Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Till We Reach That Day

Hello, darlings. I am not a particularly outgoing person. I prefer to stay in when I can, and I trust only a small group of friends and family. But I do like to go out on afternoon walks sometimes. I put on my feathery hat, black peacoat, black leggings, and purple flat-heeled boots and wander around the neighborhood. I like to observe people. Some people stare at the feathers. I wonder how many of them actually realize that I wear that hat for the sole purpose of getting people to stare at me. I wear it and walk around proudly. Look at my hat. This hat is different. It makes me different from all the people wearing hoodies and Uggs. And it cracks me up, because some people give me dirty looks and other mutter "freak" under the breath.

Yes. I am a freak. Come look at the freak. The freak is happy, and the freak knows you don't have much else to look at. How very sad for you, you sweat-pants wearing teeny bopper, to live in a world that is so tragically small. Wake up. Look around you. See? Life. And diversity. And people who aren't like you, and people who don't care what you think, because who are you? Who am I? We are people, and we are one. We need to start acting like it.

One thing I cannot stand, will not tolerate in any capacity, is people who make fun of other's misfortune or disability. That constitutes deliberate cruelty in my book, and Blanche DuBois spoke the truth. It's not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. I don't see how anybody has the right to mock another human being's illness or disability. It makes my blood boil. I thank the Lord I've never known any great illness is my life, but I know people who have. I have a cousin who has several severe brain defects, and I've seen people stand in front of her and laugh. I've seen grown men tell their children how funny it is that she can't sit up, see, feed herself, or speak. Because that's just so obviously hilarious.

It also makes me boiling mad that gays do not have the right to marry in this country. I am a Catholic. There are still traces of that little pro-life activist in me. But this is one issue on which I stand completely firm with my fellow Democrats. I am not particularly sure that religion should have the upper hand on this one, but even if it did - Jesus preached love. Love thy neighbor. Love the outcasts. And let thy neighbor love whoever the hell thy neighbor wants. And besides. You look me in the eye and tell me Chip and Dale's relationship does not have homoerotic undertones.

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