Today is a great day to repost this blog!!  Winners, losers, Right, Left, Right, Wrong, Up, Down, Dark, Light.  Today I woke up thinking that there would be some peace on earth…..carry on my angry peeps….. I still love you!!! Be sure to play the above video! Ian is quite a singer!!

Today has been particularly interesting for me and my random observations! I was flicking through my feed when I caught a common political “the President sucks” post. Whether I agree or disagree is not the question (sidebar–as a woman I’m not a huge fan) but what I noticed is more the way people talk to each other. I was reading a 64 comment thread and was struck by a man who just kept saying “I’m just happy to piss you off.” My friend responding was stating legitimate issues and backing up concerns she has for discrimination she lives with everyday. It was painfully obvious that this man has not lived a minute trying to understand where she is coming from or did he attempt to listen, instead he had the most disgusting response to everything she said. His response was “I’m just happy to piss you off!”?? Maybe it’s just me, but I feel that we owe it to each other residing on this planet to listen, consider, and have the freedom to disagree with each other. Disagree with respect. Not with the ridiculous gouge.

Many of my friends and family fight daily for basic human rights. It’s a fight I have never had to battle because I am neither gay nor black, but I support them in their fight to receive the same rights under the law. I owe it to those I love to listen with compassion and educate myself. We are all human beings running around in our earth suits attempting to survive in an ever changing, mean mouthed world. To me it shouldn’t matter if the above scenario involved a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, or a man and a man. This conversation and newsfeed wasn’t about gender, sexual preference, or in fact who was having the argument. To me, looking from the outside, the argument was about rights: rights under the law, under the constitution, and rights as human beings. It is amazing to me that in today’s world that people are unable to LISTEN to anyone they deem as “different”. People can say all day long that they aren’t discriminating or judgmental, or threatened, but the fact is, if you are 1000% honest with yourself everyone is. Your poison may be racism, or homophobia (I love that word because it sounds like something you could catch!!! Haha!! Don’t worry, not contagious!!) Or maybe you are a misogynist and think that men are slightly if not completely above women, or maybe you are a fat phobic (you won’t catch that either!) or possibly you are an elitist who feels like success makes you better than the beggar. Whatever it is, we look at each other and begin to write our story about the other person. We size up the person even through a screen by labels like fat, loud, woman, arrogant, lesbian, gay, straight, black, crazy, political, left, right, Trump, Bernie, patriot, deserter…Why is it that we can’t begin the dialogue with something positive? Why did that guy feel like “pissing people off” was acceptable?? He also referred to her a couple of times by “You people”. Ugh. I find that completely insulting and ignorant given that I love lots and lots of “you people”. I don’t understand why LOVE is so far from our minds that they feel that it is completely ok to say whatever they like and essentially incite hate. If you are a firm believer that certain lifestyles are an abomination to God, or you declare yourself a devout Christian, then why can’t you just “love the sinner, hate the sin” and truly treat your fellow man like Jesus really did? The hypocrisy of proclaiming Christian values and yet treating people like the man at the center of this post is completely offensive to me, and I am a Christian! Why not really practice treating each other like Jesus did, and be loving?? You will forever hear me screaming “love wins”!!! But in order for this to happen it means show love to EVERYONE not just those you can accept.

Before you get on me, or even think about starting some religious argument, or judging me for my support of equal rights for my brothers and sisters, you might need to stop reading or unfollow my blog because I’m not budging.

Our Bible study lesson this morning was on the power of the tongue. It is described in James 3: 1-10 perfectly. Read it. The verse that sums it up in my opinion is 7-8 7 “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

It is true. A “restless evil, full of deadly poison” that you can’t wait to spew. It’s so restless that you can’t control your mouth long enough to stop being “happy just to piss you off.” It’s so sad to me that we feel free to say whatever we like regardless of the feelings we hurt. Big man behind the computer screen, but do you suppose he would be willing to talk to her the same way in person??

Passive aggression behind the screen is out of control. Aggression in our world is out of control. Choose LOVE. It’s easy! Just stop acting like discrimination, racism, misogyny, hate (which is always driven by fear), and nastiness aren’t a part your dialogue. I mean, they become our/my dialogue when I don’t speak up, when I don’t defend, when I don’t make the change myself. Don’t live being “happy to piss” someone off. Live in the commitment to be the love. It’s easy.

Rant over. 🏳️‍🌈❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

Until then. LOVE LISTEN HUG

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