Protest of Gas prices.

I have been receiving a lot of invites to events on Facebook that are all pretty much the same. The only thing that changes is the dates.

"Don't buy gas on April 15th
On April 15th 2011, Let us unite in protest of escalating fuel prices. Let’s stand together for one day and show the world we are tired of being gouged at the pumps. If you agree (which I can't see why you wouldn't) resend this to all your contact list. With it saying, Don't pump gas on April 15th"

Ok, So I get that people want to protest this issue, and they see it as important. But they are not really thinking about it before jumping into protest mode. One day will not go noticed. Especially since people who need gas will just get it on the day before. Seriously, if we want to protest gas prices then make it something like "No Gas May" where all of May we don't drive unless we have to and we use the gas that has been sitting in our tanks. They will notice a longer protest that is at least a month long 
 
But then, protesting the prices isn't truly a fix of the problem. Sure it could work if we protest properly in bringing down the price of Gas for a short wile before the price is jacked up yet again and we have to start all over. Why don't we attack the real problem and get a permanent fix. One that can make everyone happy in the long run. 
 
Oil is a non-renewable resource and the Earth is running out. So yeah, it makes sense that the price for gas goes up. Why don't we focus more of our efforts fixing the REAL problem and not just a side effect of the problem.... find a new better source of energy to power our vehicles? Electric is fine for some parts of the world, but not so efficient in other climates lets fix this problem, shall we? If we no longer need Gas then the price of Gas won't be a problem for us. True, it'll take time before we can all upgrade our vehicles to the new energy type, but think of the world without having to pay an arm and a leg just to get from point A to point B and back again. 
 
For people in the big cities, alternatives are available. Take the subway to get to work or school. Or walk. For people in smaller cities and towns, we have legs and bikes. for those of us living out in the middle of nowhere and fields and mountains where walking and bicycles are a bit too much work and time consuming, then I guess we'll just have to put up with the price of gas for now. But protesting for a day will not help us at all. The oil companies won't even take notice in the slightest. It would simply look like a slow day in sales to them, nothing they haven't seen before.

Human Rights.

The world is full of predigest and discriminating beliefs, and through the course of human history there have been struggles to stop such beliefs to bring equality to all human kind. Even though in parts of the world things have gotten better, they are still not perfect. For example, The Women’s Rights movement brought America much closer to ending Sexism. Women have a lot more rights that men have had, but Sexist beliefs and Gender rolls still can be found in the minds of individuals. Just the other day I was driving my Boyfriend and my Father (who had had a beer or two so he did not want to drive) into town. I needed to stop for gas so I did so, hopping out into the cold snow to fill up my tank. Seeing as it was my car and that I was driving, I thought it was my job to fill the tank. Apparently my father would disagree. I had been out in the cold for only five dollars worth of gas when my boyfriend hopped out and said he would pump the gas. I started to say that it was alright and that I could take care of it, but he insisted. Something in his eye told me to just let him. Seeing as it was quite cold, I got back into my car where my father told me that pumping gas is a man’s job and any time I have a man in the car with me I am to make him get out to pump gas. I told him I know how to pump gas, that I do it all the time throughout the week, but he insisted that I let the men handle it unless I’m alone or with only other women. I held my tongue, but I was really tempted to yell something about his sexist mind-set and hop back out of the car telling my Boyfriend to get back into the car. Looking back, I think I should have done just that instead of holding my tongue just to keep my father happy.

But Sexism isn’t the topic I meant to get on this week, neither is Racism. This week I would like to talk about Homophobia. In Linda Stout’s fourth chapter of Bridging the Class Divide, she talked about her peace group, the PPP, and how they all agreed on the subject of homophobia. One of the members of the group was a Lesbian, and the group all agreed that should the woman be targeted because of her sexuality, that they would all “come out of the closet” during the meeting that the issue would most likely be brought to the for-front. The PPP may not be a group to focus on Gay Rights, but they were all able to get over homophobia and stick together if the topic looked to threaten the group. One man had asked Linda what she would do if the group died because of the choice they made on the issue, and she said that if that were to happen, that they would simply start over. They chose not to back down just to keep there group from growing.

Gay Rights is currently one of the largest controversies America faces when it comes to Discrimination. More Homosexual and Bisexual people are “coming out” and are fighting for all of the rights that Heterosexual people have. Stories of extreme Violence against Homosexuals and Gay Rights activists seem to be on a rise as well. In the LA times, January 27th, 2011 news of an international Gay-Rights activist, David Kato’s murder was released. He was found beaten to death in his home. Poliece think it was simply a robbery but many others, including President Obama, disagree.

