This is a continuation and conclusion to my last post because I had a lot of thoughts on the matter of atrocities, and there's a few articles I wanted to link to as well. This country is currently in the middle of something far more than a bit of a sticky wicket, that's for sure. And at what point does it go from being far removed news to something that's been plucked out of history that tells us how wrong we were? So, that screen capture up there was circulated through my feed the other day, except there is one glaring omission. The Boarding Schools. And while it doesn't pertain to the US, but that of Canada, The Lost (or Stolen) Generation. Those are completely different than the Trail of Tears, and most people know nothing about these events. Hell, most people still do not even know all that much (or anything at all) about the Japanese Internment Camps, even though George Takei is trying to get that out there in every way that he knows how. But, since I've titled this with a quote from those horrible boarding schools, we'll talk Indigenous Peoples first. So, you basically have Europeans, then Europeans as newly minted Americans, thinking that the "Savage Indians" are burdensome and completely in the way of expansion and conquest. A fly in the ointment of "glorious" White Domination. They were promised that if they were to act more "civilized" like white people, then they'd be left alone. Some tribes did that and still got the shaft; being killed and their lands taken away. And that was in the beginning, before Europeans had even crossed over the Appalachian Mountain range. More of this and then the "brilliant" solution of just forcing their relocation further out into lands that didn't technically belong to the fairly new America. This is the Trail of Tears. I'm not saying it's not an atrocity, as it most certainly is, but unlike my last post of Nazi Concentration Camps, or that of the enslaved Africans having their children ripped from them and sold, or that of the Boarding Schools or The Lost Generation, it's not technically the same as the current situation here in the states; that of families being separated; children being separated from their parents or locked away. If we're talking atrocities in general, then absolutely include the US Army, under then President Jackson's orders, rounding up whole tribes of Indigenous Peoples and forcing them on a death march far into what is now Oklahoma. However, families weren't forcefully separated in this terrible tragedy. As far as the Cherokee nation goes, as per their story of the events, they were all rounded up and marched for days, but coming to a particular valley, some broke away and ran back home and hid deep in the mountains. Some fought off the Army, some people of these tribes were able to hide and not be taken in the first place or were able to break free en route. Most however, died along the way from exhaustion, disease, and starvation or else made it to the appointed destination. The tribes that were removed and forced to set out on The Trail of Tears? Why they were The Five Civilized Tribes, of course! The Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muskogee (Creek), & Seminole. Remember that old ploy I just talked about? "You there! "Savage"! be more like us and we'll let you be!" Yeah, so these five tribes believed that and did their utmost best to be as much like the white settlers as they could, so they could continue to not be killed or have their homes taken from them. And what did the white people do then? "Yeah, nice try and all, but let's just get rid of them. Just move them somewhere so they'll be out of sight and out of mind." I definitely think it belongs in a list of atrocities perpetrated on this land and in our history as a nation, but also when you're trying to hit home the similarities between what his happening now and what happened in history, it's sort of a miss as far as correlation goes. The only similarity is that both peoples, then and now, were locked up somewhere, because let's not kid ourselves into thinking that Reservations weren't meant as prisons. However, incidents involving the Indigenous Peoples that does directly correlate with the events of today would be The Boarding Schools and The Lost Generation. Here is an article that Indian Country Today put up, that I shared because most people (that aren't Indigenous) don't know about. Basically, the white people (well, certain white people) towards the end of the nineteenth century decided to beat the "savage" out the Indigenous Peoples and turn them into fellow white people. Assimilate them completely into "civilized society". "Kill the Indian, Save the man." is a direct quote from the founder of the very first boarding school, a Captain Richard H. Pratt, who started up the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. What was the plan exactly? Rip the children from their parents, shipped them off to this, and other similar schools that sprung up later. Change their names to Christian ones, cut their hair off, force them to learn English and beat them if they used their mother tongue. Force them to practice a new religion. Some of these children never saw their families again. Some were beaten to death in these schools. And if you're wondering, the names as well as the hair were sacred and symbolic and highly important. It would be like cutting off their hands or ripping out their tongues; it was a strong part of who they were as a culture. But, that was the plan. Erase