So Much Hatred

 

I keep reading about the mass shooting in Colorado Springs, where a man with a long rifle killed 8 people and wounded 18. He shot up an LGBTQ club and it was only because two brave patrons got the gun away from him that more people weren’t killed.  There’s been a lot of tension in the community and a lot of hatred directed toward the LGBTQ community. Representative Lauren Boebert is a representative there and she’s been spewing hateful messages.  She even criticized President Biden for his message of sympathy to the community. She is catching a lot of heat for that but she doesn’t care. The haters think they are Christians. They are not. I read the Bible through. The Old Testament features an angry God and condemnation of people who are “other”, which includes people of different colors, regions, customs and religions. This is what those christians are following. Ironically, they denigrate Jewish people and the Old Testament is mostly about them. They were the chosen people, not the christians and Christians. The New Testament is different. Most of it portrays a loving, forgiving God. Jesus preached love and acceptance for everyone, even the “sinners”. Remember the greatest commandment of all, Jesus taught, was to love God above all and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. There weren’t any caveats attached. Love all the neighbors, no matter their color, faith, gender. As for condemning any behavior, Jesus also said whoever is without sin can cast the first stone.  None of us are without sin. The ongoing hatred all over this country is makes me ill sometimes. It doesn’t have to continue this way but it means people need to get together and speak up. We don’t want this hatred. We don’t want our rights taken away. Rep. Adam Kinzinger started a group called Country First and it’s an attempt to get reasonable people together and work toward saving our democracy and fixing it. The group endorsed not only Republican candidates but Democrats and Independents too. What can we do?  I think we need to start doing what the Rethuglicans did. We need to get involved on school boards and in local governments. We need to make a change so that CRT isn’t something to be feared but embraced. There are a lot of painful things to learn and repent for but we can do it if we want to love all people and be inclusive. I would like to see CRT in preschools too. The reason is because if the parents are racist or bigoted, that’s what they will teach their children to be. But they could learn something different in school. Funny. My Deaf parents were bigoted.  They believed stereotypes about different people. When I got to be a teenager and started reading books like To Kill A Mockingbird, I got a whole new perspective. I challenged them. I asked them why they were bigoted against certain groups when they, themselves, also suffered from the ignorance of those who could hear. They had no answer for me.  They were angry with me for challenging them.  My kids were brought to embrace diversity. I think we’ve all learned we can’t reason with adult tRumpers or election deniers. It’s like a lost cause. They are clueless that they are voting against their best interests and are not interested in listening to any point of view. It’s the kids we need to approach and teach. They shouldn’t have to learn about our true history and about how wonderful diversity is the same way I did: reading books out of school with no one to provide guidance about the material or to hear what I thought. I was never taught about how Native Americans were treated nor about slavery. I didn’t learn about Jim Crow laws. I didn’t learn about the Holocaust. They were all things I learned on my own time and had no one else to share with or to help me process everything. The hatred against people of color and Jewish people hurt.  I felt then as I do now that we are all one people. That there should be such hatred is evil, the work of the Devil.  I know that not everyone in the world is Christian but I am sure we all have a common belief: there is a power greater than all of us and there is also evil. Both of these entities have different names.  There are enough similarities that we have no business hating “others”. It needs to stop. Please.

A Whole Lot Of Stuff Going On

 

I thought my phone and text banking days would take a break for a while, but I’ve been signing up because Warnock/Walker inexplicably have to go in a run-off. It seems to me that there should have been no problem getting Sen Warnock re-elected but there’s just no counting on the intelligence of Walker voters. SMDH

I had minimally invasive surgery to fuse my right SI joint.  It’s amazing the pain relief it provides. I didn’t need anything more than a few puffs with my vape postop.  I am so glad I had this surgery even though my energy level has been a little low. It’s all part of the recovery; I’m taking it easy and find I’m napping every day.

I meant to update my blog after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s speech.  How I admire her so! I think she’s been the most effective Speaker of the House in my lifetime. The first one I can remember is Sam Rayburn when I was still very young (early 60s). Following him the next couple are a blur in my mind. The next one I remember is Tip O’Neill.  Clueless about the next few until Newt Gingrich, who started this whole scorched earth business. Nancy Pelosi was sandwiched between John Boehner and Paul Ryan, who continued the scorched earth business and kiss-assed tRump.

Ah, but Nancy Pelosi!  I took notice of her especially during tRump’s administration. She was tough but spoke softly like Theodore Roosevelt suggested. She had that big stick because she could get the votes together to make Rethuglican passage of restrictive measures very difficult. I loved how she didn’t kowtow to tRump but remained calm, reasonable, and steadfast. There were times when she did make her opinion of tRump known, like “the clap” after his speech and ripping up his printed speech text.

