When you wake up and get angry, great things can happen. Let’s start by by acknowledging that there is actually a problem and figure out what to do from there.
Earlier today, a good friend of mine (we’ll call her Annie) posted this on Facebook:
Today a friend said to me “Everyone likes to sit around and say, “If I had been in the civil rights movement, if I had been around during slavery, if I had been an adult during the women’s movement, if I had been around during the Jewish holocaust, I would have done something to stop or prevent it.” And I thought WOW that is so true and history is repeating itself right now. NOW is their time to put their money where their mouth is and do what they say they would have. NOW is the time for people to stand up for what is right!
To which another friend (a known pot-stirrer, I might add – and we’ll call him Bert) replied:
History is definitely not repeating itself, what an ignorant statement!! Ignorant to say, ignorant to believe, and ignorant to spread such hatred!
There will never be slavery again, no one will lose their civil rights. You’re still free to not wear your bras, vote, make a good living as a single woman, or a married parent.
There sure as fuck isn’t going to be a holocaust again, that’s about the most disrespectful thing you could ever say, ever!! Make the people in this country that have been through that tragedy relive any of those thoughts, shame on you!!!
You can think what you want, Bernie didn’t make it, Hillary didn’t make it, but you haven’t given one day of a chance for your new president to make any impression as a leader of our free nation!! So continue to be like the liberal media and spread your hate and make the problem worse, create a larger divide with the American people, that’s what’s going to help make things great in this country!!
Bert also copied Annie’s post and made it one of his own, to which he added to the bottom:
I did not write this, and I certainly do not agree with it!!
This is part of the problem of today, and this is the message of hate that this country does not need at all, not any part of it!!
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that the 2016 Presidential election got me a bit worked up. You can read my take on that here.
I have long applauded Annie for her outspoken ways and her determination to keep negative comments off of her Facebook feed. She has made no secret of her beliefs, and I say kudos to her.
Bert, on the other hand, seems to find great joy in poking at Annie, hence me calling him a pot-stirrer.
But Bert’s reply to Annie got to me. As in I was shaking with anger after I read it. So I replied to him on Annie’s original post and on his copy-paste job:
Open your fucking eyes. There is most definitely slavery in this country.
Michigan is number two in the country for human trafficking. What the fuck do you think that is? It’s slavery.
There are Human Rights violations happening every goddamned day in our state, in our counties, in our cities, and in our neighborhoods.
And it happens because there are people in our world who don’t value life, who think their existence is more privileged than others. It happens.
So don’t you dare fucking sit there in your goddamned white man privileged world and tell someone she’s spreading hatred.
She’s speaking the fucking truth. And I stand with her. I will always stand with people who’s voices are getting shouted down by an elitist population, the same fucking population that’s so afraid to lose what they believe is their inalienable right to just exist that they did in fact elect the modern day equivalent of Hitler.
He’s a smooth talker. He appealed to your slightly pissed off sentiments.
But never forget what he has done and said. Don’t be surprised when he starts censoring the information you get, when he goes all 1984 on this country and actually changes what was written about history, because he did that his entire campaign. Don’t be surprised when he actually comes for your guns, because the last thing a fascist wants is for the population to have a way to defend itself.
So don’t you fucking dare.
I was a little pissed off.
And I guess I did some pot-stirring of my own, because Bert fired back at me (on my reply to his post – Annie has since unfriended and blocked Bert):
And it’s all because of our country’s leadership?? If that is the case, then you only have the current president of the last 8 years to blame then? Those civil rights violations you spoke of are also happening during the current regime, true or no? I don’t believe I sit in white privilege, but maybe I do because I have all kinds of people saying I do, like you, a white woman.
I’ll be right alongside any of my countrymen and women if anything were to go so wrong that we the people are in danger of such atrocities from the past.
While we all sit and bitch back and forth, remember that I never had slaves, never had oil rigs, started a war, or even voted for one. I will never condone slavery, trafficking or any of the other civil rights infractions. There are many people in the world driven by hidden agendas and value only their own lives, but don’t you dare, not for a second, imply that me or anyone that may not have your political beliefs, will support any of these thoughts or actions against any person or group. Not for one second!!!
Now see? This is a huge part of the problem. He says, “There will never be slavery again, no one will lose their civil rights.”
And I state, “There is most definitely slavery in this country. Michigan is number two in the country for human trafficking. What the fuck do you think that is? It’s slavery. There are Human Rights violations happening every goddamned day in our state, in our counties, in our cities, and in our neighborhoods.”
Nowhere in my reply did I say that the President-elect is specifically responsible for said slavery, human trafficking, or Human Rights violations.
But, as is usually the case, rather than acknowledge that someone is correct, Bert immediately deflected. Rather than address any of the points I made, he pointed fingers and blamed.
So I took a walk outside. And did some thinking. And came back in to write out my reply. And did my research. And here’s what I said:
In your reply to this friend, you said, and I quote, “History is not repeating itself.”
You then went on to say, “There will never be slavery again, no one will lose their civil rights.”