the culture. It was not unlike slavery in the way of seasoning. Breaking and beating them down, until they are broken shells who you can then train up the way you want. It's like the military too, only I'm pretty certain that the military isn't as cruel in their tactics of breaking soldiers in. And do you know what this resulted in? Children beaten into whiteness, but they just weren't white enough, so were never really allowed into white "civilized" society and therefor were ruined and in a lot of cases orphaned, for no reason what-so-ever. Even the most perfect subjects were ostrasized, because they couldn't bleach the "savage" out of their skin tone. Seriously, I just want to throw my hands up at the sheer stupidity of this endeavour. Honestly, what did these white people think would happen? That white citizens would open up their arms and hearts for brown people that they'd been told to hate for the past two hundred-ish years? What parallel universe would that have ever happened in, I ask? Besides the fact that no one should have been hating the Indigenous Peoples in the first place, these families should never have been split up and these children should never have had to go through all this torment and torture period, but especially for an end result that was a million times worse than if they'd just been left with their families. And one can say, "Oh, but them 'Indians' was killin' the white peoples." Yes. Some of them were. But what if someone came into your house, gave your wife some horrible disease that killed her, murdered or stole your children, stole your food, burnt down your house...? Wouldn't you be pissed and retaliate? You would and if you say you wouldn't then you're just lying. It depended upon the tribe too. Some tribes were fierce warriors and always warring with neighbouring tribes, these tribes were more likely to attack, whether provoked violently or not, because you did step foot on their property, so you were asking for it. Other tribes, while valuing the warrior in their own people, weren't much for warring and just wanted to live their lives peacefully. They may or may not have even attacked when provoked violently. Mainly tried to work things out or even share with the new people; come to understandings. What did the white people do? They were the big bully on the play yard for the most part and took what they wanted anyway, made promises with their fingers crossed behind their backs and fucked everyone over that wasn't them and blamed it on everyone but themselves. And notice I said for the most part, because just as none of the Indigenous People were all the same tribe and not even people within one tribe are the same person, because no one on Earth is exactly the same as another person, so too were white people not all from the same country and even if they were, everyone was all different. You had nice people mixed in with the liars and the cheats. The article I've linked to up there will give an overview on the boarding schools, as well as what's happening now and the author's views; however, it does link to and supply names of places so searches are easy to navigate, as one should really educate themselves on this dark portion of our history. You can even research other historical things that were lacking from your textbooks. Now, The Lost Generation. And I don't mean the young men who fought in The Great War (World War I), who felt lost and restless and disillusioned. No, I mean the Canadian version of those horrid American boarding schools and how disenfranchised the First Nations People still are. There's also The Stolen Generation, where First Nation children were taken from their families during the mid twentieth century. Social workers came in, and took the children and adopted them out to white people so that these children would have "better" lives. Child welfare workers removed Aboriginal children from their families and communities because they felt the best homes for the children were not Aboriginal homes. The ideal home would instill the values and lifestyles with which the child welfare workers themselves were familiar: white, middle-class homes in white, middle-class neighbourhoods. Aboriginal communities and Aboriginal parents and families were deemed to be “unfit.” Also, if you're reading this post, there's a lot of terms flying about in here. The "American Indian", not having ever originated in India, is an obviously outdated term, but is probably the one most people know. Here in the states they prefer Native American or Indigenous American or simply Indigenous. It is never just Native, I can see why, since through the hundreds of years it now has a negative connotation. "He went Native." to mean that he's now as bad as those there "savages". I wouldn't want to go by that either. And while those are the acceptable terms, Native American, is falling away because technically if you were born in America, then you are a native of the land. So, that just lumps everyone together. Indigenous peoples from Canada, the US, Central and South America, as well as Hispanics, and people of European nationalities here, as well as African Americans. In Canada, however, the terms are First Nations or Aboriginal (which the last one is used when including the Inuit and Metis peoples, though I'm not certain why they aren't also First Nations). And you might know of or hear an Indigenous person say they are Native, Indian, or American Indian. That's fine. They are The People and they get to call