Chaos, Panic Disorder . . .

Taken from kittykat on IJ and damn if this isn't true (though the religious nutjobs will never, and I mean never see the true light and stand up and do what they've been preaching all along . . . Do I hear the part 'do unto others as you would have others do unto you?' But, then again, these are the people who think we're giving out special rights without remembering history. More on that below the vid. LJ users will get a vid, IJ users will get a link.) Just had to get this off my chest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HpTBF6EfxY

Humans tend to forget a lot, especially if they don't want to hear it. We tend to ignore facts when it doesn't suit us. We tend to push things aside if we're uncomfortable with it or if we just plain don't want to deal with it. So when anything comes down to 'special rights' for gays and 'taking away our rights' as straights I can't help but think of things that happened before my time. Yes, I said before my time. Events in American history that happened before I was born. Now, I'm one of those rare people who can look past that narrow band and see the bigger picture. I also take everything into consideration and not limit myself to just one small section of reality. If the religious nutjobs want to keep believing that women have always had the right to vote, to get jobs like men, to get treated like men then so be it. I guess we can forget about the whole Suffrage movement around the turn of the century. I guess we can forget the persecution of women who dared think they were equal to men. And what about something a bit closer to our time? Even though Lincoln freed the slaves he didn't make them equal. They, along with Indians and other minorities, were still viewed as lower than second class citizens (remember, white men were first class citizens, white women second class citizens and everyone else nothing but dirt.) It wasn't until the Civil Rights movements in the 60's that allowed blacks (and minorities) a chance at at least second class status and not dirt treatment, so they could get jobs and not be denied through discrimination. But that's America. No matter how many people want to disagree we are an Aryan nation. We view whites as superior to all other races (sure we haven't gone to the extreme, except in selected situations) and that reflects in the demographics of our poor, homeless and in salaries and the work force. No one can deny that (well, they can but with what concrete proof?) America has never matured from the colony it once was, never really moved on. We were racist against the natives of this land and it just snowballed from there. Racism is an inherent part of the American psyche. No one will remember about the period in American history that some wondered 'would it happen again?' and it did, only it's not the same because they are not American born or first generation immigrants but foreigners, but that's another rant for later.) No one will remember about Manzanar (a book I'm reading about now) or Tule Lake. No one will remember the anti-Asian sentiments of the turn of the century when it was illegal for Asians to own property, become a US citizen or do anything this country offered (at that time) only to its male, Aryan population. But it happened.

So, when the religious nutjobs (and nutjobs in general) get going about how we can't give gays special rights (and believe me, when we had the vote on making it a statewide protection for gay rights I heard enough about how if it passed we'd have to give first choice of things to gays, we'd have to rent our homes to them, even if they were killers and all sorts of fanciful (and wrong) ideas about what equal rights mean) it just boils my bunions (as they say.)

Ah, feels good to rant (considering I'm typing this before work and will finish updating the rest of my journal when I get home.) Now for breakfast ^^