I am going to rant today. It is my blog, and I can, so please stop reading now if you don't want to hear my point of view. I forgive you. Carry on.
I have seen several videos and blogs go viral this week. People passing them around like some kind of new online drug, and feeling quite indignant, or conversely, motivated, to let people know they are upset or in support of something or other.
Rush Limbaugh is a tool. He is a radio personality shock-jock. He has supporters who listen and live his every word. He has people who hate him. There are those who really think his message is clear and to the point and needs to be the way everyone sees it. Others think he is a bigot and a racist, and now, apparently, hates women, birth-control, and everything related to any person who speaks their mind, himself excluded of course. And the fact that this is shocking to people is all the more reason to do it, duh. I can understand. It is upsetting to hear demeaning words. It is a total mind-fuck to think they are true. It is shameful in it's acceptance. So what to do about it?
Joseph Kony is a tool. He is the leader of a hatred filled rebellion group in Uganda called the LRA. This group, on a regular basis, kills adults, rapes little girls, and forcibly recruits little boys to serve in their army. The little boys are either beat or drugged into compliance. Some of the people who follow him see him as the Messiah. Others think he is Satan incarnate. He has people who listen and live his every word. He has people who hate him. The children and people of Uganda are fearful. It is upsetting to see the video of the conditions in which the citizens live. It is a total mind-fuck to think it is true. It is shameful in it's acceptance. So what to do about it?
Here is the rant part of the post. While I hate the words that Rush Limbaugh is spouting, I offer that he is allowed to say what ever the hell he feels like saying. We give him the power to shock us by ignoring that many people feel the same as he does. They have for years. Women have been told over and over that their place is behind men. We have accepted lower pay for equal work. We have accepted crappy child care so we could. We have let a right wing portion of the bible belt tell us that an unwanted pregnancy for any reason means that you are to be condemned. Yes, condemned, either to live the life of parenting outside of a desired time frame, or to be labeled as a murderer. We have let clergy molest our children and still ask them for spiritual guidance. We have let out elderly parents send their money to the Home Shopping Network and scam artists and mega-churches. We let drug dealers on our streets and in our schools. Who the hell let Rush Limbaugh have a voice? Oh yeah, that would be us.
I hate the actions of Joseph Kony, but I offer that he is allowed to believe whatever the hell he feels like believing. We gave him the power to have us believe that he is god. We have for years. We accepted that not only Uganda, but many parts of Africa have resources we desire, and we let whomever can deliver them to us be in charge. It was blood diamonds in Sierra-Leone and Zimbabwe. It is gold in the southern parts. It is petroleum in Nigeria and, as we all know, Libya. Women in Senegal are dying during child birth because it is not uncommon for girls to get pregnant at age 13 with "husbands" who are in their 30s. They are trafficked there because Senegal is at least stable enough that a life of enforced sexual domination is better than starvation in another African country. So who the hell let Joseph Kony have a voice? Oh yeah, that again , would be us.
So, for the unaware, let's count all the things going on in the world that we pay little or no attention to. We put pretty rings and earrings on from diamonds mined by children in Africa. We drink coffee harvested by children in Colombia. We wear clothes sewn by children in China. There are people starving, women and children being trafficked, men made into killing machines, elderly eating cat food, four year olds being given drugs, dogs being beaten and starved, pink slime being fed to school-lunch recipients, money being laundered, executives getting rich, homeless people with signs asking for beer, skinny models being held as the beauty standard, marriage equality being ignored, teenagers committing suicide over being mercilessly bullied, and snakes being held up while people calling themselves Christian talk in tongues and stockpile weapons. I can't get my ex-husband to show up for co-parent counseling, and I have no money most months to pay my water bill. Which one of the world's problems would you like me to solve first by hitting the "like" button on Facebook?
I want to have the world be better. I would like ass-hats like Rush Limbaugh to stop spouting what he is saying. I would like it more if the people who are listening would just stop giving him the power. I believe in people. I know that most people know the difference between what is right and what is easy, and given the actual choice, will pick what is right. The same goes for Joseph Kony. I would like to hope the video means an end to his reign. I would like it more if no-one was there to pick up his banner, and that from the beginning of the quest for things and power, people will pick what is right the first time. I have no guns to shoot these men in the head. I don't think I have the stomach for taking their lives either. Do you? It is complicated, isn't it?
Instead I will do the best I can do today. I will teach my children and love them and hold them close. I will be there as they fall, and are confused, and succeed, and love, and hate, and make mistakes. I will side with them in things that are right, because giving them hope is all I have. Maybe they will be the ones with the ideas that make real change. Maybe I can start, in small steps, by not buying a diamond and by remembering to look at labels. I can write letters and seek justice as I always have, and leave the violence to those that haven't learned from history yet. Baby steps with education. Yep that is all I can do today. What can you do?