themselves whatever they want to. The majority, however, tend to dislike those terms, or else dislike you calling them that. You should respect that. It's the same way that you can not call them "Ingines" or "Savages" minus the quote marks. If you still are, then why are you reading posts from me and why are you this type of person? It's like how black people can say that certain N word and you can't. I'm not going to argue about it. They get to use that word if they want and I agree that non-black people shouldn't, since it was non-black people (read: white) who turned it from one original definition (a fool or idiot) to something much, much worse. Or the gay community might use a certain F word. They can and you can't. Hang the original meanings of bundle of sticks or a cigarette. Non-LGBT people have turned it into something new and completely dripping with venom and negativity. Non-LGBT people ruined it as either original meaning, and you can't use it now. We should really blame the hate mongers for changing definitions, instead of the people these new definitions were used against, now saying only they can use it in a way to take it back. The enslaved Africans are another good correlation between what has happened in the past and what is happening now, that is on that list. Though the people today are not enslaved, so are not being owned or sold, they are being locked in cages. But, the enslaved were thought of as animals or worse than animals and therefore were not allowed to marry or have children. So, if it was found that two people had found each other and fallen in love in such trying times, they were taken from each other and one was sold off. If an enslaved woman ended up having children, they were taken from her and sold off to someone else. Families being separated all over the place. One can say such asinine things as "But there's always been slavery!" or "But black people owned slaves too!", you're trying to compare oranges to sharks and you can't logically do that. Yes, those are both truth statements, but the Atlantic Slave Trade completely out trumps all other slavery in reasonings and sheer numbers. For one, slavery before this time was acquisition of enemies; whether through warfare or colonization. Take the Roman Empire and The Huns as two examples. The Romans conquered and acquired the people of their new lands as slaves and those that weren't enslaved became citizens of the Empire. The Huns were warring, and acquired slaves as prisoners of war. The Europeans in the fifteen and sixteen centuries were neither conquering Africa, nor were they warring with anyone from there. They simply chose a place where no one "important" (read: white) would care or notice if they went missing. That's an entirely different ballgame right there. Not that slavery is right in any instance, but it makes a lot more sense to capture people for whatever reasons if you are actually having dealings with them; they're your enemy and you are warring with them or you're taking over their land. Basically it reads this way. "Oh, hey look at this land. Hi people that we find grossly fascinating with your big butts and dark skin, come tour our circuses in Europe so everyone can gawk at you!. Guess what! I know we've just met and all, but we're gonna steal all of y'all so we can work ya to death in some land we stole from other people that also don't matter. Sounds fantastic, right?" It's all wrong, but that just seems beyond wrong. I don't condone the enslavement of the Indigenous Peoples by the Europeans prior to them stealing people from Africa, but at least it followed some sort of logical (even though it really is illogical) thought process of slavery since the beginning of time. Colonization and conquering. And various peoples in Africa did enslave other Africans, however, unlike the European thinking that everyone in Africa was the same person, these were all different groups of people and some were at war with each other; complete enemies and they employed the prisoner of war tactic of slavery. So too did some Indigenous tribes utilize this same process, because again, they weren't all the same people even though Europeans thought they were. Some Indigenous tribes were at war and were enemies with other tribes because they weren't the same people. Plus, these tribes might have like 50 slaves tops. Not 50,000 like in the US. And I'm only counting a state or two and not the numbers for the entirety of the US in one single year and I'm not counting the Caribbean, Central and South America, nor am I counting lands owned elsewhere by the various conquering Europeans. The numbers just aren't there to hold water, y'all. And formerly enslaved people also did turn around and own slaves. It's called turning around and trying to be what white people expect of you. You become well to-do in America and if you're well to-do you own slaves. Not all formerly enslaved people owned slaves, but it did happen. Should any of this be used to negate the atrocity of slavery or families ripped apart or worked or beaten to death? No, it should not. And if you are someone whose trying to muddle the water by throwing in partial truths to make slavery OK, then again, why are you reading posts from me, and why are you this type of person?!? Now we'll move onto World War II and the Japanese Internment Camps. This wouldn't technically make the list, not because it's not a terrible incident in US history, because it certainly is, but because families weren't separated. However, George Takei did write an article connecting this incident with the current one, with the subset of "at least during the Internment..." which is a good point. If you're unsure about what this incident is, it was for "the greater good" during World War II. