Sometimes you wake up and hope it was all a bad dream, that our world couldn’t really be as crazy as it was before you went to bed. You wipe the sleep out of your eyes and turn on the TV and fire up social media and realize this is reality! How can all of this be happening in our world, our country? Have we really been asleep, not wanting to face the evil that lurks around the corner, the power struggles and atrocities abound. We have a super virus that is lurking and waiting to attack our lungs, our health and the health of others. A virus that has origins under debate, created or natural occurence. Parts of the world that were crippled beyond compare that now have disappeared from the news feeds. Quarantine and shut downs. Terms of flatten the curve, social distancing. Masks and gloves and hand sanitizers on short supply. Don’t even get me started on toilet paper and cleaning wipes and the media. The media fueling the flames, biased reporting and snippets of truth amongst the propaganda.
Then we start to emerge from our caves of binging TV, snacks and cocktail hours to a world of protests and riots. Racisms, defunding cops, anarchists and ANTIFA are the terms making the headlines. White privelege and BLM. I have been told because I am white I don’t understand what my fellow black and brown fellow people have experienced. True I have never been judged by my color, but I have because of my gender. I have been judged because my ancestors were white and were somehow linked to oppression. I don’t know the struggles based on color. I shudder at the treatment of slaves and that another person owned someone. I shudder at the thoughts of concentration camps, that these people were judged by their ancestory and they didn’t fit the blonde haired blue-eyed perfection Hitler sought. I shudder at the thought of the Native American Indian who walked the Trail of Tears, for the judgement they still face today. I shudder at the name calling of white people being called cracker and trailer trash. I shudder at the thought that women were considered property and chattle. That they were sought for reproduction and not for the beautiful creatures they are. I shudder at the name calling, the cursing, the prejudiced that goes across the board. I shudder at the children who are now watching us on how we handle our world right now.
I am thankful we live in a country that there is free speech and a right to bear arms. That in God’s eyes we are all created equal. Thank goodness He has that vision because we have lost that. Think about all that I listed in the previous paragrapb. We the people have divided us up. The people in power of our house and senate, our local mayors and governors have aided in the division. We have more of a cast society than people want to admit. This is supposed to be a land of opportunity and freedom. We are losing freedoms everyday! The answer to equality isn’t in rioting and looting in my humble opinion. The answer isn’t found in defunding the police. The answer isn’t is unfriending someone who differs from your opinion. The answer is grow up and act like you have some sense. My heart hurts for what black people have endured during slavery, but I can learn from the past and make a better future. I can’t undo history nor can you. We can make a new history. We could tear down every monument, rename towns and streets, become as politically correct as we want to, but guess what history happened. You can not give retribution for past sins but can commit to not repeat those same sins. Destroying property, stealing what isn’t yours, making it unsafe to be able to walk down a street, is that really an answer? Does that further your cause? I bust my ass as a single mom to provide for my family and house, feed and clothe everyone and you can decide to loot stores and banks and destroy public property while I purchase my goods and pay taxes for the same public property? Get your head out it is dark up there! You are living up to the reputation and name calling you are fighting against. You are blaming the stereotype you want to escape. The stereotype in action and words. There are these agitators and influencers out there stirring the pot. Why? Because they can. They prey on people who are disenchanted and dissatisfied and they are being just as much a puppet master as the machines that they are fighting against. They are the ones who didn’t get a spanking when they were young or heaven forbid told no.
Again, I have been told I am white, I don’t understand. So explain it to me. Explain to me how defunding the police, taken over blocks of communities for your fort and sense of control, how does this make sense? The treatment of George Floyd was barbaric and atrocious. This was a bad cop. Just like there are bad white people, black people, old people and young people. Do we defund teachers for the pedophile in the mix, do we defund nurses for the one who fell to temptation and stole narcotics to feed an addiction? Do we defund the addiction centers for the one counselor who took advantage of a client? Do we defund congress for all the ills that rain down ? Do we defund social workers like in Gabriel Hernandez story that let that little boy fall through the cracks? We are a flawed world and not one is perfect. Do we all want to sit in that throne of judgement? How are you being judged? Are you perfect in all action, thought and deed? That cop shouldn’t have remained on the force with his record. So why not work on restructuring the police force, that there are stricter guidelines to weed out bad cops. We need the police. Who are you going to.call when you are robbed or raped? No offense but a social worker isn’t going to help. I have read give money from the police to social workers. Do you realize that social workers have police go with them as they sometimes have to go into a violent and unsafe situation, I don’t think their clipboard and badge can de-esculate an irrate parent not wanting the other parent to see a child. Or a domestic violence situation. Social workers are under funded and over worked, there are so many kids and adults in the system and so many hurts out there. I have read take the resource officers out of the schools. Teachers need support. There are drugs, kids that are violent, guns and not counting outsiders that enter our school yards. Seeing all cops like this one cop is like seeing all blacks as thugs. That may sound harsh but isn’t this the same thing. We are looking at all cops like that one cop like blacks think they are being seen? Not all black people are thugs and not all cops are abusive. Not all white people are prejudiced or had ancestors who owned slaves. We are so busy avoiding putting everyone in a box we are shoving that box full. Which then makes me want to ask another question. We are being uber politically correct now. 10 years ago we called black people african american, now we are to say brown or black. We can’t say oriental as that is racist, it is asian. In rap music the “N” word is thrown out right and left. That is a derogatory word you are using against your own brother, how is that ok? Where is the respect there? Cops are pigs, whites are crackers or honkeys, we have meth heads, we have hookers and ho’s, we have sluts and homewreckers, bullies and narcissistic men, we have mother f*****s, we have every name under the sun. But while we are calling someone every name under the sun, that person is and could be someone’s parent, child, brother, sister, friend. They are a person. No matter race, gender or religion, they are a person. A person created by our Creator. A fearfully and wonderfully made person who was created in the image of Him. Explain it to me.
