I have a few topics to cover today, so this post will do some multitasking. WARNING! Some of the content may be offensive to Metal Heads and Nationalists (fanatical patriots).

Day 12 – A Song From a Band I Hate

Again, trying to choose one particular band I hate is worse than trying to pick a favorite. All I can really do is randomly pick a band from the type of music I dislike and randomly pick one of their songs. I came up with “A Touch of Evil” by Judas Priest.

If I have to explain the reasons for my not liking either the band or the song, you haven’t been reading my blog. Shame on you! You need to go back and catch up.

The Fourth and Patriotism

I haven’t really celebrated the Fourth in a long time. That is mostly due to my circumstances. In the future, I hope to be running shows or having BBQ’s or taking part in parades.

Personally, I am not as patriotic as I was as a child. Being patriotic is alright, but I see a lot of nationalism, which is worse. I don’t think nationalism is healthy. In many ways it is like religion – people take a lot on blind faith, they get fanatical.

It is nothing but chance that anyone is born in a particular country, and to think that your country is that much better than any other does nothing more than separate you from the rest of the world. It’s the same as thinking that your race, religion or looks make you better than someone else. It’s human nature, so it is understandable to feel that way, but acting on it is not the right thing to do.

I am proud of the United States for the good it does, and I think is could be a great country, but given the past decade politically, I do not feel as proud as I once did.

And yes, for those of you who get all offended and say silly things, I have thought about moving to another country. Not because you are offended by me, but because of the possible opportunities. Plus, to intimidate someone into leaving the country because of their opinion, to me, is un American. After all, we’re supposed to have the freedom to state our views no matter what.

There is as much opportunity and freedom in most of the developed world today as there is in the U.S. To deny that is the same as denying global warming or evolution. It’s just the way it is whether you want to see it or not.

I’ll stay in the U.S., but I’ll point out its problems and try to fix them, instead of just saying it’s the best country and waving a flag. If you complain about the Government remember this – you are the Government. The United States is ruled by the people. If it has problems – war, high taxes, a bad health care system, a broken educational system, etc. – it is our fault, because we are the rulers.

Our problems won’t be fixed until we unite and fix them. The more we divide ourselves into red vs blue, Texan vs New Jersey vs Hawaii, Christian vs Atheist vs Muslim, etc., native born vs immigrant… the worse it’s going to get. The people who believe they are in power will stay in power and you will just deal with it.

I’m a Published Playwright (Kinda)

I put my first play up for sale on the Theatre-for-Children.info website yesterday. I hope it’s the beginning of a new sourse of income and that it will be useful and fun for some non-profit theatre groups.

The script is titled “The Elf With the Weird Name” and is an audience participation one act. I actually wrote the original version just after I worked at Sesame Place. It was inspired by the Circle Players there.

Does this mean I’m a published playwright now? Or does that happen when the first person buys the script? Or does it count at all since I’m self publishing? Does it matter? I should write a play about it.

Well, I wrote this person (privately, of course) to ask her not to use such terms. She answered in the predictable way.

“I am a rational, God Fearing, Adult; and if I want to have moments of bigotry, then it is my decision to do so.”

However, later she tries to defend her bigotry:

“We are humans and not perfect!”

In my mind, these statements contradict themselves. If you are “God Fearing,” why are you hateful? I assume she is a Christian. Is this something Jesus would do? And it is true that we are all human and make mistakes, but a remark of bigotry is not a mistake. She herself said this was a “decision.” This not being perfect is an excuse used by many who claim to be Christian to defend their bad behavior.

Bigotry has nothing to do with religion, yet she tries to attack me to put me on the defensive:

“I am sure being an Atheist that you’ve made your fair share of wordy blunders yourself.”

Being God Fearing or an Atheist really has nothing to do with any of this. It is more about your mindset. Are you a hateful person or not? I have never used racists remarks and I try not to think in a hateful way toward anyone based on their color, race, or country of origin. It’s like Buddha said, it all starts with your thoughts. Actually, Jesus had something to say about it, too.

