It's no secret I started this blog after I my front page privileges were revoked at Left in Alabama. It's also no secret I've been "carping and whining" about being treated unfairly. What does surprise me is those who say I don't have the right(no pun) to carp and whine, and that I should just STFU, get over it and move on. Now some of the people who are saying this don't know me and I don't know them, but some of the people who are saying this DO know me and I know them, so I'm surprised they would think I would not stand up for my rights, my reputation and just go quietly into that good night.
For those of you who don't know me, let me give you some background information to offer insight about who I am and what I stand for, and why I carp and whine when I am treated unfairly.
I was born in a segregated Alabama Army base hospital the same year Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery,Alabama, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott. My life was colored (pun intended)with the sometimes violent historical struggle for equal, civil and human rights not just in Alabama but in the United States of America.
I was raised by parents who taught me I had the same rights and privileges as my fellow Americans, but because of the color of my skin there were those who wanted to deny my rights. They said I should always fight for my rights because fighting for my rights meant I was fighting for other African Americans rights as well.
I was raised in a church that taught me Jesus loves the little children, red, and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight. So yes, I'm one of those uppity African Americans who knows I have equal rights and is willing to fight for them.
My parents were active and involved in the civil rights movement, so when it came time to integrate one of local schools high schools in 1967 I was volunteered, I mean chosen, to be one of 10 African American students, one male and one female, to enroll in the 7th grade. We were trained to practice the principle of non violent social change and civil disobedience espoused by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Meaning we wouldn't retaliate when when we were called names, pushed, shoved, tripped or had bleach thrown on our clothes. I sometimes wonder if things wouldn't have been different if they had chosen those who would have retaliated, but I digress.
Which brings me back to why I carp and whine about being treated unfairly and how it relates to my privileges and my user name being revoked at Left in Alabama. Being one of 10 African Americans in the whole school, and the only African American female in the 7th grade was lonely. It didn't start out that way. On the first day of school I was befriended by a fellow new student who happened to be white. As she made friends, I made friends and everything was great until one day a mean girl who couldn't get past the color of my skin started calling her a N word lover. In addition to that some of the teachers took it upon themselves to notify the parents of the girls who befriended me and inform them they were associating with me.
So, one day I had friends, the next day they were telling me their parents said they couldn't be my friend any more. When I asked why, the mean girl said "because you're a N word and decent people don't associate with N words". Things went down hill from there, I often tell people I'm the worlds best square dancer because I can square dance by myself. The PE teacher taught square dancing but wouldn't make any of the students be my partner because they would have to hold my hand.
I didn't whine when students harassed me and those in authority looked the other way. I didn't carp about sitting along in a sea of confederate flags while the band played Dixie at official school functions. I didn't carp and whine then because I believed future me's wouldn't have to whine and carp. That's why it pains me that I'm still carping and whining and why I wish with all my heart I didn't have too.
I don't like carping and whining about being treated unfairly, but if I must I must. It continues to amaze me that those who call themselves progressives/democrats are the ones that gave me something to carp and whine about because I thought we were on the same side.
That wasn't the apparent message of Democrats that the other guys are a lot worse than us, that's what YOU helped frame the message to be. And we didn't nominate candidate who looked and campaigned just like the loosing candidates in previous years because democrats WON in previous years. You and Countrycat were right (pun intended) all right, you supported and endorsed the losing candidate who pandered to the right at the expense of the traditional democratic base, and suppressed voices like mine who were crying in the wilderness, in favor of the moderate/conservative voices, just like the mean girl who couldn't stand to see progress at school and those in authority who enabled her by looking the other way.
I am respectfully requesting my user name and posting privileges be restored at Left in Alabama so that will be one less issue I will have to carp and whine about in the coming year. It is important that we progressives/liberals/democrats/Americans unite behind our party and our platform because divided we fall. When all the fingers on the hand work together they form a mighty fist. Remember?
End the end we will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends~Martin Luther King, Jr.
