Can someone please explain to me when and why it got so cool to hate? I mean hatred is so OUT THERE and acceptable these days, is my mum the only one who taught me and my brother that to hate is to lessen yourself? Are we the last 2 kids to be taught that hatred is not only a waste of energy but just wrong? Usually you hate someone who's done ya wrong and ok everyone hates at one time or other and mostly when we say "I hate so-and-so" we just strongly dislike that person and then when the fire has gone out we just don't even give that person a second thought. Sure there are those that hold grudges like they were a child born of their own bodies but I just wasn't wired like that I guess. I don't understand hate like that. I may say I hate like country music but really, I just don't care for it and don't listen to it. I think people throw around the word hate over-much. But there is something wrong in the world today because hatred, real, passionate hatred, is on the uprise.
I think after 9-11 many American's had a rather harsh feelings towards Muslim's. I know where I live there is a rather large Muslim population and at that time their homes were set on fire, they were beaten in the streets, they had objects thrown at them while they were driving and walking, it was frightening to see. I'm not a person who hates, like I've said, and I have never been a person who doesn't like someone because of the colour of their skin or their choice in religion however I do feel that I had harsh feelings towards Muslims after 9-11. Looking back on it now I can honestly say it was the pain of what had happened, it was the fear and it was the ignorance of a religion and a people that allowed me to have those harsh feelings. I'm ashamed at myself now that I ever thought that way. I remember a job I had back in the early 90z and this girl I worked with hated all hispanic men because 2 of them robbed her, with a gun in her face. Now I could never wrap my brain around hating an entire race of people for the actions of 2 men, and now I know it was the fact that she'd never been so afraid for her life as she was then and she never did anything to learn how to deal with what happened to her, so I find it hard to let myself off so easily for my feelings and thoughts about Muslims. Sure now my opinions are different but it pains me that at one time I, too, hated, that I blamed an entire religion for the action of a few and those few were extremists and not...NOT...indicative of the Muslim religion at all. To kill in the name of any God is still a grievous sin, you will still go to hell (if you believe in that sort of thing) and you will still go to prison for having done so. There are extremist Christians and there are Christian's who do some horrific things but I don't hate all Christians! Look at Oklahoma City, the bombings, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nicols, 2 white, Christian men, blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. One Hundred Sixty Eight people were killed, including NINETEEN CHILDREN under the age of 6 and it is considered the most destructive terrorist act on American soil after the WTC bombings on 9-11. Now are we supposed to hate all Christian men? Are we supposed to hold ALL Christian's accountable for what 2 disturbed men did? I don't think so. Lets not be silly. However I find it hard to find a "good Christian" who doesn't dislike, distrust or downright hate Muslims and they always say 9-11 is why. I've tried to point out that not only can you not blame all Muslims for that day but to try to insults my intelligence but that falls on deaf ears. They just want to hate. And I'm talking about people who take care of the ill, people who normally you'd like to have as a friend 'cos they're normally nice people, however when it comes to this subject? It's just amazing how they hate. I'm always looked on as the "bleeding heart liberal", as if just because I do honestly have the gift of being able to put myself into anyone elses shoes and see the world as they see it is something to be scoffed at. In reality it's because I embarrass them, because I have different ideas and I have different morals and I stick by them even when it's not the popular opinion. I've been at the lunch table with half a dozen people who hate President Obama simply because he's a Democrat (and I can honestly say it has NOTHING to do with him being half African American for a change), they refuse to see all that he has done because they're too busy listening and believing everything Fox News tells them. They're too in love with that hate-mongering, republican loving moron Rush Limbaugh. They're too busy hating because it's easier to hate than to educate themselves and maybe change their mind and they're really too afraid to go against the grain. They don't want to be like me, they don't have it in them to stick up for what they believe in. You can put me in a room with all republican's and I would have no fear to debate them. I would not stand down. I would not change my moral's and I would not alter my opinions to suit them. I was not put on this earth to make anyone comfortable, or so my mother always said. I was not created for comfort..except for my son of course. Personally I love it when I get into a debate with some republican ditto head and they say President Obama is the worst President ever and how he's done nothing for this country, that he got us into this recession and that he hates America. I just love asking for proof of all those statements. WHY do you think he's the worst President ever? How can you think he's done nothing for this country when he's done . . . (and I run down a list of his accomplishments)? I mostly love it when I ask them in their opinion when did the recession begin and they always say 2007 and I then ask them WHO WAS THE PRESIDENT IN 2007?! and that shuts them right up! HOW can it be President Obama's fault for the recession when he wasn't President in 2007? Of course they don't have an answer to that because there is none. Then I ask them who ever said he hates America, where is the proof of this and all they can do is quote Faux News and Limbog.
