because this is our history in the south. this is what this little girl was taught about black people.
i've never taken a picture of it, but one of the towns we pass through an hour or so from our beloved port st. joe says "this is conservative country, liberals pass on through."
another says something worse.
hate speech inspires violence.
it is through dehumanization of our enemies that we allow ourselves to commit atrocities against them.
the nazis are the favorite example, but there are so many others. in our own country, it was the tribal people whose land we were taking as well as black people. it was chinese people who were exposable labor on the transcontinental railroad. it is muslim and gay and transgender people today.
it is not an american problem. it is a problem of evil unchecked.
anytime a group of people are designated less than human, their lives are forfeit.
i am a political liberal.
that is enough in our country today to make me the enemy.
it defines me.
i believe i'm a progressive. i believe in progress based on knowledge. it doesn't undermine my faith to know that the earth is round. it doesn't undermine my faith to study how the bible was assembled. it doesn't undermine my faith to understand that gender and sexual orientation is a matter of biology and not choice.
and it's okay that not everyone believes the way that i do.
it's not okay to say that someone who believes differently is less than human.
i guess i'm an innocent.
i thought the days of such blatant racism was over.
i thought not spouting racism openly was not only politically correct. i thought it was right.
i still do.
i want racism to be wrong again.
my problems with donald trump is not that he is a republican.
we've had republicans in power who have put policies into place that i feel hurt our country... ronald reagan starting economic policies that favored rich over poor, george bush who destabilized the middle east.
i've had problems with democrats, too. barak obama's use of drones, bill clinton's nafta treaty that left workers in mexico in unsafe conditions.
donald trump attacks a free press.
donald trump attacks women and brags about it.
donald trump invited russia to hack hilary clinton's emails.
donald trump attacks canada.... good grief!
donald trump praises those who attack journalists and his political opponents.
this isn't about political parties.
so even though my beloved adopted home town has been devastated by the third worst hurricane in our history, it's not what worries me the most... except that 98% of scientist agree that climate change plays a huge role in what happened to us.
we're living on our screened porch (and very grateful to have it). we have lost precious and irreplaceable things. but we're going to be okay.
i can't say that for so many of my neighbors.
i have great neighbors.
i haven't been around such wonderful people since we traveled to canada (even quebec)
and they mostly are republicans.
that doesn't define them.
that's why politics are so important to me. something is happening now that is more important than politics, but that was the vehicle.
i want politics to go back to policies.