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor (honestly, if you haven't done so before, go and watch the film, Tora! Tora! Tora! since nothing in the world is ever one sided) and the American Government decided that all "Japs" were bad and a threat so had every single Japanese person in America (most were US citizens) shipped off to internment camps. An internment camp is a concentration camp. According to the official definition of either, it's simply a place where people are locked up and held for lack of crimes. It's not the same as a prison. With a prison there are people locked up because of crimes committed. In either an internment or concentration camp, the people locked away have done nothing wrong, have committed no crimes, and are only locked away because of who they are. Neither term is a guarantee for mass murder. The Japanese were rounded up and locked away simply because they looked like the enemy. I always hear people state "Yeah, but all is fair in love and war.", but I still find that statement to be bullshit. If all was fair in war, then one particular military wouldn't courtmartial or execute it's own military people for doing their own thing, whether it be desertion, or invading some place that wasn't set to invade, or whatever else gets one in trouble during wartime. It's only all is fair according to that particular military and if you play by their rules then all is fine, but if you don't then you're in trouble, which does not equate to all is fair. Honestly how is it all is fair if it's only fair for some people and not the others? Example: Apparently most of the government was in agreement over locking up the Japanese for no reason other than being Japanese. However, if a group of people decided to free those prisoners, one should still be able to say, "Oh ho! But all is fair in love and war! You get to lock them up and I get to free them!" But that's not how that statement works and is why it is illogical and complete bullshit. Perhaps I take things too literally, I have been told that I do so on a fair number of occasions, but the way I see it, in my example, that would be all is fair and anything less is just a nonsensical version of that statement. What would have been the appropriate response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Intel and tracking. You know if there had been Japanese spies here in America, then they would have been far up on a list of people to watch. So, go watch them and when you get information lock them up for being a spy. To lock all of the Japanese people away was just the easier and lazy thing to do. "Let's get it all over and done with and then we won't have to worry about!" I honestly shudder to think what would have happened to all of those people had the US not finally gotten Japan to stop. Though I hate that they dropped atomic bombs on them. But just think about it. The internment camps were a lazy solution to the Japanese spy problem. It was so easy to just round them up and lock them away. If Japan had still been considered our enemy after the war, would our government have released these prisoners? It's highly unlikely. And in their callous pursuit of easy what would they have done? Left them there to rot? Executed them all? It's far easier than setting them free and circulating them back into the system. I had absolutely no idea about the Indigenous boarding schools or the Japanese Internment camps growing up. I didn't learn about either of these tragedies in school. They also weren't taught at Uni. I had no idea that Stalin and the Soviets (just because Hitler tried to fuck him over, so he switched sides) helped The US and Britain win the war in Europe. Japan was never mentioned except as the ultimate enemy who bombed our base in Hawaii, and any mention of the Indigenous Peoples was few and far between. Even the Trail of Tears got no real game play and was glanced over as quickly as possible. But in my twenties I learned more about the horrors that befell the Indigenous Peoples, partly because I like to learn things on my own and partly because I joined an Intertribal Society on campus and made friends with some Choctaw students. In my later twenties I learned more about non-American washed WWII history, and because of George Takei is how I even heard about Japanese Internment Camps. But in true Sarah fashion, I researched the hell out of any and all topics, now knowing there was something to search for. I'll never agree that the Japanese should have been locked away during WWII. Never. But they were locked up and that can't be changed. Besides the fact that they were stripped of jobs, housing, belongings, citizenship, and freedom during their Internment (because that's all bad enough), but their digs really weren't all that bad... let me finish. In fact they were like luxury apartments compared to any camps the Nazi's built or the detention centers we have going on right now. However, that does not mean they were actually living in luxury. A shanty shack, with some of your belongings and some spotty electricity (sometimes) and a bed (possibly - really it depended on where you were being detained) and a garden and a washhouse doesn't mean things were easy or nice. I'm sure it