Colors

Some of my friends here are surprised that I have experience racism first hand.  Yes I have, I've been jumped, punched in the face, called Gook, Long Duck Dong, Zipperhead and it all goes back to intent, one of my best friends still calls me Zip with love and I don't mind in the least (please don't call any other Asians that!)

What I do mind is getting judged by the surface of my skin, know what? I grew up in a rural town in Arizona, I was born in another town in AZ.   I learned how to cope, since joining the military, I have met folks from all over the world and all walks of life.  I have made friends with homeless folks and people who run companies. 

Know what? We are all human, we are all insecure, different colors, viewpoints, different answers and in the end we all die.

Please, stop hating people for dumb reasons like skin color or appearance.  Instead, use something important like actions.  Each one of us is a story, perhaps it's time to do some self editing to improve what the world reads.

Roughshod

Explaining the reasoning behind some of the protesting and possible future protesting going on over the next few years for those who don’t understand it and I’m not even touching many of the protests that are currently taking place.

Since the election, more than half of the population feels like logical things that the expected out civilized life are being pulled out from under their feet.  Sort of like the world of Back to the Future where Biff gets into a position of power.  It wasn’t a slow talking a girl into bed, for a large percentage of our population, it was a rough act without lube.  There’s a word for that.

Examples?

Environment

Our government has a department called the EPA which might be the only good thing that came out of President Nixon’s time in office which protected the small guy from the great corporations who thought it was a good idea to dump toxic garbage into waterways.  Who kept the corporations in check that wanted who wanted to take the cheap route with disposal of toxins. 

Since then, they have taken a larger foot print on the world stage in slowing down climate change and generally bringing about a climate in industry of doing the right thing when able.  With 99.9 percent of the scientists believing in climate change and more than half of the population thinking, yes, it’s important to preserve as much as we can for our children, it’s sort of a big deal to many folk.  

When those protections get gutted and we put the corporations and profit before the long term future.

People might be upset.

Banking

In the 2000’s, banking regulations were changed and it made it possible for people who didn’t qualify for home loans prior able to qualify for loans during a time were us as a nation was fighting to wars on a credit card meaning that while we were spending money hand over fist, instead of raising taxes to fund the war we pushed it off till later.  That bill still hasn’t come due. 

Almost everyone I knew (actually everyone I knew which was quite a few people) who got one of those loans has been foreclosed on and their lives tossed into chaos.  Now those regulations to keep the banks from doing this again are being pulled.

People might get upset.

These are only two of the issues but when the smartest tools in our shed are kicked to the curb, we are losing our brain trust.  It doesn’t look good in the big picture, we are all human with human failings.  When you don’t acknowledge when you have made a mistake or you make that mistake the new truth, there is a word for that, lying.  That doesn’t fly far in this world of fact checking.  And when people who follow you gloss over those mistakes, what does that mean for the moral center of us as a people?