Beautiful Minds

It is important to remember a few things while reading the following post. First of all, you are here on my blog. Some of these things you may agree with, some you may not. This is not the means of starting an argument with anyone. This is my opinion. These are my beliefs. This is me, and the words and feelings that my brain and my heart have me feel.
Secondly, this may sound like a vent session, but I can assure you that it is not. It is merely a "get these ideas out of my head so that I can stop secretly and quietly stewing over them". These are things that I feel have come up in conversation (either casual or otherwise) lately that have really been grinding my gears. If these people that offend and annoy me were reading my blog right now, I would want to tell them these things:


1. Who you vote for or support is a very personal choice. Selecting the candidate who is most like-minded in their thoughts, actions, and words is strongly based on your personal choices and feelings. Posting things on Facebook is not going to sway  my opinion, nor should it. Nobody cares about who you are voting for. Election is eight months away, why are you getting so fired up about it already? You don't know these people personally. Please stop promoting and defending them as if you do. If you push it on me I will hesitate, but eventually will snap. I try not to promote any type of political officials or ideals on social networking sites because I know how annoying it is. I will, however, shove it back in your face if need be.

2. Years ago I freed myself from the boundaries of organized religion. Since then, I have found such an intense ability to love others. I no longer pass judgements based off of a book, and I no longer feel that it is my responsibility to force my beliefs on anyone else "for their own good". Love is my religion - regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, careers, families, or choices. I have gained such an overwhelming understanding of the people I share this planet with and a love that cannot be described. Instead of seeing lines of separation, I only see what we share. We share a common desire to love and be loved. We want to provide safety, happiness and health to our families. We want to achieve our dreams, better ourselves, and we crave togetherness and friendship. It is important to embrace the things that make us unique. At the same time, it is important that we keep in mind all that we have in common. Dividing people up according to who does and who does not belong to your religion is something that I see happen everyday. It saddens me. This is especially true in children. I don't ever want to hear again that when coming home from school, my nephew was told by a friend that they could no longer play together since he did not attend church. Poisoning the minds of children is the most atrocious offense you can commit in my eyes. You may be really proud of yourself right now, but are you going to be proud 20 years from now when you see the kind of adult your child has grown in to? Children are not born with an ability to be intolerant, hateful, hurtful or judgemental. It is a horrible trait that is taught by adults who should know better.

3. Let's get one thing straight - affordable basic and preventative health care is something that every other country in the world has gotten the hang of. Why is it that we as Americans are so much against it? We are the richest country in the world and yet we push back against the idea of taking care of our most precious commodity: Each other. We claim to be a country founded on Christianity, and yet I see people going against some of the most basic concepts of Christianity. I am a little rusty on my religious text, but I only ever remember Jesus saying, "Bring me your sick, bring me your poor, bring me your hungry." Never once do I remember him quoted as saying, "I am not concerned about the very poor." As someone that has read the Affordable Health Care Act, I am struggling to see why anyone would be against it. Will we all have to pay a little? Yes. Will we all benefit from it? Absolutely. I have seen it in effect.
Because of it, my brother and sister are covered on my parents insurance.
Because of it, Mike will never be turned down again because of his pre-existing conditions.
Mother Teresa (whom I admire and quote more than anyone) said "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other".

4. Kids have sex, let's face the facts. Ignoring the matter will not make it go away. A certain governor of Alaska preached abstinence only in schools, and her own daughter got knocked up as a teenager. If that is not a prime example that this does not work, I don't know what is. Nearly every single member of my extended family was pregnant before they were married. Aunts, great aunts, cousins. I believe that a large part of that is due to the fact that we were all raised in a certain predominant religion here in Utah. Sex is taboo. Sex is a no-no. Sex is something that "nobody" talks about, and certainly "nobody" does. Riiiiiiiiiiight. You keep telling yourself that, since it has worked so well up until now.
The only thing we can do to protect these kids is to arm them with knowledge and protection. As in, the sexual kind of protection. That's right, I took it there. These same people that feel so strongly against birth control are the same people who are anti-abortion. Ever heard the phrase, "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure?" If these kids had the appropriate talks and education prior to taking those risks there would be no need for abortion at all. You cannot be anti-abortion AND anti-birth control at the same time. It's a simple matter, really. Here, I'll break it down in case said genius governor visits my blog:

