Love not hate


I had thought that I wouldn't blog anymore, in fact I haven't blogged in years. I had been thinking of deleting my Facebook, twitter, Instagram and any other online forum. I was thinking along the lines of "what is the point?" All the in-your-face instant-constant opinions and I felt like taking my voice out of the medium. Why do we feel the need to post our lives on these forums in such a constant way? It was too much information, too much time spent looking at videos, tweeting, posting, etc.

Then I postponed deleting my accounts, thinking I would just not post my personal life so much and keep my personal life, "personal". Another reason is my connection with some of my high school friends and even some family members are through Facebook only.

I've also realized what a gift it, is to be able to express yourself in any medium. I feel as a mother, as a woman and as a ethnic human being that I need to speak up for what is right and what is true. Giving the state of the world today, any positive words thrown into the world is a good thing.

A little bit about me.  I quit working in December of 2016 to raise my then thirteen year old daughter. We have in depth conversations about anything and everything. I recently had to sit down and talk with her about racism, KKK, White Nationalist and what it means to be bi-racial in America. It breaks my heart that I have to talk about this with her. I wish I could give her a just world, a world filled with love, not hate.

While I am grateful for our public school system and anyone who makes teaching their career. I feel like my daughters weren't getting a full rounded education so I took it upon myself to teach them on a more personal level about historical figures. I did this with my daughters who are grown now and I'm
doing it with my youngest who is fourteen now. I started with women in history. So far, we have studied Jackie Kennedy, Helen Keller, Anne Frank, Sojourner Truth(Isabella Baumfree), Maya Angelou, Mother Teresa, Jane Goodall, Malala Yousafzai, Frida Kahlo, and Eva Peron. Ten woman and I"m working on another set of 10 woman to study with her. I have this huge lesson plan on what I want her to know by the time she's' eighteen years old. I want to raise her to know the struggle women have gone through and what we are still going through and in particular women of color.

I became very upset today when I watched the news. I normally don't let it get to me so much. Trumps remarks on Charlottesville sent me into "angry mama mode" His ambiguous remarks, "bad people, fine people on both sides, a group on one side and one group on the other side. A group on this side that came violently attacking the other group." What group? What side? At least have the decency to say it. White supremacist, white nationalist? Neo-Natzi? What group are you talking about. If he is going to defend white supremacists then say it. Instead he said, one group on one side then one group on another and both sides had fine people. No, you cannot be a white supremacist and be a fine person. It's an impossibility. If you can look at my daughter who is dark and believe in your heart that her rights should be taken away and that you are infinitely better than her, then you are not a fine person. There is right and there is wrong, and that kind of belief is wrong. My heart breaks, my mind is blown and I have a hard time understanding that he is our leader. We took ten steps forward and then 12 steps backward.

Look at the women my daughter and I have studied. They are all races and born between the 1700 to 1997 and what do these women have in common? What would they say if they saw the news today? Eva Peron born in 1919 in Argentina, Maya Angelou born in 1928 in St. Louis Missouri, Annelies Frank born in 1929 in Frankfurt Germany, Jackie Kennedy born in 1929 born in Southampton NY. Anne Frank didn't have the chance to grow into a woman, she was taken from her family forced to do hard labor and died at fifteen years of age. Sorjourner Truth (Isabella Baumfree) was born in 1797 she was sold at the age of nine at an auction with a flock of sheep for one hundred dollars. When she was knocked off of a Washington street car she denounced racism, saying " its' hard for the old slave holdin' spirit to die, but die it must." If she were here what would we say to her? How is it okay for someone to go out and hold Natzi signs and dress in white robes, representing racism, hatred?

We have to remember all those who died before us, all those who fought for freedom. We owe it to them to speak up for truth and love. We need a leader who will stand up for what's right and good, a leader who understands history. We are all mixed, if you know history you know that Europeans moved everywhere, it's almost impossible to be just one race. I recently had my DNA tested and I'm 8% African, 49% European 31% Native American, and 10% West Asia My European is made up of Spain, Italy, Greece, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Ireland. We need to stop labeling each other, we are people and that's it. Throughout  out history anyone who believed they were better than anyone else, nothing good has come from that, hate, torture, death, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini. Isis, KKK, White Nationalist we cannot allow this and we must stand up for what is right.

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