“I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.” -Mother Teresa

 

I am no big hero.
But.

I would NEVER have called all Bush supporters a bunch of conservative morons. Why? Because not all conservatives are morons. Because it’s prejudicial and irrational. Because, no matter how I felt about W, the people who loved him simply disagreed with me. That doesn’t make them morons; it makes them human-there are as many opinions and philosophies as there are humans.

To paint any group with a broad brush is so unfair, so wrong, and though apparently I’m a Universal Unitarian according to the latest circulating survey and maybe not the resident expert, it is SO not Christian. And it’s pretty hate-filled as well, and I do disagree with hate. I suspect that those spewing the “liberal morons” meanstream have issues that go much deeper than those politic. But I digress.

Listen, I could not stand where Bush took us, and it’s well documented how his brother decimated Florida and is profiteering on children’s emotional health while stealing their rights to a real education. I’m not here to argue about that, and I won’t. But you know what I didn’t do? Scream hate about him, pass along undocumented forwards mislabled as “information,”  pass along repugnant and despicable memes, or call his supporters vile names.

That doesn’t make me any kind of hero or peacenik (there’s plenty else that proves the peacenik part); it makes me a person who respects others, and, agree with them or not, respects their AMERICAN-GIVEN RIGHT to have opinions other than mine. And for those who claim Christianity, the (at least the God who lives in and around me) GOD-GIVEN right to not be belittled by others for having ideas.

^^ Don’t just post it, DO it! ^^

When you call people morons, it dilutes (and in a reader’s mind, deletes) anything in your message that may have been informed or meaningful. Please consider looking over your status updates over the last few weeks. Your updates=your reputation. Your typing  fingers are the brush, your words are your paints, and your page is your canvas. Would you display your ‘art’ proudly?

I’m okay with my social media canvas, even if some of my updates are silly, the quotes are occasionally overly simplistic and trite, and my attempts at humor are  sometimes a little cringe-worthy. I will stand in my ‘gallery’ without regret.

Listen, I’m not always right, not always humble, not always as tasteful as I might be, and certainly not as funny or clever as I like to think I am. But I am an unapologetic liberal. Unapologetic bleeding heart. Unapologetic introvert. Unapologetic Star Trek dork, General Hospital fan, and avid reader of everything. Unapologetic advocate for children, for my child, for victims of sexual abuse. Unapologetic over-poster of cat photos. Unapologetic in my never-ending and oft-faltering quest to be kind and my mission to beg the same from everyone else, because it is the ONLY way this is all going to get better.

But hey, do you know what I’m not?

A moron.

I’m actually quite bright.

So as someone who is also unapologetic about standing up for myself (and I do apologize–to myself–for not getting to that place decades sooner):

Knock off calling me a “liberal moron.”   Call me a really smart liberal, because I am. I’m not bright because I’m liberal, nor the other way around. I’m smart because I happened to win that particular genetic lottery. I’m liberal for the same reason I’m shy, for the same reason I’m straight, for the same reason I’m hyper-sensitive, and for the same reason I’m passionate about the underdogs of the human and animal world: I just AM. And I don’t need to be cured, because liberalism isn’t an illness. I don’t need to be saved or changed because everything’s good. I release the entire world from the need to save my “liberal ass,” as a ‘pub friend once lovingly called it, from certain damnation. I would like you (once again, the nebulous “you,” not necessarily YOU) to stop calling me, and anyone else who disagrees with you for that matter, names.

That would be really courageous.

That would be really cool.

Peace, friends. Please?