Opening Facebook these days feels like I'm submitting myself through personal torture.
Gone are the days that I feel like I could relish in the lives of friends and loved ones as they hit milestone accomplishments and shared sweet happenings from their lives. I once adored Facebook. I loved seeing what the people I loved or were acquainted with were doing. I was never much of a TV fan so social media was my reality series.
Instead, it seems as if it has been replaced by misery; misery in the form of crude oppositional comments, disgruntlement over the economy and understaffed business and just overall hate. My own mother even using Facebook to either negatively respond to something, claim she's going to "whoop someone's ass" because she's such a "badass" (side note: not a badass at all, the only thing she's good at in that sense is elevating her own blood pressure) or to make inadvertent posts towards any of the 1,453 people that will piss her off in the course of the day instead of talking to them and communicating with them like any normal adult would.
(Typically those posts are directed towards me, but I've learned I honestly don't give a flying f*&$. Toxicity isn't something I respect anymore.)
This morning, whilst nestled comfortably onto the toilet, I opened Facebook and gave it a good scroll. Our City office posted a simple, rookie edited photo letting the town know that the offices would be closed Monday, June 20th, in observance of Juneteenth.
Cue the bigotry.
I live in a town with a population of roughly 19,800 people. John Mellencamp sang about the "Small Town" he was born to back in 1951, but this city seems to really have been coming alive in the last decade or so. I'm sure if John was teetering on ideas for his next banger he could use titles like "Visited the Midsized City Today" or "Population A'Rising".
Many of the individuals here are stereotypical; stereotypical in the sense that they're "proud rednecks" (their words, not mine). These stereotypes often fly Trump flags on the back of their red, white and blue spray painted trucks, do an astronomical amount of side work as their only form of income and evade paying taxes but preach how Republican the system should be, come into the bank and get pissed because their disability checks were going to hit on Monday and not Friday, spout off on a 15 year old working in the McDonalds drive through because they didn't have mayo on their McDouble...
You get where I'm going with this.
So imagine the flurry of comments underneath that simple city post. Let me just provide you with some of the lesser insulting:
(I couldn't help it. Let me have my dick moment.)
Now get this. As I'm writing this, I want you to know that I was once heavily swayed by Republican virtues, and still am on some positions. For many of my younger years I would vote Republican straight ticket. I was born and raised in a Lutheran home, spending 8 years in a Lutheran elementary/middle school. I also love my firearms and my freedoms. I've got most of the ingredients of a stereotype, I know.
As an adult, I'm starting to understand that basic human decency and compassion outweighs ANY party's views or stances. And what's really crazy about all of this is that there's this never talked about stigma around basic compassion and decency; like if you're kind, compassionate or understand both sides of the fence that you're this poor, weak, helpless 😸. And that you're an overly liberal Democrat.
I don't understand it.
Juneteenth is basically a celebration that points to the end of slavery, right? I can't claim I'm this major history buff, because I'm not, but I understand that for this day we mark the end of slavery in the United States as we knew it.
So why aren't we all ok with recognizing this day? Why isn't this a powerful day for everyone in the United States?
Imagine slavery being in your ancestry, as it is for many people. Imagine that somewhere along your ancestral lineage that one of your ancestors were stolen, sold, bought and used for bartering to perform inhumane tasks in horrendous conditions. A human life. An individual.
You know, much like sex trafficking if a simple mind needs further perspective.
Now imagine the liberation one should feel living in 2022, especially if there is slavery in the lineage. Our very core American values were built on the virtues of freedom. Our National Anthem boasts that we are the land of the free - yet it seems like no one can act on these freedoms because the "Land of the Free" has this large, stereotypical set of individuals who believe color is actually a political opposition.
Mind. Blown.
Here we are, this small town, screaming from the trailer tops that our freedom is the most important thing we have. We're spray painting cardboard boxes and posting it in our poorly manicured yards to share it with others, we're draping grammatically incorrect flags from the interstate overpasses to proclaim it - so why are we so pissed that the city is choosing to observe this newly formed federal holiday when it solely marks one of the biggest events of freedom in American history?
You gotta sewer bill to pay on that specific day? Need to talk to the Mayor? LOL
For the love of God we recognize the birthday of George Washington as a federal holiday.
I don't know, maybe it's because of this heat index or the fact that I'm like 1 day away from what I can already tell is going to be a Shark Week period - but I'm so disappointed in people today.
All I can hope is that the values that Josh and I are teaching our own kids help in some way one day. Listen, I know we're not top tier parents by any means (hell, I picked my kids up from their Lutheran school days listening to unedited Dr. Dre songs), but we want them to be strong, determined, motivated and outspoken at the same time we want them to be reasonable, level headed, compassionate, kind and understanding individuals. We want them to attend meetings and events in which they can speak their minds to what they believe - but speak it in a sense that they're careful of hateful or degrading context.
To just be kind.
And I hope they have friends of all colors, religions, orientations and walks of life. So many are quick to point to the Bible to reprimand anyone that doesn't fit into a singular sub-category of religious standards, but forget the overall context of the Bible is to create a compassionate world where we're told not to sin, and given advice on how not to sin, but to know it's inevitable because of that b*tch Eve and that as long as we try to correct our wrongs and operate by compassionate standards, that we're all equal.
Every. Single. One. Of. Us.
And I hope they get to experience that type of world one day.
