Enjoy my writing and art? Want to see more? Support my work on Patreon or donate with PayPal.
Anyone who reads my blog knows that I have some strong opinions, and I get pretty heated over things. Unfortunately, this is making my stress levels go up, and is not helping my health, so I am going to go for a calmer approach on this one.
The thing that has been really getting to me is people’s intolerance. People have been hating other people probably since the beginning of time, but it has been escalating more and more, particularly since 9/11.
No one likes terrorists. I don’t have much issue with that. If someone attacks us, we need to do something about it. It’s reasonable that we would have great distaste for the particular people that were involved. But the thing is, it is expanding, and becoming more than just anger at people who have directly wronged us.
First, we hated the terrorists, and the Al Qaeda. Fine. That makes sense. Then it moved to hating Iraqis. Then to hating all Muslims. Then to all Middle-Eastern people and religions. But it hasn’t stopped there. No, it didn’t stop there at all. Now people are hating Pagans, Wiccans, Hindu, Jews, anyone who’s not Christian. But did it stop there? No. First religions other than Christianity were a threat. Now gays, bis, lesbians, transgendered, they’re all a threat too. People who don’t support the president are a threat. People with differing opinions from the “Christian right” are a threat. The witch hunts WILL be a reality again, but soon it will be all non-white, non-Christian, non-republicans that will be targeted.
There are two things that really have been bothering me:
1: Sites and message boards allowing hateful, violent, discriminating post to exist. If it’s a board for a specific group, that’s one thing. But when it’s a fully public venue, it’s appalling. My last blog was a good example. I go to that site to do business, make money, and occasionally talk to people about similar interests. I don’t go there to have my eyes and my way of life torn apart, degraded, and assaulted by hatemongers.
2: It saddens me that people do not stand up. People are living in fear. They fear to speak or act on the things that are happening. At the site I mentioned, people either are afraid to speak, leave, or do not come at all. It disgusts me that things have come to that, and only one kind of people, with one mindset, are welcome, and all others have to walk on eggshells, never speaking of who they are, what they believe, and never posting a single item that might make it apparent to anyone.
It is long past time for us to stand up and stop living in fear. I am one woman. There is little I can do alone. But I KNOW that I am not the only person who feels this way. Unfortunately, I can’t change it alone. People of other faiths, other sexual and gender orientations, other races, we all need to stand together against these injustices. This is not just a personal vendetta on my part. While it has affected a place that I frequent, it is also everywhere. In schools, on the street, in newspapers, on websites and in message boards across the country.
Reply to this post. Send me an e-mail. Start your own blog. Do something. For every one person that stands up, another will follow. Every voice that makes itself heard is one more sound of peace. They have power in numbers. If we stand together, we can form a rock of safety and understanding for others to lean on. Please don’t live in fear and silence. Stand up for what is right while there is still time. We have to band together against the hate and discrimination. They divide and conquer. If we stand together, they can’t pick us off one by one.
Please act before it is too late.