“LGBT rights are not special rights; they are human rights.” -Obama.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/01/kato-david-david-kato-uganda-lgbt.html
Gay Rights is an issue I feel strongly about. whenever the topic is brought up with me I find I have a lot to say and debate on the matter. Many points have been fired at me again and again on the subject, and for each of them, I have an answer, though I don’t always  voice it when the person(s) seem to be simply looking for a fight. I apologize in advance if any of this seems attacking. it is simply me getting my thoughts out for others to read. I am not trying to offend anyone.

“Gay marriage destroys the American family!” or “Gay Marriage will not destroy the American family”
Heterosexuals have done a fine job of this already. We have the highest divorce rate in the world. The number of children born out of wedlock is almost 40 percent. The number of marriages in which a partner is unfaithful is remarkably high. The incidences of child abuse, sexual abuse, abuse against women, etc. are epidemic, and this has led to a huge number of dysfunctional families. Also, it will not destroy the American family, because if gay marriage is open, it doesn’t mean everyone in the country will marry the same sex. Men and women will still marry each other and have the traditional family.

“The Bible condemns gay marriage and gay people are going to Hell.”
To think that the people who say this consider themselves to be good Christians! The Bible condemns divorce, living together before marriage, eating pork, dancing, working on the Sabbath, borrowing money, lending money, women speaking in church (or out of place when among men), drinking alcohol, adultery, taking the Lord’s name in vain, wearing clothes made of many fabrics, etc.. And in my humble opinion, God loves everyone and the only people who are going to Hell are those who are primarily evil. I would never presume what God would do and refuse to pass judgment on others. I believe that we should love sinners (that would be all of us!) Is God not Love? Does he not forgive? If it is a sin to love members of the same sex, what makes that sin any different from any other sin that is forgiven? Frankly, If god was not a loving god who forgives and would condemn someone for such a thing as falling in love and wanting to spend there life with the person, I don’t think I’d want to go into his so-called heaven.

“Gays cannot adopt children because the child will be teased, screwed up, become gay and become an outcast. A child must have a father and mother or they will suffer an “imbalance.””
Well, I just don’t buy this. A child is lucky to have ONE good parent. What about all the children of single parents or divorce? Are they doomed, too? And how many straight people are HORRIBLE parents? There is no evidence that children raised by gay couples become gay themselves. And children are cruel to everyone at that age. Love is love. Weather the child gets it from a man and a woman, or two men or two women. The children aren’t stupid and wont grow up thinking that just because he has two daddies he has to marry a boy too. They’ll be open to there own sexuality, and I imagine, they’d be even more open to whatever is right for them even more than a child who has a mum and a dad. Ridiculed, just because a kid has two loving fathers, or two loving mothers? What about the ridicule that the children of strait parents go through? The children with only one parent? The orphans who have no one? Children are cruel to children. And they find reasons, or make up reasons. I know what that ridicule feels like. Though I have a mother and a father, I was ridiculed from kindergarten to the end of my high-school days. I have no idea why I was chosen to be ridiculed above others who did have things in their life that others could have jumped on. But they didn’t. They choose at random. The reality is that the parents of a child isn’t that much an influence over other children choices.

“Being gay is a choice and people have to live with their choices.” Or “The act of homosexuality is there choice or desiese that they choose to put themselves in…”
So, people can choose their sexuality? My response to this is always the same: What person in his/her right mind would CHOOSE a life that is so incredibly difficult where intolerant and nasty people will treat them so unfairly and with such cruelty? Who’d want to risk exposing themselves to hate crimes? Do straight people choose their sexuality? No. The act of homosexuality? An act? Oh, I am sorry, but I don’t think it’s an act. To them it’s natural. There are even homosexual animals out in the animal kingdom. If being gay was all an act, an illness, or unnatural, why would there be homosexual animals? If homosexuality is an illness, then I say Love is an illness, and we are all infected by it.

“Since I am a Christian, I am against homosexuality.” (also) “As a Muslim, I cannot approve of homosexuality.” (As I have seen recently and my Christian references applies to that too)
I always cringe when I hear people start with “I am a Christian, so…” The problem here is that all Christians DO NOT think alike. Many Christians are against gay marriage, many are for it. Many are against abortion and many are for it. Many are for capital punishment, many are against it. You get the picture, right?
See, I have friends who also a Christian, but they support gay rights! So really, the “I’m a Christian so I think Homosexuality is wrong.” Type comments just irk me greatly. They bring such a closed minded reputation to all Christians.

Separation between Government and Church! Just because Christians say marriage should be between a man an d a woman only doesn’t mean its right. What if because of some religion they talk about making the eating of pork illegal? Or something like that?

