I was reading my post from yesterday again, the one titled "Red Friday". Thank you to everyone who commented on it.
Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be one of the people that believe in this? Sometimes I sit back and watch.
I have always done this. I look at people happily living their lives, going to church and believing in being a "Red Blooded American".
I don't feel there is anything wrong with church itself, I just think the people that tend to be attracted to the very evangelical churches are the same people who believe what they are told by the government.
If the president says the war is good and necessary, then by God they are going to stand up for being an "American", they will not question or see past what he says to them with that smirk on his face.
To me, the phrase "Red Blooded American" stands for no more than our soldiers red blood being spilled for a war that is strictly about oil rights and money. I will never make sense of this, as long as I live.
I think their lives must be easier for this belief. I'm not sure if it is ignorance, stupidity or both. Maybe it is environment? I've always been one that questions. I have always said to people, that's bullshit, you aren't looking at the REAL issue.
I have friends who constantly niggle at me for being "liberal" and believing that all people, no matter who they are, or how they choose to live their life, have and deserve basic human rights.
I will not stand by, and not take a side.
Don't you wonder what it would be like, to not worry about the world so much?
To believe the president when he says that global warming isn't really as bad as they say? To believe that "Diamonds are Forever", and not know that they are mined in a horrible way that strips people of their rights and dignity?
I'm getting even more hard headed and stubborn as I get older, but I know I'm on the right side of this issue.
The conservative side is the wrong side. We have to be concerned about the legacy we are leaving our children. We have to be concerned about what we teach our children.
The other day, while listening to Stevie Nicks, my little boy asked me "What color is she?" I asked him why was he asking me.
He said "I hope she is white, like he I am".
I pulled off the road, right there, in the middle of a Montana highway and explained to him that what he was saying was wrong and why it was wrong.
I explained to him, in the simplest terms possible, that skin color is no different than someones hair color, or eye color, and that most of mommy's friends in CA are not white.
I told him he needed to think about what he said and why.
I will teach this child that people are people. Granted, there are experiences that make us different, but hopefully someday, our skin color won't be a factor in this.
I remember, as a child, reading MLK's "I Have A Dream" speech over and over. I've never been able to get his voice out of my head reading this speech.
Martin Luther King's message is as timely today as it was when he spoke in 1963. One has to wonder what he would think of this war.
So I have a dream, that every "Red Blooded American" soldier will come home from this war, alive, well and with all body parts.
OC, this speech was one of the most pivotal studies I had ever done in all my years of schooling. I don't think any one thing ever made me *think* so much as MLK's phenomenal words.
ReplyDeleteMy children are mixed--Japanese/Caucasian. I thank God I am raising them in a relatively tolerant area and that they will probably never be called "japs" or referred to in a derogatory sense, as I live in a racially diverse community. We have had so many discussions about colors, stemming from the first day of school that La Princesita brought a picture home from school of herself and her classmates and commented on the different colors that made up their faces. So innocent, so accepting--I pray that always be the case; I pray I can guide them appropriately along the right path.
We have two Democrats up for nomination for the Presidency: one woman, one African-American. Although I will not permit this to deter my vote, I fear the high degree of intolerance still so ubiquitous in our society will rear its ugly head and there will be an assassination attempt, no matter which one is the nominee--
What a sad state, indeed.
And good for you, for pulling off the road, making eye contact and demonstrating with extraverbal communication the importance of your message to your son. That will probably never be forgotten.
Be well, OC.
Have you seen Jesus Camp? It's a very frightening documentary but one I highly recommend.
ReplyDeletejanet
i'm of mixed heritage myself. my mother grew up in a town where she was called racial epitaphs, and that had "unofficially" segregated establishments....
ReplyDeletewe've come a long way..but we still have so much further to go....
and i guess, we just have to do it one child at a time...until diversity in all its colours, shapes, sizes, persuasions, and abilities is really celebrated...
j.
I think it's totally "American" to question everything. The bottom line about the war in Iraq is that it's WRONG. WE started it for no good reason. Everything else that is said about it is a distraction from that fact. Our government and our media have become masters of distraction, and thanks to TV, and our willingness to become slaves to it, we have a couple of generations of people who cannot THINK in anything larger than soundbytes. Perfect targets for cults and evangelical fanatics. The mind is a muscle just like any other, and if you don't use it, you lose it. Too many "Americans" have lost their minds to the media and are afraid to reclaim their own ability to think and question what is right or wrong.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
GG
Liv went through a phase where she disliked black people when she was in kindergarten. This resulted from the fact that a child she disliked intensely in her class happened to be the only black child.
ReplyDeleteWe talked about it and now she has several black kids in her class and has seen the error of her ways...
So...maybe it was something as simple as that...