To which I replied, “Open your fucking eyes.” Because there is slavery. And people’s civil rights are being violated every single day.
You then said, “You’re still free to not wear your bras, vote, make a good living as a single woman, or a married parent.”
And that statement, that one right there? That statement tells me that you aren’t able to actually SEE the problem, which makes you part of the problem. Wide scale violations of human rights are an every day occurrence in the United States. So much so, that other countries have published travel warnings advising caution when travelling here. When you make statements about a woman still being free to wear her bra, you are minimizing a much greater problem.
Regardless, you are still not right. Because we aren’t free to not wear our bras. We get sent home from school if we don’t wear a bra. Work policies can dictate that women have to wear ‘proper’ undergarments.
Tongue-in-cheek comment or not, including a statement about freedom to wear bras is sexist.
Let’s move on, shall we? Your next statement in your reply was that, “There sure as fuck isn’t going to be a holocaust again…”
A holocaust is the destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war (do a Google search for ‘define holocaust’ and that’s the first thing that pops up).
THE Holocaust (with a capital ‘H’) was what happened in Nazi-controlled Europe. The Nazi regime didn’t limit their killing spree to just the German borders. It’s estimated that up to 6 million Jews were killed. Around 7 million Soviet citizens. 3 million Soviet POWs. 1.8 million non-Jewish Polish civilians. The list goes on.
And it’s only by recognizing and acknowledging that history that we can identify the possibility of it happening again.
Because make no mistake, there have been many, many other incidents of genocide (holocaust-like cleansings, ethnic cleansings, etc.).
The Soviet Union, Cambodia, Armenia, Rwanda, Greek, Assyrian, East Timor, Burundi, Iraq, Guatemala, Bosnia, and Bangladesh.
And those are just in the last 100 years. Most of those happened AFTER the Nazi regime in Europe.
So don’t tell me that there will never be another holocaust. You say, “There sure as fuck isn’t going to be a holocaust again, that’s about the most disrespectful thing you could ever say, ever!!”
I would argue that it’s the exact opposite. By not acknowledging that it IS a possibility, you are, in fact, being disrespectful.
You say, “Make the people in this country that have been through that tragedy relive any of those thoughts, shame on you!!”
Holocaust survivors in the US were quite vocal about their reservations about Trump. They’ve lived through it once and can recognize the signs.
“One of the things people used to say about Hitler when he rose to power in the early 1930s was that he was saying it like it is. They thought he was a bit of a clown, with his big speeches and over-the-top showmanship, but they also admired his ability to say what everyone thought, but didn’t dare say out loud.” – Zeev Hod, Holocaust survivor.
(Source)
You said, “…you haven’t given one day of a chance for your new president to make any impression as a leader of our free nation!!”
But see, that’s the thing – he has already made his impression. His campaign was full of hate-filled rhetoric. He obviously appealed the baser instincts in many people. I mean, come on, who among us hasn’t (at one point or another in our lives) thought it was funny to make fun of a person with disabilities? One of the kindest men I know used to do a great impression of Tommy (the disabled man in Mt. Morris). Doesn’t make it right, doesn’t make it OK. Because we’ve hopefully learned that it’s NOT OK to do that. People are different, and we need to embrace those differences to grow. Not make fun of them. Not call them names.
You then accused her of being like the liberal media and spreading her hate and making the problem worse, creating a larger divide with the American people.
What she said wasn’t spreading hate, though. She never once said anything about hate. She said, “And I thought WOW that is so true and history is repeating itself right now. NOW is their time to put their money where their mouth is and do what they say they would have. NOW is the time for people to stand up for what is right!”
What she said is true. It is time for us, as a nation, to band together. It is time for us to stand up for what’s right.
And I don’t mean to stand up for what’s right for YOU. I mean to stand up for what’s right for ALL OF US.
To stop discriminating against people because they are different from you.
To stop hating.
To START understanding that it is the job, no – it is the responsibility of the people of this country to hold ourselves and our government accountable.
I’ll take responsibility for my part in Trump getting elected. I didn’t vote for him, but by minimizing the frustration felt by a large portion of the population, I was just as complicit in his election as the people who did vote for him.
You stated above, “I will never condone slavery, trafficking or any of the other civil rights infractions. There are many people in the world driven by hidden agendas and value only their own lives, but don’t you dare, not for a second, imply that me or anyone that may not have your political beliefs, will support any of these thoughts or actions against any person or group. Not for one second!!!”
To which I say, great. And there is no sarcasm there. It’s great that you will never condone those things. But what will you do when they continue? Because we’ve established that slavery is very real, trafficking does happen daily, and civil rights infractions occur.
I do what I can – I increase my knowledge and awareness of what’s happening. I lend my support to organizations that are fighting.
And I abso-fucking-lutely refuse to stick my head in the sand and pretend that it’s not happening.
I don’t give a shit about your political beliefs. I have never once associated myself with any given party. I have voted for both Republican and Democrat candidates since I turned 18.
I applaud you for saying that you won’t condone those actions. Now put your money where your mouth is.
Jane Erwin eLearning Portfolio 
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