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I don’t usually voice these sorts of thoughts so openly for the world to have access to but I feel that since it has been weighing on my mind maybe I’ll just put it out there.
What kind of world are we shaping for the next generation?
I’m no expert on politics or anything really but I’m a parent who thinks about what kind of world we’re creating here for the next generation to live in.
I use to think that we were making progress where cultural acceptance and understanding is concerned. Diversity isn’t something to be feared but instead embraced or at the very least RESPECTED. Personal freedoms seem to have contingencies, ‘you’re free as long as you do what we say.’
Same sex marriage is now legal in all states and yet there seems to be more opposition to it than I noticed before. People are angry and hateful. They march into schools with color coordinated t-shirts in opposition of transgender minor students using the restroom they identify with.
Racism is a more prevalent problem now than I remember. Segregation isn’t over people are just getting louder, as is their right! People like to say that African Americans haven’t been enslaved for a long time… I’ll give them that. But have you stopped to look at when segregation ended?
The segregation of public schools in the U.S.A. was abolished in 1964. That was 55 years ago. My grandparents were in their 20s-30s and my dad was 7 years old when segregation in public school ended. Let that sink in. Think about your relatives for a moment. It wasn’t that long ago and those residual racist influences are still present. Maybe not in your community or your family but in other communities and families this is still a problem and should not be discredited.
I’d like to see people embrace diversity and I thought that we were on the right path years ago. But we’ve taken a hard turn and we’re decidedly content stripping the rights and freedoms of other American citizens if it aligns with our own beliefs.
Our country is so divided and so angry about everything.
We are angry about abortion.
We are angry about legalizing marijuana.
We are angry about a boarder wall.
We are angry about minimum wage.
We are angry about racism.
We are angry about sexual orientation.
We are angry about vaccinations.
We are angry about gun laws.
And in the process we are dividing our country into groups of people spewing hatred for each other. Demanding law makers take action to make changes that align with the ideologies of one side of an argument and telling everyone else they should simply just agree with or “get out” of the United States of America.
There is no middle ground in a country divided by hate.
There can only be more hate, more blood shed, and more freedoms stripped from citizens.
Your constitutional rights and personal freedoms cannot take away from the constitutional rights and personal freedoms of others.
For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Nelson Mandela
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