For those of you who don't know me, let me give you some background information to offer insight about who I am and what I stand for, and why I carp and whine when I am treated unfairly.
I was born in a segregated Alabama Army base hospital the same year Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery,Alabama, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott. My life was colored (pun intended)with the sometimes violent historical struggle for equal, civil and human rights not just in Alabama but in the United States of America.
I was raised by parents who taught me I had the same rights and privileges as my fellow Americans, but because of the color of my skin there were those who wanted to deny my rights. They said I should always fight for my rights because fighting for my rights meant I was fighting for other African Americans rights as well.
I was raised in a church that taught me Jesus loves the little children, red, and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight. So yes, I'm one of those uppity African Americans who knows I have equal rights and is willing to fight for them.
My parents were active and involved in the civil rights movement, so when it came time to integrate one of local schools high schools in 1967 I was volunteered, I mean chosen, to be one of 10 African American students, one male and one female, to enroll in the 7th grade. We were trained to practice the principle of non violent social change and civil disobedience espoused by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Meaning we wouldn't retaliate when when we were called names, pushed, shoved, tripped or had bleach thrown on our clothes. I sometimes wonder if things wouldn't have been different if they had chosen those who would have retaliated, but I digress.
Which brings me back to why I carp and whine about being treated unfairly and how it relates to my privileges and my user name being revoked at Left in Alabama. Being one of 10 African Americans in the whole school, and the only African American female in the 7th grade was lonely. It didn't start out that way. On the first day of school I was befriended by a fellow new student who happened to be white. As she made friends, I made friends and everything was great until one day a mean girl who couldn't get past the color of my skin started calling her a N word lover. In addition to that some of the teachers took it upon themselves to notify the parents of the girls who befriended me and inform them they were associating with me.
So, one day I had friends, the next day they were telling me their parents said they couldn't be my friend any more. When I asked why, the mean girl said "because you're a N word and decent people don't associate with N words". Things went down hill from there, I often tell people I'm the worlds best square dancer because I can square dance by myself. The PE teacher taught square dancing but wouldn't make any of the students be my partner because they would have to hold my hand.
I didn't whine when students harassed me and those in authority looked the other way. I didn't carp about sitting along in a sea of confederate flags while the band played Dixie at official school functions. I didn't carp and whine then because I believed future me's wouldn't have to whine and carp. That's why it pains me that I'm still carping and whining and why I wish with all my heart I didn't have too.
I don't like carping and whining about being treated unfairly, but if I must I must. It continues to amaze me that those who call themselves progressives/democrats are the ones that gave me something to carp and whine about because I thought we were on the same side.
Countrycat and I and several others have felt like voices crying in the wilderness as we warned that the apparent message of Democrats in the Legislature -- "The other guys are a lot worse than us!" -- was a sure loser and that nominating candidates who looked and campaigned just like the (losing) candidates in previous years was a recipe for disaster. Turns out we were right. It sucks to be right, but I don't think that means we'll be less influential in the future or are struggling for relevance. In some ways blogging in opposition to the majority is going to be a lot easier -- much less concern about friendly fire incidents, if you know what I mean.
That wasn't the apparent message of Democrats that the other guys are a lot worse than us, that's what YOU helped frame the message to be. And we didn't nominate candidate who looked and campaigned just like the loosing candidates in previous years because democrats WON in previous years. You and Countrycat were right (pun intended) all right, you supported and endorsed the losing candidate who pandered to the right at the expense of the traditional democratic base, and suppressed voices like mine who were crying in the wilderness, in favor of the moderate/conservative voices, just like the mean girl who couldn't stand to see progress at school and those in authority who enabled her by looking the other way.
I am respectfully requesting my user name and posting privileges be restored at Left in Alabama so that will be one less issue I will have to carp and whine about in the coming year. It is important that we progressives/liberals/democrats/Americans unite behind our party and our platform because divided we fall. When all the fingers on the hand work together they form a mighty fist. Remember?
End the end we will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends~Martin Luther King, Jr.
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