And The World Keeps Turning

I spent tonight, side by side among friends and strangers, marching for equality. It was incredible. We marched for what felt like miles, chanting the whole way, simultaneously demanding and begging for civil rights. We walked in peace, not extending a hateful fist to anyone. It was a peaceful demonstration, an act of civil disobedience. However, that does not mean that we were not violated. I heard it before I saw it, a wet and crunchy combination of a smash and a plop. Someone actually threw a bag of ice at us. It hit a girl in the face before falling at our feet. And, on par with cowardly behavior, the thrower was tucked away in an apartment building hiding in a dark room.

It is a blinding statement of affairs when there is a person who feels that it is acceptable behavior to throw things at others. It is a statement about the country that we live in. It is a statement about the way that we treat each other. It is a statement about the short-sightedness of some of the people that inhabit this mortal coil.

It says that our work here is nowhere near finished. It says that those who hold themselves in a higher regard than their fellow man had better watch out because the tide is turning. It says that, although we may face challenges, we will persevere and overcome. It says that this fight, which feels as though it has been going on forever, is only just beginning. It says that we are gearing up to fight even harder. It says that it is going to take more than a bag of ice to make us go away. It says that the bag of ice has made me even stronger. It says that your ignorant and intolerable behavior has had the opposite effect of what it intended. It says that the world is not done turning. It says that change will come because it always does.

Fear usually comes before change. For many, it is the body’s natural reaction to it. I know the world is changing because of how fearful those who are resisting the change have become. They have resorted to lying and underhanded behavior. They have thrown their precious “tax-exempt status” under the bus to stop this change from coming. They have tried to strike fear into the hearts of those who do not know where else to turn. They have used children and God as a defense for their bigotry. Tell me that this change is not coming. Tell me that the world doesn’t change. Tell me that you can’t smell it in the air. Tell me that you cannot feel the electricity crackling underneath your skin. Tell me that you cannot feel it in the deepest part of your heart. The world is changing. It always has and it always will. You just try and stop it.

Thoughts on 8 and Hate

I will never understand the unwillingness of people to live and let live. Why is it that people feel the need to preach to others about how they should live? Gay marriage, for instance. I understand that there are those who believe it is wrong. I even understand why some people think that it’s wrong. However, what I do not understand is why those who believe it is wrong feel as though they have the right to make that decision for others. Why they feel that they have the right to take it away because it is what they believe. Many will say that it is because the Bible or the church says that marriage is only recognizable when it is between a man and a woman. They will cite religion. And how can you argue with God?

Why is it that religion seems a fair argument for anything? Wars have been started over religion. Women are oppressed in the name of religion. People have been tortured and children have been killed because they worshipped a different god than the person holding the sword or swastika. (How sad that a thing whose origin is derived from luck, good, and well-being was turned into something to represent such a hateful movement.) But the thing that surprises me the most is that anyone believes that is what God would want. Who would want to live in a world where the only god that exists is one that is so selfish? Or intolerant?

The complete intolerance and discrimination of Proposition 8 in California’s 2008 election is beyond that of any that I have seen since, well, since Proposition 22 back in 2000. There is no other way to see this than as discrimination. It is discrimination akin to that of separate water fountains and Jim Crow. And while concentration camps may not be a real part of our future, all it took for them to be built and filled was for good people to sit by and do nothing.

We live in a world where discrimination still happens. Racial profiling exists whether or not anyone will admit it. People still say they were “Jewed”. Women running for the second highest office in the land are still sexualized and called M.I.L.F.s. Women running for the highest office in the land are said to be “too emotional”. It is time to stop turning a blind eye, time to stop pointing fingers of blame, and time to start living as a cohesive country, if not world.

We are all connected. Hate towards one is hate towards all.