More Koolaid, Please

I am fuming. There is so much wrong with this country and this world, and it won't ever get any better. So prepare for it to get worse.

Today I made a connection. I realized how much hyprocracy exists in the United States today. I have been called un-American, by numerous people, because of my political views. I've been told that I shouldn't live in this country because if I think our president is an incapable idiot, then I belong somewhere else. Well, I can't say that the thought of fleeing from the terrible embarassment never crossed my mind, but how many other people, many of those who would call me un-American, also do things that completely contradict what the American flag stands for?
A big reason that the United States is the land of the free is because everyone is allowed to be who they are, without living in fear that their race or their opinions will put them in danger of attack or execution. In many other countries, those two consequences are very much reality, many times for freedoms we take for granted and don't think twice about here in this country. I have grown up, my entire life, with peers that are different from me. Some of my very best friends in elementary school were Asian, and their families and lifestyles were much different than mine. I learned so much from them. I wasn't thinking at the time about how much better my life would be because I grew up that way, but I now realize how tolerant it has made me and how strong my morals are because I don't judge people based on their ethnicity. That is not something that everyone can say for themselves, and they should be ashamed.

There is no excuse for racism. Not a single one. It doesn't matter how nice you are to those with the same background as you, or how often you go to church. Our world is a terrible place because people degrade others based on their religion or skin color, or any other characteristic they find in someone else that in reality has no effect on who they are or how they live their life. It blows my mind that all these "religious people" think they will go to heaven only because of God and their devotion to their religion. Look around you. And open your eyes, don't just pretend. The world is falling apart. Are you going to do something to make it better? Or are you going to keep pretending?

Stand for something. Really. Act on what you think. Because today, I said something. Not something huge and monumental, but something. And I was empowered because I was RIGHT and because I had the confidence to prove it. I was later told that I "don't know how to handle people like that," people like the ignorant person I spoke out in front of. What? Those people are the way they are because NO ONE handles them. No one ever tells them how sick and wrong their opinions are; how un-American it is to restrict the freedom of others. Maybe the idea of properly "handling" that is to ignore it. But if you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem.



"It is never too late to give up our prejudices."
-Henry David Thoreau