Of course, she began her rant with “I’d like to know where you come off correcting me.” Typical. I of course replied with what should be common sense to everyone… that good people cannot allow this type of behavior, otherwise how can ignorance be defeated?

If we allow bigots to continue using their hateful words, if we allow hate crimes to continue, if we do not try to work from a mindset of tolerance instead of hate, what type of world are we allowing to exist? Stand up! Tell those who use hateful words they are wrong.

I am tired of seeing “Jesus IS the reason for the season.”

Most people know what Christmas is. Those that belief in Jesus don’t need to know the reason they celebrate it. Those who celebrate it and don’t believe in Jesus (like I do), understand the beginnings of the holiday. A lot of us even know that there were Winter holidays long before Christmas came along.

The people who don’t celebrate Christmas enjoy many different holidays this time of year. Why should their holidays be less important?

Jesus IS NOT the reason for the season for many people. The need for some folks to push their beliefs on others is more about their fear of something happening to the Christian religion. It’s about insecurity and fear, and most people see that.

Most of the cars in the procession didn’t have their lights on or signs in the window, but it was obvious to anyone what this was. However, people behind us in traffic began to honk and holler because I didn’t merge into the funeral procession.

I am not a believer in the afterlife, but I do respect the rituals of others, and I believe it would be in very bad taste, plus bad manners, to merge into a funeral procession. However, it seems many people do not.

Cars were going around my car and into the procession. We were at a three-way intersection, and the guy at the cross street also sped up and interrupted the procession. Many drivers behind me were honking their horns and I could hear a couple of guys yelling for me to go.

What the hell is wrong with people? Is there no respect anymore for other people’s rituals? Did they not know what was happening? It did seem most of the offenders were young, but still, I would hope they had some experience with processions. It was obvious something was going on, as we could see up to 30 cars coming off the side road from the church.

I have to believe this was done in ignorance. It’s a shame those drivers didn’t know what was going on. The only other possible reason would be rudeness and simple disregard for others, and I hope it wasn’t for those reasons, because that just shows how bad we’ve gotten in this country with manners and consideration.

I also partly blame those participating in the procession, as they didn’t have their lights on, which is one of the signs of a procession. Of course, lots of cars today have daytime running lights, but most of the cars we saw had no lights on at all.

It was just a sad thing to me, especially as we were headed to a memorial ourselves.

I just had to hide the feeds from one of my friends on Facebook because they included racist videos. This person commented that he was laughing very hard at these videos. I had to hide them, and it took a lot of control not to comment about them and rant how this kind of crap is what keeps this country and the world from moving forward.

I was also talking to a friend on the phone recently. He also made a few racist comments. I just try to ignore them, but it’s very difficult.

What makes it really hard is that these are people from the neighborhood where I grew up. I have over 270 friends on Facebook, and I’ve only seen this kind of thing from those people who come from my home area.

This is hard to say. I’ve never felt I was a part of the neighborhood where I grew up because of things like this. I saw it in my family, in my friends, and from almost everyone in the area. Yet, I never accepted it. Racism is wrong!

Calling people derogatory names and prejudging individuals based on their race, color, faith, nationality, and any other stereotype is wrong. There is no defending it.

I understand we are all prejudiced. It is a basic instinct for survival. We fear and/or are suspicious of that which is different. I feel it myself. However, to bring those inner feelings and fears out, and ridicule (not just ridicule, but insult to the highest degree) individuals or groups based on those unfounded emotions is discrimination. And discrimination is never correct behavior for a thinking, intelligent being.

We are all human. We all do it. I suppose I am discriminating against bigots by blocking their posts on my pages. I hope I really do understand that it is the behavior of individuals and not of a group. There are other people from my home neighborhood who do not discriminate. It’s just a shame that I’ve seen so much of it from Fairmounters.

And for anyone thinking about defending this type of behavior… ARE YOU SERIOUS? You really think this is something you can defend? It’s bad enough that someone displays this type of behavior. What are we if we begin defending it?

COME ON!!! We have to move forward. Race, religion, nationality… it’s all nothing! Get over it and let’s start fixing the real problems in the world like starvation, disease, and war.