was like the camping trip from hell and if you've been on one of those you can imagine how un-terrific things were. But they weren't locked in cages, nor having to sleep in lice infested straw without ways to bathe or crammed together in severe inhumane conditions. Their food was rationed, because it was wartime and rationing was a thing, but they were allowed to grow food too, so while they weren't eating like kings they also weren't starving. I suppose it was sort of nice-ish... IF we were all living in a post apocalyptic society... and since no one was living that existence at the time, then no one should have been made to live like that. So, while they may have had it a little better than other times people were locked up for no reason, that doesn't negate that these people were locked up, for no reason, and in pretty squalid conditions. Also families weren't separated, which is the point of Takei's article; which is the only bright spot in that history. Which leads me to family separation, specifically that of young children from their parents. I'm not someone who has ever wanted to have babies. I don't like human babies or children. I don't hate them, I just don't want any of my own nor do I want to hold other peoples babies or watch their children. I also find it baffling when people long for babies or end up having them. It's as foreign a concept to me as being excited for or longing for sunny days or warmer weather. Or let me think of something that most normal people would dislike. Hrmm... (normal is difficult) let's see... being excited or longing for a bologna and tuna sandwich with chocolate sauce and sardines. "Seriously you would want that?!? Well, OK, but I don't understand that at all." So, it really is hard for me to jump on board with pain and anguish over children being ripped from their parents. That would be like someone saying "That guy stole that woman's bologna and tuna sandwich with chocolate sauce and sardines and it's SOOO sad and I'm angry about that." I don't understand the emotions over someone losing that sandwich because I can't have emotions over something like that sandwich, but I can see that this person along with so many others are wrapped up emotionally over it. I acknowledge their emotions, I just don't understand them. However, while I may not personally understand it, I'm smart enough to understand that this sandwich is extremely important to normal humans. The sandwich is something they made and that they love and want to keep with them forever and never lose. OK. Just because I don't feel the pull of the sandwich and don't want one doesn't mean that I can't observe and understand the important significance of it for others. The sandwich should never be taken from the humans that made it because it elicits devastating loss. Got it. Those are my initial thoughts. I can't wrap my head around the emotions, but I can see them from the people it's happening to and from the people witnessing it who do have those emotions. If I can do that, then why can't people who did make the same sandwiches be so callous and unfeeling about it all? Sweeping it under the rug and ridiculing it like the entire incident is akin to swatting a fly with a fly swatter. How come I can get on board with "Never separate people from their sandwiches, err... babies" when I don't even have those emotions and have no children, yet people who have children can't think what it must be like if their own children were in that situation and feel empathy instead of, "Well, they deserve what they got." I think besides being good at observing, the other things I have going for me are that I remember what it was like to be a kid and also, ... cats. I can rewind my mind back to being a three year old or a seven year old. What if angry men banged on my door and ordered me to leave everything behind? What if I had to walk and walk until I had blisters, what if I was crammed into a train car squished between fifty other people? What if I had to be locked up behind fences with armed guards or shoved into a cage? What if I had to go without food and water? What if I has been forced away from my family into a school where I was tormented? What would I have done if they'd led my parents and older sister away or tried to take me from them? I know how all of that would have made my child-self feel and I have pretty good ideas on various ways I might have reacted, given who I was as a kid. All of that would be absolutely terrible to go through. I can even imagine my almost 38 year old self going through it. Putting myself in any horrific scenario from slavery to Nazi run camps to this. Just leave out the children part, since I have none. I can see the scenarios of if I'm still with my now aged parents and my older sister or even if it's just me and The Sister or I am alone. There is no comfort or shiny bright spot in any scenario. It's absolutely horrible. I may not have lived through any of these atrocities, having them personally effect me, but I can place myself into them with all of the knowledge I have gained (the having to relieve yourself where you stand in front of others, the disease, the starvation, the dysentery diarrhea, the beatings, the rapes, the walking for thousands of miles, the fear permeating from everyone); just anything you could possibly read that really happened to these people, I'm smart enough to understand the words and meanings. I can imagine all of it happening to myself as a child or an adult, as well as that of