, dumb, nice, hateful, petty, selfless, rude, sensitive, cruel; famous, infamous, unknown; rich, poor, frugal, spendthrift, struggling; admirable, embarrassing; sinful, saintly and... human.

I've not remained strictly constant on how I look at racial issues. Opinions and emotions and reactions never are constant. On issues of race, sometimes, I've been angry. I've sometimes been just irritated. There have been times when I've felt race matters very much, and times when I've wished it didn't. Sometimes, it's mattered more to other people than to me. It's mattered in subtle ways and in ways that were uncomfortable.

(Let me go ahead and get the whole "first black President" thing out of the way: Yes, I was elated by the election of Obama. I'm not always thrilled with what he's done in office, but I am still happy that voters were able to put him there. I'm more happy with what I think of as the "wall of color" being battered down than I am with the man who stepped over the threshold.)

Don't get me started again on my rant about being so hyphenated. I've said it before: I am a Black-American (if it has to matter) and Charlize Theron is an African-American (if she has citizenship ~shrug~). My point is, I came from Texas, not Africa. If we want to get ancestral, there are some people who believe we may all be hyphenated Africans. Or maybe we should be hyphenated Asians.

For myself, I believe we all have roots in Eden. And does it matter where we 'originated' if we create a hell here on earth by battling over the differences?

Tell you the truth, every February I forget that it is Black History Month until about the second week in. I'm going to get heat for this but... after the first celebration, it stopped being that big of a deal for me. What would impress me is if all people remembered every month of the year that we are equal and American. No greater than someone from Japan or Ireland or Jupiter. Just equal and human.

Am I disregarding the hardships of being black? No. I just think that one of the hardships is that we still are dealing with the effects of racism. Long after the end of slavery (for American blacks), there is still racism and plenty of other ignorance - by all races.

It's ignorant for people who are not black to say that race never matters.I'd like to ask the most ignorant of that group: If it never matters, would you trade your race for being black for a year? It's ignorant when people who are black act like history doesn't matter. I'd like to ask the most ignorant of that group: If someone died for equal education, why aren't you taking advantage of that right?

Black History Month will soon end for the year. Being black - being whatever race - is forever. We have to work at making life the best it can be every day that we live.

Peace
--Free