It has been said quit saying all lives matter as this is taking away from all black lives matter. So do you think our Father in heaven is preparing many rooms in a segregated heaven? Does one life truly matter over another? Every single life matters! The life of the unborn (don’t throw stones at me for bringing this up. I don’t sit in judgement for choices people have made, that is their path that they travel) the lives of the young and old, every life matters. Every person bleeds the same red blood no matter of race, gender or religion. Your black life matters and my white life matters. Make our voices be heard and our lives count. My voice as a woman counts like a man’s. I am his equal as a person. I am not equal on the things that a man can do and that doesn’t make me less of a person, it makes it real. Just like there are things I can do that a man can’t. Doesn’t make me master over him or him me. Cops shouldn’t be masters over anyone (and don’t get your knickers in a knot thinking masters is a slave term, that is not my context so back off you Karen’s out there). Nor are we masters over a cop and demand submission. Policemen are called to serve and protect, some have lost their way and they should be dismissed. We are called to be WE THE PEOPLE and some of us have lost that commonality of being a we and have lost our way.
There are no easy answers to any of this. This has been an awful dream and a harsh reality. I go to work everyday to face someone who may be sick, who mentally is falling apart, people who are financially ruined. A virus abounds amongst us and we are like ants scurrying to find the best ant hill to be safe in and sometimes that just agrees with our outlook. Sometimes we have to build our own ant hill to get away. Then the skies open up filled with tear gas and fireworks over our little ant hills.We have civil unrest, we have people disenchanted and feel violence is the answer. Those of you didn’t get spanked or told no and it shows. We are all on edge, we all are worried. We worry for our health and our jobs, our safety and well-being, we worry about our families and loved ones. We are in a constant state of fight or flight of being attacked by a virus or attacked for our skin color or our beliefs. I have seen people lose friends because a different opinions, I have seen family turn their back on each other, I have seen hate and rage and hear of fear and dispair. I see people taking stands yet change their opinion when it goes against the grain. Every life matters and every opinion counts. You may not agree with everything but you should damn well respect it and each other! And when do we take a breath again? I remember watching those planes hit the twin towers on 9/11. I was rocking my 6 week old daughter with the fear for our country and our world and my kids. I saw how we as a country pulled together, I saw police officers and fire fighters put their lives on the line. I saw how we became united. I see our world today and everyone is running amock, the police are the enemy and we are as segregated as the past. How did we get here? Explain this to me. How can the same men and women in uniform that sacrificed their lives, put their life in harms way to save EVERY race from the towers that day, how did the become an enemy? How did the cop that came to your aid when you were in trouble, how did every cop become your enemy? How come every friend and person I know of any color become mad at me because of my skin color? How did we lose respect for ourselves and each other? There are people out there who are trying to pursue an avenue to have their voice heard, to make a difference, and their voice is being drowned out by those that want to bring anarchy and violence to the forefront. I remeber being in middle school and the required reading was Lord of the Flies and Fahrenheit 451. Do we want a Lord of the Flies society? How we thought Ray Bradbury had lost his mind writing a book about the control and burning of books! We read and watched The Hunger Games, I feel like life is like the hunger games. We have the capital where the well to do, the politicians, the people behind the curtain controlling life. We each live in districts working and surviving. We all are slaves to money, our jobs, our kids. We all are owned by something or someone. We are owned by our thoughts and actions. Don’t get up in arms, it isn’t the same as slavery nor am I saying it is. Slavery exisits in our society today, we are slaves to alot in our life while we are missing out on its blessings.
This is a time like no other. The world is watching, its people are watching, God is watching. People that try to ignore history, deny history are doomed to repeat it. We are spitting in the face of the likes of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Ghandi, our grandparents and their parents. We are following the masses and being sheep led to slaughter instead of researching and listening. We have become complacent and lazy. We have fallen asleep on our watch. We are so busy making our own ant hill that the colony is being condemened. We have let being politically correct become more important than being truthful. We have become so caught up in our cultural demands we forgot our cultural roots. We are so used to being fed the news we forgot how to look beyond the headlines. We can’t see the people in our lives and world that are truly good people trying to make a difference for you and me, their selves and their families because we can only see the people with evil on their hearts and minds. Nurses and doctors on the front line caring for us, firefighters going into homes, no matter who lives there, to put out fires. The cops who truly are there to protect and serve. The service men and women who fight on foreign soil so your feet our free on this soil. The man who comes legally into the states to start a family business, the store owners, the farmers, the truckers hauling goods from town to town. Every single person bringing something to the table of this thing called life. A smorgasboard of education and backgrounds, of skin color and race, man and woman, young and old. Each has their own hardship and story. Each one weaved into the very fabric of this country. So do we let the stains of the past soak through this tapestry we are weaving? Do we try to blot out the stain and pretend it never exsisted? Do we recognize that stain and try not to have it happen again? Do we work harder on keeping the edges of this tapestry weaved tight or let it rot away? Betsy Ross weaved a tapestry many years ago, our forefathers stood beside each other to form this great country. Do we unite and stand beside each other and move forward? Do we choose to forget the past or learn from it and try not to repeat what we survived? I don’t have all the answers, I know this is becoming a nightmare. My opinions are mine and you have yours. I am always here to listen and learn. Let me see the world through your eyes and you see it through mine. As I see it, you each and everyone are my brother and sister in Christ. No one above or below me, but beside me as we navigate this minefield called life. Time to wipe the sleep from our eyes! Wash your hands, care for each other, love each other, protect each other.