my family. If I can do that, why can't other people do the same and realize how horrible any of this was for the people forced to endure it, whether now or throughout history? Now we come to the cats. I love cats to the moon and back. I may not be able to imagine howling grief over a baby or child, but if I imagine someone trying to take my cat from my arms, starving them, locking them up, killing them, or anything else in any of these atrocities, then I know I would howl with rage and anguish and would try to kill the person doing the taking and would die trying to get my cat back. I would be mad with grief if they were just gone. I know. Once I saw a car hit one of our cats and there was howling and anguished screams and crying from me as I tried to turn the car around. The people in the car that hit him could hear me. It was a girl I went to school with and the sound had her forcing her boyfriend back the scene. It couldn't have been a paltry scream to force her to have to car turn around and come back. I screamed in agony during his fit of death throws and howled out once he stopped and was still, with his brains hanging out. I couldn't even accept this girls sincere apology and I screamed at her and her drunk or high boyfriend and told her she was a fucking loser for being with him and it was all their fault. Or the time that a car hit another of our cats so hard he was thrown back into our yard so far he was next to the house. I howled and screamed at the sky and cried red hot tears of anger and despair. I totally understand the loss and death of a cat. The cat is my sandwich. The cat can never be forcefully taken from me or killed within my sight. The cat is my human baby. I may still never want a human baby, but when someone says that a human mother howls with anguish and grief over someone trying to take her human baby from her arms, then I totally understand the emotions behind those words. Hell, I have accidentally hit a bird on two occasions with my car and blubbered like a baby about it. I was severely upset and distraught that I had been responsible (even though one bird hopped in front of my tire and the other flew into my bumper) for their deaths. I was almost inconsolable when I ran over a baby deer. Most people do not even have great empathy over animals. They hate it if you equate their precious babies and children to woodland creatures and act like humans are far superior. I hate seeing animals in cages, it makes me extremely sad & I do think that animals are just as good as humans (secretly, I like animals better really). If these humans feel like humans are far superior to animals and shouldn't be treated as badly as animals, then why are some of them perfectly content to see humans being treated like animals or even lesser than animals? It doesn't matter if we're talking about what's happening today or incidents in history. Some people just simply do not care and that's as difficult for me to wrap my head around as it is the need for a human baby. It also has me thinking about the progress and exceleration of past atrocities. When did the warning signs actually tip into madness? Is life today playing out the same way it was in the past?
Also, I do realize that the photo up there is an abbreviated list by a historian who researched fascist regimes from Hitler to Franco and everyone in between (also that it was never on display at the National Holocaust Museum). Anyways. OK, so this is what I'm seeing as an almost 38 year old white-ish woman in the US.
Have I missed anything? I feel like I have? But we'll move on. So, this is what is trying to flash its way into brain 24-7... yet, all of this has always been there. And perhaps that is where my questioning begins. Where was the tipping point here? Is it that there is more media coverage? Is it that these groups or shouting and stepping up more? Is it a combination of both? The LGBT community has never really been accepted. I'm not saying it's right, it's just a true statement. "The Gays" were always an abomination... if anyone felt like thinking about them, that is. They've never been able to marry, were beaten up of killed if anyone found out about them, they had to live their lives in secret and would and still can be fired or evicted simply because of their sexual orientation. The Black community has never really been accepted. Runaways and freed men made their way up north just to be faced with segregation. Though people wanted them to be free, they didn't want them all to be free here in the very white USofA, so formulated a plan to ship them all back to Africa, and this is why Libera is there and very old America and weird. They were still treated like chattel here in the south and has to know their proper place or else risk being strung up from a tree. They were also thrown into prisons for no reasons, and have been marching and protesting for at least the past fifty years. They've never not known a life devoid of "Old Dixie". The Indigenous community has never really been accepted. Sure there have been random spurts in history when "being an Indian is cool", but it's all fake. They've always been driven off of their land, lied to, murdered, cheated, their women raped... and nobody seems to care. The KKK, people will say never really went away, but in my entire 38 years I never heard of rallies taking or trying to taking place in this state or elsewhere in the south and in the nation. Nor have there been fliers and pamphlets wanting you to join received