Longest. Blog. Ever.

So I’m just sitting here trying to understand what is happening in the world. Which can be a daunting task for someone who doesn’t watch the news, eat-sleep-breathe politics, or really like people talk to a lot of people.

I mean, where should we even go anymore for a legit news story? All I ever hear is that Fox News leans right, CNN and most other news sources & all social media outlets lean left, and you should definitely NEVER ask your friends or family what they think!

It is seriously a strenuous aerobic workout just trying to research one event.

So rather than stress myself out with all that mess, I’m going to try and make sense of it all from my own white privilege bubble point of view. Yes I was being snarky with that scratch out.

These days we live in such a politically correct, stuffy, and angry environment where someone is ALWAYS offended, outraged, and/or coming up with new and creative criteria that needs to be met in order for them to be happy. If you happen to disagree or have a different point of view from someone, you are called ignorant, if you are white you are labeled a racist or bigot, and /or told that your views are wrong and insignificant. We have all officially forgotten how to listen to and respect one another's opinion and have basically reverted back to a pre-school aged mentality when we used to bite, hit, kick and scream louder than the other person to get our way.

Regardless of the years we have all put in tip toeing around someone’s feelings, bending over backwards trying not to offend someone...

Despite all of the progress, compromises and accommodations that have already been made in the spirit of unity – conditions are just getting worse!

If you turn on the news, you will see a very DIVIDED America, where everyone appears to be fighting, name calling, belittling, vandalizing property, setting stuff on fire, kicking dogs and hurting one another!

Why is everyone so much angrier than they used to be? Were the statues and flags that have been a hot topic on the news lately put up JUST NOW during the Trump administration? No! Most have been up for over 60 years, which was way before I was even alive since I am 39 21.

Our country, like many others, has some pretty crappy history, and I am definitely grateful that most of us were not alive to witness it. However, the majority of the struggles from the past have already been fought and won. Take slavery for instance, it was already abolished because it was evil, and wrong! So why are we still fighting about it? It is no longer an issue!

I don’t know of anyone who has been a slave in my lifetime, or even my parent’s lifetime. We can burn all the history books, take down every statue around town that offends someone, and banish all the offensive flags you can think of, but NO ONE has the power to rewrite our history, so what are we really accomplishing?

We have already banned the confederate flag, taken down several statues that have been standing for over 60 something years and even banned Dukes of Hazzard re-runs off of TV, yet people are still not happy!

In fact, they are even angrier than they were before! It’s almost like that saying “Give someone an inch and they’ll take a mile” is true! Why are they still not happy after getting their way??

Because they are looking for happiness in the wrong places. Happiness doesn’t come from removing statues, banishing flags, or taking the Dukes of Hazzard re-runs off of TV. Happiness is a state of mind that comes from within and can’t be given to you by someone else.

I honestly feel like there are other forces at work here, whether it is politicians, the media, or whomever that are constantly stirring the pot, breathing new life and fanning the flame into issues that have been dormant, and pitting us against one another because they are working toward some unknown agenda. I mean the instructions for destroying our country are easily found in the phrase, “United we stand, Divided we fall”. There always seems to be some kind of tragic news that is meant to distract us from paying attention to the real issues! Example: Pig Virus, Ebola, West Nile, Global warming, Race wars….I mean what are they really trying to distract us from?

So I guess this is when you will start thinking I am racist or residing in an ignorant white bubble because I don’t agree with a multi-million dollar football player who bends the knee during our National Anthem, or think that it’s necessary to remove statues, ban flags, shoot cops, and erase all signs of what is an uncomfortable history to some. But you are wrong. I simply fear for a country that doesn’t embrace all parts of its history, both good and bad, learn from it, and learn how to move past it together.

Where are we headed?? Its flags and statues today, will it be history books tomorrow? It’s like George Santayana said, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. If we wipe away all traces of an uncomfortable history, how will future generations learn from our mistakes?

I might be white, but the only time I pay attention to color is when I’m separating darks from lights in my laundry room.

I was not raised in a racist home, I didn’t go to a racist school, I didn’t participate in racist sports and I wasn’t raised in a wealthy “white privilege bubble”, a term I have heard from so many of my liberal friends. Honestly I strongly dislike the term ‘white privilege bubble’ and all that it implies. If all white people live in a ‘white privilege bubble’, then are they implying that all African Americans live in a ‘black poverty bubble’? Because I know plenty of African Americans who have nicer homes, nicer clothes and nicer cars than the average white person. And just what kind of bubble would they put Asians in? I mean seriously, stop putting people in categories!

My white parents were hard workers who didn’t make hardly any money, and we struggled financially for most of my childhood. I’ve heard that one of my white privileges is that I wasn’t raised in the ghetto, participating in gang fights, & dodging bullets on my way home from school or work every night, but I personally find that to be an offensive stereotype because there are plenty of African Americans, Asians, Indians, etc. who were not raised in that type of environment either.

Maybe I am white, but everything I have today is because I worked my ass off to have it. Nothing has been given to me and I have the college loans to prove it. I have worked in Human Resources before, and am familiar with the diversity laws that have been put into place in order to prevent discrimination, and some of it I agree is necessary, but I can honestly say that I think we as a society pay way too much attention to race, which in my opinion, makes it a larger issue.

Do I think racism exists? ABSOLUTELY. Being married to someone of a mixed race, I am all too familiar with it! Do I think there needs to be strict laws for situations where racism is found and the perpetrator be held responsible and punished? ABSOLUTELY. Do I think that there are situations that may happen to a person of color that have been incorrectly categorized as racism? ABSOLUTELY. I also believe that the word racism has been thrown around so often that it has lost its meaning and people do not take it as seriously as they should. Do I think racism goes both ways? ABSOLUTELY. Do I think that the media reports events in such a way that they emotionally manipulate people and promote feelings of hostility and bitterness in others, which cause people of all races to resent one another, overreact and lash out at against each other? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY.

When I watch the news I get angry, depressed and lose all faith in humanity, so I’d say the first step to having any kind of inner peace and happiness is by TURNING OFF THE DAILY NEWS.

So, I totally realize that there is nothing that I can say or write that will convince someone who disagrees with me that any of my points are valid, and that is ok, I am not writing this to tell anyone what to think, but rather just to show another outlook on current events, even if it is in vain. I am just a girl, sitting in front of a screen, asking you to read her thoughts to try and understand where she is coming from.

and this has to be the longest blog EVER. OMG.
Later!
Lindsay