Shufflemancy has struck again. I am listening to random music on Spotify and the bot brought up Gary Jules' song Mad World. I was thinking about the state of the world right now and that song is a good way to describe it. Living here in the US isn't that great right now, despite what some people want to say. We have a president that is batshit crazy and congress is doing very little to oppose him and his administration. He took a pot shot at the judicial branch yesterday and it was met with very little hue and cry. This entire business has been a disaster for civil rights and I am afraid for the future.
I try not to talk about politics on here because I know that mixing politics and religion is a very bad thing. At the same time, however, the malarky happening right now in my country's government is a real and potent danger to people like myself and my family. And it is happening because a group of people practicing an extremely conservative version of Christianity has seized power. I am waiting for the day that the president rules by fiat that Christianity is the official religion of the country. I'm not looking forward to it but I'm waiting for it to happen.
To some extent, I can mask as a generic, secular oriented Christian of a nameless protestant version. My boys, however, can't do that. We raised them outside of a Christian denomination, much to the annoyance and outrage of some relatives. Neither myself or Beloved are Christians and we felt it was wrong to push them into being part of a religion from the cradle. We have made a point of educating the kids in a wide range of religions as best we can, including the lack there of. We have continually espoused that they are free to believe whatever they want as long as they are being decent people.
It seems, however, that our standards for decency are different from those of others. Which worries me and makes me concerned that my boys will be targeted for harassment and assault by people who don't like them. We've already had a public threat made against one of them by a kid down the road who opposes the fact that they refuse to stand for the pledge of allegiance. And when I say a public threat, I mean that the kid stood up at a podium and gave a little speech about how he hates people who don't stand for the pledge, got lots of applause from the neighborhood as he stared at my kids. My boys ignored him but it was deeply worrisome that it happened.
The lack of tolerance and acceptance of differing views is egregious and troubling. I have had people start off hostile when I openly wear my headcoverings and my pendants that show that I'm not Christian. There's a knee jerk reaction to a pentacle in this country where people insist that you are a danger to others. Never mind the fact that if you're cold and in need, I'd give you the shirt off my back to make sure you are ok. The necklace that I'm wearing makes me a threat to them in their eyes.
I've had people threaten me behind my back as I was out shopping or in the general public. I almost always turn around and glare at them. They tend to quiet down when I look at them. But if they think I haven't noticed, they get vulgar and nasty for as long as they think they can get away with it. It's as bad as the bullying that I had to deal with as a kid. I am concerned that at some point it'll turn ugly and I don't have the spoons to rearrange somebody's face for spitting on me.
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