by people I actually know. The Latin American community has never really been accepted. Hell, I could just change that sentence into "brown people are bad" as that's really been the mentality of the US in general since the beginning of European conquest. The same can be true of the Black and Indigenous communities I've mentioned prior that they're all seen as the same people and no one cares to know the differences. The same can be said for all non white groups in the mentality of whites with, "we'll take whatever from you, but we don't want to know about you or your culture, not really." As is the case here. "We'll take your Cinco de Mayo and Mexican food (because you're all Mexican anyways, right?) and your sacred death holiday... but we still think you suck!" The News has always been weird and no ones every really trusted it. I can see why since click-bait really has been around forever and it's all about getting a sensationalized story out there. But now it seems more dangerous, because people are picking one source and even making up their own things and fact checking or searching sources? Forget that nonsense! I'm even finding it difficult now to track sources and see what really is up. I've never had this much trouble. The Female community has never really been accepted. They've always been seen as lesser than and subservient. They are there to be a prize for men and pump out babies like they are machines, and lie back and think of England (oh wait, wrong country). Sometimes they were allowed to make decisions and mostly not. Depending on the time period and men wanted to be all up in the workings of baby making and vaginas in regards to keeping or not keeping a baby, because yes, there were times in history when women stuff was just for women and men didn't interfere with midwives or contraception such as it was, or abortions. But then they wanted their sticky fingers back in the mess and we've been here since the turn of the 20th century. The Scientific community has never really been accepted. I can say that. If you think about it, it really is true. Sure there were times when people jumped all in like Science was a life raft from a sinking ship. But it's like Science just has random jaunts with its 15 minutes of fame, because people are fickle and then decide that Science is an evil and that is mostly mixed up with religion. Sometimes Science is the cool kid in the in-crowd and sometimes it's the loser kid getting picked last for team sports. The Christian community has always felt threatened. They felt threatened when they were in the midst of drowning and burning "witches" at the stake and when they were torturing people during the Inquisition. They even felt threatened and persecuted when they were stealing Jerusalem and killing people who had always lived there. I can't take them seriously, because they're always forcing themselves to the top of the religious food chain and screaming about how persecuted they are while they torment, torture, and annihilate other religions. The Muslim community has never really been accepted. Though it's not American history, take the Crusades that I just mentioned as an example. White European Christians, some of whom would undoubtedly come to America later, tromped over there to reclaim Jerusalem for themselves. And who were they fighting? Muslims. When they weren't seen as "exotic orientals" with women who were sexily covered so as to only show alluring eyes, then they were the most evil of evils. How can they have always been the most evil of evils in a long list of non-white people who were also the most evil of evils? I'm not sure though, perhaps the "Mexicans" are the new "Arabs"? Patriotism has always ebbed and flowed. It's heightened during a "crisis" in order to placate the masses. "Ooh! We're going into a war that people are uncertain about? Better amp up that Patriotism button!" "Uh oh, those Commie Red Bastards will destroy our plan for world domination? Let's amp up the Patriotism to a billion and plaster Gods name everywhere." In between these times, no one gives two flying fucks about this patriotism. But when non persecuted people feel threatened (read: majority of white Christians), they like to break out the old flag song and dance malarky and bandy about God. They don't care the other 98% of the time. They don't put the flag out on holidays and they don't talk about God very much, besides the fact that most of them don't even understand that to be Christian, you're following the teachings of Christ, as in Jesus. So, I'm sitting here seeing and reading all of the things that are happening, but I'm unsure as to what exactly is happening. Are we in the middle of a crisis? Is the world about to go 'splodey? Or is it business as usual for America and the business of the day is just being reported on more? And if so, for what purpose? To divert attention? To make more sales because it's a sensational story? Or is it merely because the fight has never ended? These groups have been fighting and are either still fighting or amping it up? Is everything chaotic and on the precipice of a change? Is it a change for good or bad? Like will this create more rights for these disenfranchised groups? Or will this cause them to be beaten further down and Boom! concentration camps? Everyone's out there screaming that fascism is happening and we're all doomed and both sides think they're fighting the good fight. But, what exactly is happening here in the middle of 2018? Which makes