Ramblings of Insomnia
I had been lying in bed for an hour or so just staring at the red light on my TV. I have a lot of thoughts rolling around in my brain and I felt like I needed to write some of them down. I feel so troubled by everything that has occurred in our world over the past few weeks/months. I hate that the new topic of conversation among my students is a threat from a terrorist group on Washington D.C. I have been trying to assure them that our world is sort of like Men In Black right now. "There is always going to be some Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that's about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they do not know about it!" (Agent K) I want them to be able to live their lives without worrying about those threats.
That quote has resonated with me...as cheesy as it may sound. As soon as we hear news that someone has officially threatened our country, we lose our minds. It would be foolish of us to think that these threats don't occur on a daily basis. Ignorance truly is bliss when it comes to this stuff. I just wish that instead of spreading fear, hate, and violence, we could find a way to try to keep living in spite of it all.
It makes me sick that people are so adamant about rejecting refugees to our country based on the fact that we have "too many homeless vets" or "our own issues to deal with." I truly feel like we, as a society, have forgotten the golden rule to treat others how you would want to be treated. If you started thinking of those vets, refugees, etc. as your own family members, perhaps you would have a different outlook. You can call me a bleeding heart liberal and I will wear that badge proudly. I don't consider myself truly a left or right political sympathizer, but I am certainly more socially liberal than others. All I know is that if it was me, my grandparents, my parents, my sister, my brother, my in-laws, I would hope and pray that people would accept us into their country, their home, and provide us with a safe place to stay until we could figure out what to do. It breaks my heart to see children and families sleeping in the woods with only the clothes on their backs so that they can escape a place that is so terrifying they can't exist there anymore. A friend of mine stated it well the other day. We can't compare our own issues to those international issues. We CAN help both the homeless people in our country AND the refugees...we can, we should, and we MUST do both. (Thanks Linwood!)
I can't imagine writing someone off for the fear that they may or may not believe the same thing that I do religiously. I'm pretty positive that when Jesus was around, he didn't go around hating everyone who didn't believe in him. He stuck by the sinners, the leppers, the poor, the downtrodden. I can't stand that we get on these moral high horses based on our religion or our social status our race, or any other ridiculous pedestal we put ourselves on. We are no better than the person sitting next to us if we are going to shun someone based on these things. Am I a Christian? Yes, but is that the only way I want to be defined as a human being? No. I would hope that you are not defined solely by your race, religion, country of origin, political party, etc. I wish that we could start looking within people instead of on the surface. We are complex creatures with a lot of complicated feelings. We need to start spreading kindness and tolerance, not fear and hate.
I took one of my students to the Holocaust Museum this summer. While she and I were there, I just prayed silently that our future generations would not ever have to experience anything like this again; however, I am starting to see it unfold. Maybe not on the same scale, but it certainly doesn't seem like we have learned from our mistakes as human beings. That is the scariest thought of all to me. I just want to see people come together instead of trying to rip one another apart. There has to be a compromise in all of this and there has to be a way to not let those trying to spread fear, hate and terror win. I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that I am going to choose kindness. I am going to try to be a better person than I was yesterday and I would encourage everyone else out there to do the same.
That quote has resonated with me...as cheesy as it may sound. As soon as we hear news that someone has officially threatened our country, we lose our minds. It would be foolish of us to think that these threats don't occur on a daily basis. Ignorance truly is bliss when it comes to this stuff. I just wish that instead of spreading fear, hate, and violence, we could find a way to try to keep living in spite of it all.
It makes me sick that people are so adamant about rejecting refugees to our country based on the fact that we have "too many homeless vets" or "our own issues to deal with." I truly feel like we, as a society, have forgotten the golden rule to treat others how you would want to be treated. If you started thinking of those vets, refugees, etc. as your own family members, perhaps you would have a different outlook. You can call me a bleeding heart liberal and I will wear that badge proudly. I don't consider myself truly a left or right political sympathizer, but I am certainly more socially liberal than others. All I know is that if it was me, my grandparents, my parents, my sister, my brother, my in-laws, I would hope and pray that people would accept us into their country, their home, and provide us with a safe place to stay until we could figure out what to do. It breaks my heart to see children and families sleeping in the woods with only the clothes on their backs so that they can escape a place that is so terrifying they can't exist there anymore. A friend of mine stated it well the other day. We can't compare our own issues to those international issues. We CAN help both the homeless people in our country AND the refugees...we can, we should, and we MUST do both. (Thanks Linwood!)
I can't imagine writing someone off for the fear that they may or may not believe the same thing that I do religiously. I'm pretty positive that when Jesus was around, he didn't go around hating everyone who didn't believe in him. He stuck by the sinners, the leppers, the poor, the downtrodden. I can't stand that we get on these moral high horses based on our religion or our social status our race, or any other ridiculous pedestal we put ourselves on. We are no better than the person sitting next to us if we are going to shun someone based on these things. Am I a Christian? Yes, but is that the only way I want to be defined as a human being? No. I would hope that you are not defined solely by your race, religion, country of origin, political party, etc. I wish that we could start looking within people instead of on the surface. We are complex creatures with a lot of complicated feelings. We need to start spreading kindness and tolerance, not fear and hate.
I took one of my students to the Holocaust Museum this summer. While she and I were there, I just prayed silently that our future generations would not ever have to experience anything like this again; however, I am starting to see it unfold. Maybe not on the same scale, but it certainly doesn't seem like we have learned from our mistakes as human beings. That is the scariest thought of all to me. I just want to see people come together instead of trying to rip one another apart. There has to be a compromise in all of this and there has to be a way to not let those trying to spread fear, hate and terror win. I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that I am going to choose kindness. I am going to try to be a better person than I was yesterday and I would encourage everyone else out there to do the same.
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