Yesterday, the world became a little less bright. Yet I hardly noticed because John Madigan left so much light behind.
John died after leaving for more than a year with glioblastoma—a cancer so vicious most oncologists will estimate your remaining lifespan in months rather than years.
With that cancer, he wasn’t supposed to make it to Christmas. Of 2013. Yet here we are, marking his passing in 2015.
Yesterday’s tragedy at Charlie Hebdo is weighing on my mind largely because I have experienced first-hand the vicious judgment of “religious” people. The folks who picked on me weren’t likely to escalate their taunts to violence, yet I never ruled out the possibility. Some folks just want to control everything–an odd perspective coming from people who claim they are dedicated to an all-powerful God.
When I see the photographs coming out of Ferguson, MI, this picture of Mary Vecchio mourning the death of her classmate in 1970 comes to mind. For those unfamiliar with the events leading to the shootings at Kent State, you can get the gist of it all here. Pretty much it was a case study in tragedy arising from an overzealous police force mixed with a mob of very unhappy people.
I feel as though the protests in Ferguson won’t end until another tragedy strikes. The police force in Ferguson may be using non-lethal crowd control techniques. Yet tear gas and flash bangs can still harm people. Rubber bullets are still bullets. They might not kill, but they can injure and maim. These non-lethal tactics aren’t non-violent.
All my life I have rebelled against life organizing tools. Whether it was the assignment books they gave us in school or the pocket calendar my parents would not-so-subtly give me for Christmas every year, I wanted nothing to do with organizing tools. For me, the time it took to write out to-do lists was time away from writing or something much more important. Besides, I was really good at storing it all in my head.
Until I wasn’t.
One main thought actually: It’s distracting as shirtless Jeremy Renner arriving at my door with pizza, beer, and a box of chocolate-smothered cherries.
::Sigh:: Hmph? Sorry. Got lost in the fantasy for a bit.
Maybe Twitter doesn’t quite have that effect on me. Twitter is probably more like Ann Coulter on speed. Arguments on Twitter can be entertaining, yet they can also be overwhelming and the high drama quotient tends to drain my brain more than stimulate it. Mostly because there is a LOT of STUPID out there and no amount of arguing seems to put a dent in it.
Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision was worrying for many reasons. It’s a setback for women’s health and it may give penny-pinching corporations enough wiggle room to back out of paying for contraception that should be part of comprehensive health care. Most disturbingly, it grants an inordinate amount of power to corporations to impose religious beliefs on its employees–a power not even granted to our federal government.
I understand not everyone is comfortable with being direct or with calling out bad behavior when it happens. As a woman, I get it. We’ve been socialized not to make “waves” and we lose social capitol even when we politely request (and especially when we firmly request) that someone consider our feelings and stop whatever stupid thing it is that they are doing. Yet I am beyond tired of folks who employ indirect methods for correcting behavior. You have a problem with how someone is acting? Then you need to TALK to THEM.
Not their parents. Not their friends. Not their boss. Not their coworkers. Not their pets. THEM.
My primary motivation in writing this post is to dispel all rumors once and for all that I’m a lesbian. There’s nothing wrong with lesbians. I’m just a teensy bit tired of folks assuming I am one because my dating history is a mish-mash of assorted hookups and month-long flings. I’m turned on by men AND women people.