me think of the Nazi camps; the Holocaust. Non Jewish people were living their lives and people were circulating lies and hate about the Jewish people. No one really seems to care because either A] they believe the lies and the Jews are the horrible enemy, so they get what they deserve... or B] they aren't Jewish and therefore don't have to worry about that mess, because they have laundry to do today. To say that the non Jewish people knew is true and also false. For the most part when they say they didn't know, psychologically it is pretty much true. Sure, a lot of them knew that if their Jewish neighbours are being rounded up and shipped off it can't really be for anything good. Yet, no one said, "We're deporting them to exterminate them." so one can make up their own lies to tell them self. "Well, they're gone and I don't have to worry about it." and therefor they don't technically know. People living near the camps where mass murder was happening? The same can also be said. "Perhaps that smoke stack billowing out smoke is for the laundry, or heating, or... oh, Fritz stop playing in the mud!" They didn't want to know, they didn't have to know, so they didn't know. Out of sight out of mind. It wasn't happening in their house so it didn't matter. I have come to find that this is human nature. Most people do this when it is the time to do this. As in most people will deal with themselves and keep their heads down and follow the crowd. While there certainly were people who were outraged that Jewish people were having to wear stars and weren't allowed rights they'd had before, or were being rounded up and shipped off... they didn't really say anything. Some people did speak up, (more so than a mere, "Hey, what's going on. I don't think that's right." and no more on the topic), and lives were saved. But most people didn't buck the trend. Humans, for the most part, follow. I'm not really faulting them, as this is something humans do, no more than I would fault the Jewish people for also following. Not all of them did, but the majority, lied to themselves just as the non Jewish people did with "Perhaps they're going to fight, or to a work camp, or just living in a different country." The Jewish people stopped going to the movie theatres and stores when they were told not to go. They sewed the stars on their clothes, they followed the police when they were rounded up. Thinking, "It's just the French police, and we're French so we'll be fine." or "We've been through a lot before, this surely won't be that bad." I'm certainly not trying to say anything against The Holocaust. But if you look at it through a logical view, they did follow, because for some reason to remain in the good graces of "civilized society" we're told not to upset the apple cart. The majority of people on either side didn't upset the apple cart and now we're left with the devastating history of The Holocaust. Most people just do not follow themselves; their gut feelings, bucking this "civilized society". Most Jewish people didn't even attempt to flee or runaway at any point during any of it. Most non-Jewish people didn't bother thinking something bad was happening and try to get Jewish people to safety or to retaliate. It was just a wide spread blanket effort with little resistance and it's horribly sad. All of this goes through my mind because of current events. Is this all really happening in an exaggerated way? Is this all following through to another Holocaust or Japanese internment or Forced Removal and Reservations? Am I sitting here being that person twiddling my thumbs and saying, "No, no, this isn't that, and this will work itself out."? What exactly was the tipping point for just the Holocaust in where Jewish and non-Jewish alike collectively said, "Holy Fuck."? Where did they start to realize things probably wouldn't be fine? That things weren't business as usual or that this trifling matter would blow itself over? What was that tipping point, because you know there was one, whether it was collectively or not? And what exactly is happening in my country at the moment? Should I start that underground resistance movement now? Hiding out in sewers with my rag tag group of freedom fighters and waging war via machetes and arrows as well as getting messages out on Super Secret Wizard Radio? When is the time for that? Surely not now? Surely that's too extreme for 2018? But I do not want to be the person standing by while half my neighbourhood gets shuttled away to God only knows where. No one ever wants to fight, but they do it because it is what they must do. If for some reason everything implodes here and people do have to resist and fight without their social media of mostly fake, scandelous "news", in amongst their selfies, how does one go about it? You can see why I'm at an empasse here. I have absolutely no earthly idea what is really going on in my country right now, and honestly no one else does either. There's too much that's conflicting to paint even one thing correctly and accurately, because everyone's leaving out a messa details... possibly even details they know nothing about, or else they just don't care about the details. It's this hodge-podgy kerfuffle and I'm not sure if I should support the people trying to gain rights and play with my cats or if it's actually time to go underground and form that cigarette smoking intercepting resistance.
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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