Posting Something Before I Get Distracted Again
It's been too long. I miss this. I miss expressing myself in complete thoughts with the added safety of partial anonymity. The world feels too much like we talk all the time but don't say anything, and I'm getting tired of it.
My perspective on the world has changed a lot in the last few years. That isn't surprising. Every moment of your life you approach it with the complete collection of wisdom and experiences you've accumulated in your life to that point, and however many years removed I am from the person I may have been, that person is still a part of you. The tricky bit is that every year that part of you is squeezed in with your new experiences, relationships, knowledge, and attitudes; and the person you were is pushed further into the background. So every so often you gain enough perspective to wonder just what the fuck it was that you were thinking not all that long ago.
For years I identified myself as Republican. I still think I am, but the party these days has gone to shit. Everywhere I turn I seem to find self-righteous fearmongers and bigots. What was once called The New Right has slowly and systematically taken over the mainstream of the party since the late 70s, and now all that's left are a bunch of religious zealots who believe that Trickle Down Economics was always the policy of the party and that the Earth is 6-12,000 years old. Bush 41 was right to call Reaganomics "voodoo" in 1980, but who the hell remembers? Now it's party dogma, and any who care to poke holes in the concept are shunned as heretics.
I love my state. I love its history. I love my family's history in it. I do my best to love the other people in it, but I swear these last two years have been some of the most difficult for me. I helped to elect some bonafide idiots, and I'm sorry. Last year it was fetal pain - a way to chip at abortion. This year we have passed a religious freedom bill that allows folks to abuse their faith in order to discriminate against minorities. And yes, boo hoo, all of those poor minorities who have been beset upon on all sides evil. I get tired of the bellyaching, too. But for the love of all that's holy, this bill is bigoted bullshit. The last time we decided discrimination, the businesses had cute signs that said "whites only." What's worse is that some of them are old enough to remember real segregation.
Who the fuck are these people? Have they always been this obtuse? Or are they just malevolent assholes? And what's worse, why the hell didn't I see this sooner? All I know is that my complicity ends now.
My perspective on the world has changed a lot in the last few years. That isn't surprising. Every moment of your life you approach it with the complete collection of wisdom and experiences you've accumulated in your life to that point, and however many years removed I am from the person I may have been, that person is still a part of you. The tricky bit is that every year that part of you is squeezed in with your new experiences, relationships, knowledge, and attitudes; and the person you were is pushed further into the background. So every so often you gain enough perspective to wonder just what the fuck it was that you were thinking not all that long ago.
For years I identified myself as Republican. I still think I am, but the party these days has gone to shit. Everywhere I turn I seem to find self-righteous fearmongers and bigots. What was once called The New Right has slowly and systematically taken over the mainstream of the party since the late 70s, and now all that's left are a bunch of religious zealots who believe that Trickle Down Economics was always the policy of the party and that the Earth is 6-12,000 years old. Bush 41 was right to call Reaganomics "voodoo" in 1980, but who the hell remembers? Now it's party dogma, and any who care to poke holes in the concept are shunned as heretics.
I love my state. I love its history. I love my family's history in it. I do my best to love the other people in it, but I swear these last two years have been some of the most difficult for me. I helped to elect some bonafide idiots, and I'm sorry. Last year it was fetal pain - a way to chip at abortion. This year we have passed a religious freedom bill that allows folks to abuse their faith in order to discriminate against minorities. And yes, boo hoo, all of those poor minorities who have been beset upon on all sides evil. I get tired of the bellyaching, too. But for the love of all that's holy, this bill is bigoted bullshit. The last time we decided discrimination, the businesses had cute signs that said "whites only." What's worse is that some of them are old enough to remember real segregation.
Who the fuck are these people? Have they always been this obtuse? Or are they just malevolent assholes? And what's worse, why the hell didn't I see this sooner? All I know is that my complicity ends now.