“I don’t want to see gays making out with each other in public.”
Okay, I don’t want to see ANYONE, gay or straight, pawing each other in public. Get a room, please!

“I don’t want gays hitting on me.” (This is something usually only men say.)
Okay, get over yourself! Do you think you are that hot? This assumes every gay guy, because he is attracted to men, cannot control his hormones and must hit on every guy. Does every straight woman hit on you? Of course, I am amused by the hypocritical attitude many men have of homosexuality. They are so intolerant of gay men but seem to love “hot girl on girl action.

So, my opinion in a nutshell:

I think the Argument for gay marriage (which I whole-heartedly agree with) is the fact that all people are equal and should be treated as such. It’s wrong to take away the rights of one group of people just because they are different. While the arguments against Gay marriage is that it endangers the “traditional American family.” The arguments against it seem to usually be connected to religion, which, I think, is unfair, because we do have the separation of religion and state, therefore we shouldn’t use religious beliefs in our government issues. Also, when we say we have the right to choose our own religion, yet we cant choose to follow our hearts if we are gay and aren’t aloud to marry the man or woman we love just because we are of the same sex, it seems hypocritical.

When it comes to Civil Unions, I just don’t see it as the same as marriage. And it’s just a way to deny a group of people from their right, only making it sound nicer. Marriage is NOT just a Christian thing. It is used all over the world by all groups of people.  Why should non-Christians abaid by a Christian “rule?”
I do not think that Gay marriage will destroy the traditional American family, because men and women will still marry each other and have children. If anything, it is divorce that destroys families, not Gay marriage. Is America ready for gay Marriage? Honestly, I don’t know. A lot of people are so closed minded and irresponsible when it comes to this topic. But I think we should have it anyway. There was a time when a person of “color” and a person of “white” couldn’t get married without dealing with other people who had issues with it. Yet they wed anyway and now it’s more accepted. I think there is a pattern here. Blacks and whites could not marry in most states until the late 1960’s! It is a SAFE bet that people who are against interracial marriage are also against gay marriage!

Gays should be aloud to adopt. There are way too many children in need of a loving family to be denied it just because their parents would be both the same sex. And its cruel to both the child and the couple to deny them family. Over all, if I found someone in my family was gay, I wouldn’t care. They are still family. And I’d accept openly whomever they choose to marry.

I thought all people were EQUAL! If this is truly a country where all people are equal then WHY are we even talking about taking away the rights of marriage for the homosexuals?

Finally, if two consenting adults are truly in love, they are fortunate in so many ways and I can only be happy for them. I see marriage as a bond between two people who love each other enough to take the steps to spend the rest of their lives together. And Marriage isn’t always in a church. They are also in courthouses, so it doesn’t have to be a “holey bond of marriage” Marriage isn’t just a Christian thing!
It’s an issue of Human Rights, not what’s “right and wrong.” After all, Homosexual, Bisexual, Heterosexual.... we are all sexual, we are all human.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

Becoming Aware

I grew up learning that everyone was equal, that everyone had the same rights in life and that any discrimination against anyone was wrong. I also grew up in a small country community where I didn’t see a real level of discrimination. Sure, there were bullies in the local schools where I attended. I unfortunately had the displeasure of being a target from Kindergarten to near the end of my junior year of high school where I finally took action and gained respect enough to no longer be an open target of the cruel actions of my peers. But the bullying didn’t seem to be discrimination; it was not directed at a specific group of people who were different. The school had people of different races, skin tone, economic class, and later Sexuality. It was simply a case of children not liking another child or two. Wile I was bullied, my younger Sister was quite popular. I never knew why I was a target of the other Students of the school, and I still don’t.  The fact was that everyone did seem to be equal. The teachers treated all students the same.

Growing up in a community like this, I never became aware of how big of a problem Discrimination truly is, and how harsh it can be. Sure, I learned about it in history class, but it was history class. I found myself thinking that discrimination was something of the past and that in today’s society around the world, it no longer existed. How I wish that my ignorant sunny thoughts of the world had been true. Since then, I have grown up and entered a more realistic world. I realized how sheltered I had been. 9/11/01 put an end to that train of thought and alerted me to how discrimination is still at large. And at the time I was already in eighth grade.

Wile reading the first two chapters of Bridging the Class Divide and Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing by Linda Stout, I was reminded of all this. Her experience as a low-class child, being discriminated against because of her family’s economic situation through my mind back to the time I was painfully unaware of the world.

