Happy Sunday my Lovelies!
The 4th of July holiday weekend is coming to a close and some inconsiderate people in my neighborhood still shooting off fireworks at 2 AM! Let them tell it they are free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as they are not physically harming anyone. It never ceases to amaze me how people in general feel and think that their wants, desires and personal freedom to do as they please trumps the personal liberties of others. That these rights are ingrained and owed to them by birth. I have had this blog posting brewing in my head for quite a while and have been waiting for the right time to unleash it upon you, the unsuspecting public. On the 4th seemed too cliché and not the right time to stand on my soap box. Today however is more mellow and I normally post off the wall things on a Sundays, so here goes.
Time and time again we as people, human beings, force our will upon others in the name of many things: God, religion (which is wholly separate from God), work, politics, etc. We, as His creation, were endowed with the gift of free will. We have the ability to choose exactly what we want to do and not do, go and not go within our preconceived boundaries. In America we have more liberty and freedom than most across the globe, freedoms and liberties granted and guaranteed to us by The Constitution. Yet some of us take advantage of these noble and fragile freedoms and take liberties that border on offensive and then hide behind the protection of said Constitution.
Recent memory recalls the POTUS being called a monkey, a derisive and pejorative term that sickens me, and the perpetrator and those who agreed with and propagated the usage, hid behind the First Amendment. I was raised in a way that said that even though I may not like the person who holds the office, I will respect the office itself. I couldn’t stand Bush or anything he did or stood for, however he was my President and I respected him as such. The disheartening thing is that people feel that it is their God-given right to say whatever they want, that just by being born they are ingrained with the ability to do as they see fit. Not so! The freedoms that they espouse are in no way free, they are not doled out just because you were born in or live in this country or its territories. Many, many, many people have laid down and died just for the notion of freedom, never experiencing it themselves. Go to any other non-democratic country and spew off some of the caustic, disrespectful and asinine things that you say and do and see if those same freedoms you hide behind are still in force. You will end up disappearing, never to be seen or heard from again. If I see one more “Sceed” bumper sticker I literally might pitch a fit on the freeway! Take a page from our country’s history and that of other nations when they chose to pull away from the union. All those things that you take for granted: driving on paved and maintained roads, eating cereal on Saturday morning, PBS, Unemployment Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, county hospitals that won’t turn you away when you can’t afford private private care for non-emergent issues, travel to other countries with the protection of the Consulate, will be no more. Only then will you realize and appreciate that which you dogged so vehemently.
I love my country and honor and respect those who served, fought and died so that I can write this. My great grandparents weren’t born with the right to vote, to hold property, to speak in public, to rally against the system that told them that they were less than. They weren’t even considered people, they were chattel per the same Constitution that says that I do and can have all of those things they longed for, My grandparents didn’t even always have the right to vote and feared Jim Crow more than the enemy himself and his minions. Respect that your rights, the freedom that you enjoy and flout, is coated with the the blood and sorrow of those who wished they could partake of the same; And tinged with the hopes and dreams of those who are fighting right now just to have a choice and a say in how they live their lives.
I’m off my soapbox now and will pack it away… until next time that is…
Blessings and Happiness Always
T. Nicole
Blessings and Happiness
T. Nicole
T. Nicole's Graham Cracker Crumbs 
A Retardation of Progess
Happy Sunday my Lovelies!
My heart is heavy today as are many, many others. We all know of the travesty and miscarriage of justice that occurred on last night and for the sake of my poor eyes, swollen from crying, I won’t rehash every horrible detail or the trial in its entirety. But it is time that I say those things and put into words the sentiment that I know is shared among us all.
What has happened in the last few weeks has negated all the years of moving forward that we thought we had made. The Supreme Court struck down the most important parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, asserting that our country has come so far that racism is no longer an issue, especially in the South. Lies and untruths! Racism is still as active and alive as it was during Jim Crow, it just isn’t as overt as it used to be. Those bigots that discriminated against and mistreated minorities during Jim Crow had children and some of them unfortunately were raised with and embraced the hateful rhetoric of their parents. They in turn had children and the cycle continues unabated. Not everyone raised under this oppressive and bigoted environment accepted this hateful stance on others as the gospel and forged knowledge of their own.
Nonetheless, I can attest that even at my young age I have been discriminated against,. I’ve been called a nigger to my face during my freshman year of college at a well-known and respected university in College Station, TX. I’ve been pulled over at night driving through the back streets to my house just because I’m Black in a non-minority-based neighborhood. I’ve been in a store in a predominantly white neighborhood and had someone assume that I worked there rather than being there to shop like them.
*So it went that a woman came up to me and said, “Can you get me this (pushing a blouse at me) in a bigger size?” I nicely and promptly informed her that I didn’t work at the store and she blinked at me in disbelief with her face turned up and stammered, “Oh… I just assumed…”. I said nothing, smiled, and walked away. In my car, I just sat contemplating the fact that there are still those who believe that someone who looks like me should be automatically assumed to be “the help” and in a position of servitude. *
It wasn’t so long ago that James Byrd, Jr. Was dragged to death in Jasper, TX by a group of white supremacists. Treyvon Martin was targeted and murdered simply for being young, Black, and in a predominantly white neighborhood. Nine (9) southern states can change their voting laws, including the ability to enact voter ID requirements, without being subject to federal oversight. We have retarded our progress forward and toward equality. I am fearful not only for our youth, and our children but also us as adults. It is a liability to be who and what God created me to be. Meditate on that.
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Posted by grahamcrackercrumbs09 on July 14, 2013 in Grinds My Gears, Social Commentary
Tags: current-events, hate, human-rights, Justice, Politics, racism, Social Commentary, society, Treyvon Martin, Voting Rights Act