My heart breaks when I watch the horrors of our nation and our world unfold.
We grew up believing that we live in the greatest land in the world. Why? Because our teachers and our parents told us so. I guess people believe what they want to be true. But we live in a nation and a world that is racist, homophobic, sexist, a world that is prejudice. And this is not new! How could those adults, who made us fall into their traps and believe in their lies, not know that? How can so many people have turned a blind eye to the prejudice then, and how can they continue to today? When we live in a world that looks like this?
I repeat, people believe what they want to be true.
Why is it OK for Texas to give students a different education than California? To tell a different history? To change the narrative?
Why did my GA from Kentucky learn about The War of Northern Aggression but I go to school just a little bit farther north and am not only taught but KNOW that it was the Civil War?
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I am an optimist. Overall, I see the good in people. I believe that there is more good in the world than bad. I believe in happy endings and things working out and that everything happens for a reason.
What I do not believe in is pretending that the world can’t be cruel, that prejudice isn’t everywhere, that a part of humanity isn’t disgusting.
I do not believe in silence.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Desmond Tutu
I believe in speaking up, in protests. I believe in goodhearted people.
But the world is not all good.
And to pretend that it is is exactly what we are all so angry about-privilege.
(Post written May 29, 2020)