The republican candidates are each running campains on hatred. They hate gays. They hate women. They hate the middle class and they hate children. I have proof of each and every single thing I just said, I can give links to video of them saying those things. Youtube is a stone bitch for polititians these days isn't it! They all hate gays, they all want to repeal the rights for gay people to get married. They insist it will ruin the institution of marriage, men who are on their 3rd wife after having cheated on the first two, hold this opinion. Then you have one candidate who has an actual ad against gay people that has more DISlikes than any video in the history of youtube and that is saying A LOT! All these republican candidates are against a woman having the right to choose, they don't want women to have access to healthcare for women's concerns such as mamography and pap tests. They are against women getting paid the same for doing the samething as men do. They go so far as to say that women should basically stay home, have no access to birth control so we should just be barefoot and pregnant or not have sex at all. Sex is only for pleasure for men, not women. We're just here to endure their pleasure. Then you have the republican's who hate the middle class, they want us to pay MORE than the sickeningly rich, they want to stomp on the necks of working class American's, suck us dry and throw us away. They also hate kids, there is a candidate who wants to abolish child labor laws so the "poor kids" in the country can go out and get a job. I mean really? This candidate has never worked a day in his life but my son, at 13, instead of worrying about making sure his homework is done and that he's getting good marks in school should instead be out there working? Really? That fat, fucking moron. I nearly hate him, but he's just not worth it.
These people are also responsible for spreading that it's OK to hate Muslims because of what they did on 9-11, never mind that pesky point of fact that no, only a few did that, not every single Muslim in the world. But they're not worried about the truth, they're just worried about power, maintaining what power they have and getting more power. They'll stand up and tell us what to do, how we should feel, how we should think and then they'll spout off about being "good Christians". They wouldn't know what it means to be a good Christian if Jesus himself came down from Heaven and gave a productive, informative and entertaining speech about it. They'd absolutely hate the real Jesus, they'd be against everything he was for...wait...they already ARE against everything Jesus taught! ::smacks self on forehead::
Yesterday I learned via Facebook that LOWES pulled their advertising during the TLC show All American Muslim, because the message behind the show is UNAmerican and wrong. Now I've actually watched the show and I have to say, there is not ONE DIFFERENCE between any of the 5 families on this show and any 5 Christian families. Oh wait, there is a lot more tolerance among them, there is not a lot of hate being spewed or really, any. One of the women is very liberal, very open-minded and she wears the head covering, a Hijāb. I love my mother, she is the person who, when I was 7 years old and came home with a "fun" new word I'd learned at school that begins with an N, and washed out my mouth as she explained why it was wrong of me to say that word and what it meant. I had absolutely no idea, it was a new word, and I have honestly never said it since then. Anyway this woman who I always thought didn't have one bone in her body that could be considered racist argues with me that Muslim women in America should not be allowed to wear the Hijab. She insists that it's "ugly" and that if they want to be considered American they should conform to our ways. To say I was deeply saddened and shocked would be an understatement. I actually had to get up and leave her house and didn't speak to her for over a month. I just couldn't look at her. I have a hard time with my mother hating something that is so personal to others, that is worn out of respect to their own religion, and because it is so intolerant. As we grow up we go through phases of "Oh I hate those people" and my mother was always the first one to say it was just an accident that I wasn't born one myself so to have her so against Muslim women because of what they wear on their heads just amazes me in a bad, sickening way. I love my mom, I always will and of course I speak to her now and she's my best friend next to my son, but there will always be a part of me that is incredibly disappointed in her. I feel in my heart that she has let me down, that all those things she taught me as I grew was just a lie because it's not how she feels really. I guess we all have our foibles but that just bugs me bigtime. I'm also not the sort who leaves sleeping dogs lie, I have to nudge them every so often, so it's not beyond me to bring this and other subjects up at really odd times, just to revisit them. Like at Thanksgiving last year (2010) I said I was thankful for Muslim women being strong enough to wear what they want to respect their religion in such a way that is looked on as a bad thing by some American women who should know better. I mean for fucks sake my mom came of age in the fucking 60z! Peace, love, tolerance, a generation I've always looked to when I needed an example of how to really stand up for my opinions. Really though, she's an ok person, it's just this one thing she's intolerant about and I swear one day I will get her to see how wrong she is! I did get her to admit it's wrong to feel the way she does, however, but it's an uphill battle to convince her that she can change her feelings if she works at it. I had to. It's not easy, it's painful because you have to seriously take a good, hard look at yourself and you have to admit to being far from good, but in the end you grow and you are left with pride for the journey you've done. I'm proud that I am a more tolerant person now that I was back in 2001. I'm proud of myself that when I see a Muslim women in her Muslim garb I don't find it offensive and I know she's just being true to her own, personal religious beliefs. It is not for me to say that she shouldn't wear what she wants to wear. I find myself actually speaking to a lot of Muslim women to ask where they bought their head covering because a lot of the time the material is stunning. My only hope is to make one Muslim woman feel like an American woman, that just because she believes differently than I do when it comes to religion and how she chooses to represent her religion doesn't mean she's any better or worse than me. We women have got to learn to stand together, to support each other and to stop being so fucking critical of each other. We need to get women, intelligent women of every race and religion, in high ranking offices across this country and world because there is no more nurturing creature on this planet than women/females. I always have felt if things were in the hands of women this world would be so much better off. Not all women are cool and not all men are evil...most men aren't evil actually and some are even enlightened. The men I respect the most are the men who hold up the women in their lives as examples of how women should be seen. President Obama has his wife Michelle and I tell you what, I'd consider myself as having done well if I were half the woman she is! We need more women like her and Hillary out there, talking to young women/girls, to get them ready for the world they'll be inheriting. I think my job is to raise my son to respect women, to not see women as weaker or lesser than himself just because he has a penis and I have to say that so far I'm very successful! He's a great kid and I only hope that he continues on as he is!
Ok I'm done...my fingers are sore. lol If you've gotten this far? Well colour me incredibly impressed, and really, really grateful!
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