I used to think that doing nothing was much easier then doing the right thing.
And then I realized what a burden it must be to have to tell yourself every single day that you didn’t donate food to the food bank or one of those Scout Troops or kid’s sports team leagues because ‘ you were to busy ‘ to drop a can of soup into a barrel.
It had nothing to do with the fact that you just don’t CARE enough to drop a can of food into a barrel.
But that’s what you have to tell yourself every single day.
That conversation must have gotten old for you ages ago.
Over the weekend a friend of my husband’s asked why he was out protesting a Hate Group when ‘ it’s not that much of a problem you know’ my husband’s friend said.
I’m sorry, if you’ve ever had just one person jab their finger in your face and say you don’t deserve to live because you’re a race mongrel it’s a HUGE problem.
I’ll be honest, I used to think it was easier just to ignore bigotry too because dealing with it can be a real danger to you and your home and your family.
But now I think it’s much easier to deal with a Mob of guys wearing hoods on their heads or with Swastikas tattooed on their arms and shaved into their hair then it is to live with the knowledge you told a friend to accept that they should spend the rest of their life hiding behind a locked door watching American Idol and ‘relaxing’ then to try to do their best to bring dignity and safety into the lives of their friends and family and community.
It must be hard to know you just told a friend to pretend they don’t exist, that in a way they don’t really matter. What a waste of time it must be to tell yourself everytime you look at your friend’s face that you’re telling him he’s less entitled to human dignity then you are ‘for his own good’.
I’ve changed my mind, it might be harder to do right, but when I think on it, I think its far more easier then doing nothing at all.
Irregular Bones 
“It must be hard to know you just told a friend to pretend they don’t exist, that in a way they don’t really matter. ”
That person probably does not know he or she just said that.
That is maybe the worst part. That mind numbing ignorance that just shoots out of someone’s mouth and suddenly illuminates for you what is really going on inside there that is not pretty and not a friend to you.
It amazes me that hate groups go out in public and show their pride. Glad your husband is out there protesting their ideas.
Why can’t those people fill their hearts with something else instead of hatred? They have got to be really miserable if they have nothing better to do than hate others.
Hi Max,
In all fairness, I’d agree with you- that person didn’t know that the sum of what they actually said was something pretty bad. But to keep going a friend would have said, ” I’m afraid for you don’t do this. ”
Not, sit down and shut up.
And you know what Kitty, in dealing with these groups I’ve learned they are so fear driven it’s a wonder they can take a breath or that they don’t fall over from strokes because they’re blood pressure and heart rates my being going at full tilt all of the time.
The world IS full of awful people but in my mind the good ones more then balance that out.
amm
Yup Anita, that about sums it up, the awful people are just the fearful and/or ignorant minority that shout loudest – it’s easy to forget that.
That minority is dangerous. Especially when times are tough and people are out of work and cannot put food on the table. Because they will pick someone to hate and point a finger at and say, There, if that person was not taking what I am entitled to, I would be okay here, that person is the problem.
That is what created Hitler’s Germany.
What concerns me now is the buzz term ‘Illegal’.
or ‘Illegal Immigrant ‘…Illegals are taking our jobs, Children born in the States to ” Illegals” shouldn’t be considered Americans…etc etc and what they’re really saying is
” Mexicans “.
They sure aren’t talking about the French or South Pacific Islanders are they? ( not yet anyway)
People know that’s racisit but they get an out by replacing ” Mexican ” with “Illegals.”
PC Racism..what will they think of next?