I’ve seen the video taken by her granddaughter on January 6, 2021. The granddaughter happened to be filming a documentary. It shows Pelosi’s presence of mind during the rioting and evacuation that took place. She and Chuck Schumer were calming urging various officials to send help.  What was most touching was the concern she expressed to the Vice President when he told her he was still at the Capitol.

More details and speculation about what happen next from:

The Conversation

Dan Rather

Heather Cox Richardson

Robert Reich

I am really sad to see her stepping down as Speaker, but she will continue to represent her community and California.  She needs to be able to get out of the wicked spotlight that’s been on her, making her a target of tRumpers and the extreme far right.  Enough was enough when her husband Paul was brutally attacked.

Some people in this country just suck.

Speaking of which, in addition to the runoff in GA, we now have to deal with tRump again. Will justice ever prevail here? The man has committed enough crimes to land anyone else in jail for life, but he still walks free.  The Department of Justice has boat loads of evidence to charge him, yet Attorney General Merrick Garland chose a special prosecutor to investigate again, Jack Smith.  Investigate what? The evidence is all there already!

To make matters worse, tRump announced he is running for President again in 2024. I guess he thinks if he’s a candidate, the law can’t touch him.

Two more years of this clown spreading lies and hatred, inciting his followers to more violence. God help us all.

What's So Special About Today?

 

What’s So Special About Today?

I like to read This Day in History to bring back memories of events from my past or to learn new information. I learned some things today.

On November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges and her mother were escorted by U.S. marshalls to her new school, William Franz Elementary School. Born in September, she was entering the first grade. But first she and her mother had to get through a hateful crowd of segregationists, white parents, who hurled epithets at the little girl. I knew that from other readings about segregation.

Coincidentally, Ruby Bridges was born the year the Supreme Court decided the Brown v. Board of Education case. Segregated education was not equal education, the Court said, and all children should be able to attend the same public schools.  To be even able to get into the school for white children, Ruby had to take a test. She and a handful of other black students passed the test and were accepted into their local schools.

Ruby’s father was afraid to let her go. He was afraid of what the racist people would say and do. Ruby’s mother was surely frightened too but she wanted her baby to have the best possible education. And so, they braved the vicious crowd.

As it happens, Ruby is 2 months older than me. Because I was born in December, in November 1960 I was happily and safely in kindergarten.  All the kids looked like me. My Grandma walked me to school without incident and with much friendliness from other kids and parents walking to school.  I had a lot of friends, companions in the lunchroom and playground. I didn’t know I was privileged.

When I realized today that I was the same age as Ruby Bridges, I became more curious about her and began looking for other articles.  For their bravery, the Bridges family sure went through some hell. Only one teacher was willing to have Ruby in class…and all the other children’s parents from that class pulled them out of school. Ruby learned alone. She ate lunch alone. Sometimes her teacher would join her for lunch or even for recess. I suppose that teacher had compassion for the little girl so isolated.

That wasn’t the end of it. People were so mad about desegregation that Ruby’s dad lost his job. And the storekeeper wouldn’t sell groceries to the mom. The family was ostracized.

I was surrounded by a loving, extended family. My grandmother was related to half the people in town and even the ones who weren’t blood family looked out for my baby brother and me. We were welcome everywhere we went and were never turned away from the corner store when we’d rush in to buy candy.

It gives me a sick feeling once again.  

Slavery was a horrific evil. Once free, although they were given rights to vote and own property after the Civil War, the disgraced planters and other Southern white came up with obstacles to obstruct and repress black people--mostly because they were afraid of losing their prestige and power.

Jim Crow and segregation was another great evil.

It was sickening to me that it took to the year I was born to give people of color the right to attend public schools with white kids, who were really no better. We are all human, after all. It was even more sickening that it took more than ten years to secure the right to vote in 1965 when I was turning 11 in December and still clueless.

It's taken too long and now the Rethugs want to take us back to Jim Crow, segregation, and the times of the KKK?

I think about what black people, Native Americans, Muslims, Jews, and Catholics have suffered at the hands of white supremacists. Recently, very racist views have been spouted by christian nationalists. Note the small c. They are not follows of Christ although they proclaim they are. They are as far from Jesus as anyone could possibly be and not be the Devil.

We still don't have racial justice.

I think about the differences between me and Ruby Bridges on November 14, 1960. I admire her. I don't think I would have been so brave.

More here:

The History Channel

National Women’s History Museum

Ruby Bridges Foundation