+Birth control = -Unwanted baby
-Birth control = +unwanted baby = Abortion

Additionally, another potential Presidential candidate gave an interview in which he said that you must "...take the good with the bad. If you are a victim of rape, that is horrible and I am sorry. But you must embrace the gift that God has given you..." I am willing to bet that if his wife was impregnated by someone who raped her, he would be singing a different tune. I wish these men were taking a good, hard, honest look at the women in their lives and the consequences that choices they themselves are making may have on those women.
I don't know of any woman that would be able to live with the reminder of an experience like that every single day for almost a year.
I don't know any man who would be pleased at the idea of their wife carrying a rape-baby to term.

5. Americans are lucky, yes. We bitch and moan about our lives - a lot. We are arrogant, we are wasteful, and we suffer from a severe case of entitlement. I, too am guilty of these things. I think with all the freedoms and opportunity we enjoy, we have a responsibility to take care of everyone less fortunate. When I hear people say things like, "Why don't we take care of kids in American first?" first I get angry, and then my heart breaks. Your geographical location does not give you precedence over someone else who is living in dire situations. You show me somewhere in America where kids are stolen from their parents and forced into sexual slavery or to join an army. I dare you to show me somewhere in America that children die in their mothers arms, a sickly patch of flesh stretched over a frail skeleton covered in flies. I challenge you to show me a town in America where young girls have their genitals mutilated to encourage chastity. Where women enter into arranged marriages to men 30 years older than they are, where they are destined to live a life of brutal beatings, have no say in their fate, where they are told that if another man finds her attractive she is evil. If she is raped she is stoned for being a whore.

Remember what I said about "We want to provide safety, happiness and health to our families"? People who are moving here from other countries to do just that are not less entitled to be here that we are. People moving North from Mexico, Chile, Argentina, or just about anywhere else in Southern America should not be called "Aliens" or "Immigrants". To me, they are people hoping to escape the violence and corruption of the drug cartels. They are sacrificing their homes and everything they love to find opportunity elsewhere. Their children are starving. If you look up that description, I believe that would make them a refugee. Don't snicker because they are here providing for their family back home. Don't roll your eyes if they stand outside Home Depot looking for work.  Be proud that you live somewhere that offers others opportunities to better their lives and the lives of their families. Be loving in assisting them to achieve their goals. Be understanding, knowing that they are hundreds of miles away from everything that they know and love.

If you're reading this and feeling embarrassed that you may be one of the people I'm secretly steaming about, don't. (The people in question, even though they are my relatives, do not read anything I write since I am the "crazy, liberal, godless rebel"). Like I said, if they were reading, I would tell them mostly to knock it off. I'm about to blow your mind with this one: Facebook is not real life. You are not better than anyone else. Judging people in the name of God is not ok - you are still judging. Most of all, don't strut around feeling proud of yourself because you showed up on Sunday and turned in your 10%. Actions speak louder than words, and everyone is watching.

Gandhi laid out the guidelines for our behavior. We just need to make sure to avoid the 7 deadly social sins.

Politics without Principle
Wealth without Work

Pleasure without Conscience
Knowledge without Character
Commerce without Morality
Science without Humanity
Worship without Sacrifice

One of the best things about being human is that we are all allowed to have different opinions and values. We all have brains that process information differently. We measure life differently. Every mind is beautiful in how it absorbs life experiences and somehow processes it and spits it out in the form of an idea or a feeling. The most astounding part about being human  is that we have the potential to all get along - despite our differences in opinion. We can argue, we can fight, and at the same time we can love and we can accept if we open our mind to the possibility. And that, my friends, is a truly beautiful thing.