Expat rantings...may be offensive.. : )

I'm an expat, an expatriate.  I am a person that is voluntarily choosing to live outside my home country, my home culture.  Right now, I'm pretty glad for that.  To be honest - I don't like politics and this time of year, elections looming, mud-slinging, good television being interrupted for speeches and debates, it's not my favorite.  Before I am judged, before you tell my it's my responsibility as an American to follow along and cast my vote, just wait.  I agree.  I shouldn't complain or whine unless I am willing to step up, right?  That's why I'm glad to be over here - not only am I able to watch from a distance and choose to be as involved or uninvolved as I want, I really can't do much.  I'm off the hook.  It's a lazy approach, but right now, it's the right approach for me.

I love America - but it is flawed.  (Everywhere is.  No place is perfect.)  In the not too distant past the leaders of our country felt that they were right and justified in running America like a boys club - meaning that only boys, and only boys in the club, could vote and participate in forming our country.  Women wear essentially bullied, right?  Their voice was not allowed to be heard.  Fighting ensued and women won the right to vote and make contributions.  The boys club, reluctantly, became the boys and girls club.  Now these members of our nation did their thing for a bit until the next group that was being bullied - people of color - stood up, spoke out, and won the right to join the boys and girls club.  Our nation was a better place for both battles and both victories.  Instead of a bland, single flavor nation ran by like minded men, we were well on our way to becoming a great and colorful nation.

Here's where I think we are largely flawed.  We didn't learn from our mistakes the first or the second time.  Leadership tried to minimize the the rights of women.  Women fought, won, and our country improved.  Leadership should have learned then - let's not discriminate against a people because they don't fit our mold.  But they didn't and we did the same thing again with African Americans.  Same story, different players, the oppressed group wins and our country improves.  Same lesson to be learned - let's not discriminate, but embrace!  Let's grow.

Did we learn?  Nope.  We are having the same battle now.  Same story, different players yet again.  It's like a revolving cast...The current boys and girls club that is running America thinks that they are exactly what we all should be.  So, they are bullying and oppressing - again. This time the oppressed group is the LGTB group.  Lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, I guess you don't fit the mold.  Because you are different from the kids in the club you don't get the same rights.  American people are spending time - so much precious time, oppressing a group that is different.  We did this once, twice before.  It didn't work either of those times and I hope to high heaven it doesn't work this time either.  As one of my English students said to me, "Love is love."  Bob wants to marry Dan?  Sarah and Sally?  Awesome, I hope they invite me because I bet that wedding will be a heck of a party.  My marriage is meaningful.  Allowing any two people that love each other to have that same beauty in their lives certainly does not diminish the beauty in mine.

A final note - I have friends that have chosen to follow religion and the bible and stand firmly on a belief (I will not say their belief because I question how many people have actually made this choice for themselves) that homosexuality is a sin.  In that belief, they maintain that gay marriage, gay adoptions, equal rights, these things cannot happen.  Here's what I have to say to that.  My (biological) father, he has equal rights to all the members of the boys and girls club.  He can marry freely, adopt or procreate at will.  But you know what?  He's a pedofile.  His kind of "love" has ruined and tarnished many more lives that Bob and Dan's love ever could.  I say give the members of the LGTB community all of his rights and strip him down.  If we want to bully a group, let's bully him and all his buddies.

Just my thought of the day...


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