Okay, so I already have a religious/secular blog called Kemetic vs. Atheist, and I have this one about feminism. What do I do when I have something to talk about that fits neither of those categories? Off-Topic Day (instead of creating a third, fourth, etc. blog).
Wow, the world just went crazy, didn’t it? Oh no, that’s right, it wasn’t the whole world, just the American part of it. So let me say to the rest of the world, if you’re struggling to understand how this could happen in 2017 America, so are we.
This beautiful young woman was killed when a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at a “Unite the Right” rally. The white supremacists were there to protest the taking down of a statue of General Robert E. Lee, the commander of the losing side of our Civil War, a statue that never should have been erected. Things got violent, and Heather Heyer was killed and 19 others injured.
And when I say “white supremacists,” I mean the KKK and the Nazis. Yes, actual, swastika-flying Nazis were there.
Before I go any further, if you haven’t already read this wonderful piece of journalism by The Guardian, please go do that. I’ll be here when you’re done.
And so what I’m seeing now on my Facebook feed are a lot of people saying “silence equals consent” or “silence equals complicity,” and while my first impulse is to resist those who would put words in my mouth (or the nonverbal equivalent), I am here to say I give. Racism, bigotry, and all forms of oppression are wrong. They are wrong. I stand for tolerance of differing views, for acceptance of diverse people, but not racists. There’s an old Peanuts cartoon (I looked for it online and couldn’t find it) that shows Sally (I think) saying she was not prejudiced, except for bigots; she couldn’t stand bigots. Anyway, that’s me. It always has been.
If you have any comments, please click the “Leave a Comment” link at the top of the post. (Please keep it civil. Thanks.)
Full-Throated Feminism 