Linda shared with her readers how because her family was poor, when a drunk driver sent her family to the hospital, the doctor’s had not cheeked out her condition, resulting in her almost dyeing, and the doctors had amputated her mother’s leg, not taking the time to properly care for the nerves. Her family also lacked funds to get legal advice on the matter. She also found it difficult to get information on how to get into college throughout school, a dream she had since the beginning. She also found that many people in her same economic situation turned to the military, even if they disagreed with killing, simply because it was to them, the only way out of poverty. The only way to get an education.

She also goes on to share her experience with Sexism, being a single woman; she found it almost impossible to rent an apartment. The reason? Single women could do unmoral things in the apartment. Personally I became angry when I read that because single men are equally capable of the same unmoral actions as single women. Later she witnessed the prejudices “white” people had against “black” people.

When Stout began to form her own peace movement group, She found herself working in a “black” community and in doing so, she discovered that she needed to earn the trust of the people around her. She also found that she too had attitudes and ways of being that were racist, even if she didn’t mean to be.  I think that this is true for everyone. I do not see myself as racist, sexist, or anything like that, But because of society, I have picked up habits that could be seen as such. One example is that just earlier this week, wile discussing predigest s in a small group during my Leadership for a Positive Change class, I caught myself say “…Talk like a black person” what I meant by that was the way uneducated people speak, Not using what is considered to be “proper English” Now, In no way do I think that all black people are uneducated and speak that way, I have a few friends that are black and speak just like I do, though I’m no English major. The fact is, that through the media, black people seem to all talk in such an illiterate way, and I have often heard phrases of speech connected that way of talking to black people as a whole. And without realizing it I had picked it up. I guess I am beginning to understand that it is impossible to not hold any predigests within you, no matter who you are. I’ll have to try to look over thoughts like that in the future and not let them control me or let me say something offensive that I truly do not mean to be. And Just as Linda Stout stated that she would begin to unlearn racism, which would take her the rest of her life, I too wish to work on unlearning it.

Of course the life Stout shares with readers is a Life in the 60’s and 70’s, and my examples of discrimination are smaller ones as I have not experienced many yet in my still young life. That does not mean that today it’s any smaller of a problem, though some is better, Women can now easily get into Colleges, and there are financial help for low-income students. But gender, economic statuses, and race is not the only groups victims of discrimination. Sexuality, disabilities, age, geography, “criminal” backgrounds, occupation, religion, and many more are also subject to it.

 “I have a great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift.” –Brian Larker, I Dream A World.

Streetwalkers from Munchkin Land

Children grow up fast.  As children, we don't notice how fast we grow up, and all we want to do is to grow up. But as adults we can see how short life is, we see how fast children actually grow up, and we wish we could have stayed young a little longer.

But it seems that today, children are urged to grow up even faster. Children face problems and issues that should be faced by older people. Today, elementary children carry cell phones, and seven is the new seventeen. Our children are loosing their virginity at a young age, an age that I didn't even know the word "sex" at. Pop culture is encouraging children to forget about childhood. Gone are the days where young girls go to the store and get cute little age-appropriate outfits. Now you walk through the children clothing isle and see low-cut skinny jeans and shirts you would think should be in the Teen section.

This week I heard a story on the news as I passed by a TV about Push-up bikini tops for girls as young as seven. Push-ups? Seriously? What do they have to "Push up" at that age at all? When I was that age I was in a one-piece, and I dreamed of growing up to be a Disney Princess or a Ballerina or something like that. How I looked was the last thing on my mind. Now girls that age wear push-up bikinis and wear make-up, wanting to be a Supermodel.

And what about this mom who gives her eight year old daughter botox and waxes her legs and special area, which isn't even growing hair yet! What on earth is next? Breast implants before the poor girl has a chance to even grow her own? The very idea that this girl's mother is doing this to her is disgusting.

And then there's Beauty pageants. Yes, Beauty pageants for children have been around for a wile, and may have been the start to all this. They wouldn't be so bad, if they didn't turn the little girls into miniature adults. The amount of makeup those girls have on isn't cute. to be honest, it makes them look like streetwalkers from Munchkin land. Beauty isn't everything. how you look won't guarantee you a good and easy or hard life. Yet these girls are taught that beauty is everything. So they'll grow up beautiful, what will happen to them when they find out that in real life nothing will be handed to them on a silver platter? Or what if they grow up to find out that their looks are not perfect? They gained a few pounds, their faces grow to not look like a super model's face and no longer looks like a doll? Don't you think that's cause some self-esteem issues, and all the depression that could come with it?

What happens to girls who grow up with a picture of a super model from a magazine taped on the corner of her mirror, only reminding her every time she looks at herself that she is not perfect? Eating disorders is a big one.

Why can't we just let kids be themselves? why can't we just let them be children? They should worry about who gets to go down the slide at recess first, not if their hair roots needs to be touched up.

Because this is wrong.