Independence Day

What exactly does that mean in this year, 2017?

We have spent 240 years, give or take, celebrating our freedoms and independence. We have praised the United States of America for bringing democracy and liberty to more than just our people but to the masses as well. We have sang the words of Francis Scott Key, waved the fabric of Betsy Ross and marched to John Philip Sousa all the while being proud of the example that America sets for the world. 

This year, though, begs a true look back. 

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. 

But for who?

We murdered Native Americans in our quest for our own liberties and freedoms. 

We prospered only with the help of a people who we enslaved and whose ownership we took.

Women were, at best, second-class citizens who were denied so many of the right's their male counterparts enjoyed and considered unalienable. 

We used the idea of God under Manifest Destiny to take what wasn't ours and have been punishing the people we stole from ever since.

Civil rights in this country have not been something given to all of its citizens.

Segregation was supported and people fought to continue it.

Same sex marriages only recently became legal. 

We use cultural caricatures as cartoonish mascots for our sports teams and openly support racism that we call tradition.

Women have still not been given their right to equal pay.

We have begun to hunt down people like prey if we believe they don't belong here and handle them like wild animals loose on our property.

Every year on a holiday we call Thanksgiving we ultimately celebrate our attempt at the genocide of an entire people.

We have a continual debate in this country over half of the population's right to control their own bodies. 

And our police forces are brutally murdering our people because of race. They are shooting first and asking questions never. They are not being held accountable to any reasonable standard and when our nation speaks up, they are silenced. Juries acquit killers with a badge. Citizens choose to stand with the murdering police over their innocent neighbors. 

We have been on a path since 1776 that was always heading towards Donald Trump. We have lived an existence in this country that can only be described as hypocritical. 

Not all of us. 

But it's time to acknowledge our compliance in behavior not fitting with the values we touted as forever being "ours".

It's time to change our future by acknowledging our past.

And it's time to realize and really come to terms with the fact that our past is a lot like our present and if we want to stop this degenerative process and pull ourselves out of the weeds and muck and shit that we find ourselves in, we must #resist. 

For resisting is the only authentically American thing to do. And it's our only option if we want to have actually earned the pride that we burst with in this country.

Vitriol Artist

Shame on everyone who are looking at Democrats and pointing fingers, saying that the vitriol must stop.

YOUR president, Donald J. Trump, is the person to blame for ALL of the current vitriol going on in this country presently.  

He advocates and incites violence with his words and actions. 

BEFORE even running for president, he was recorded bragging about using his power, celebrity and stature to sexual assault women. He publicly abused Rosie O'Donnell for YEARS and YEARS. He would use his position with the Miss Universe Pageant to walk in on unclothed women in dressing rooms.  

DURING his campaign, he called for Hillary Clinton's assassination. He asked a foreign government to hack her campaign. He offered to pay for legal fees for his supporters that committed violent acts upon the opposition. He called an entire country's people (Mexico) rapists and criminals. And he made countless campaign promises that targeted people certain groups of people. 

SINCE being inaugurated he has only continued with this vitriol. He has time and time again tried to instate a travel ban for certain countries based solely on a particular religion. He has continued to put for the idea of building a wall to keep out "certain people" -- an act of vitriol in and of itself. He has continued to publicly disparage Hillary Clinton. He has appointed people to the heads of organizations that are directly opposed to the very organizations itself. He has not spoken up when a supporter of his MURDERED in cold blood people trying to interfere with his hate crime. He tweets on an almost daily basis what can only be labeled as hate-filled vitriol at any one he considers to be an "enemy", be it Hillary Clinton, the mainstream media or anyone -- big or small -- considered a journalist. And for the person who is supposed to be the leader of our ENTIRE country, he has never even ONCE reached out to the people who didn't vote for him to reassure that he would be a leader for all citizens. 

DONALD TRUMP IS THE MOST VIOLENT, HATE-FILLED VITRIOL-ARTIST IN MODERN HISTORY. HE MUST BE STOPPED. AND WE MUST STOP HIM.

Taking Patriotism Back!

I am done with you whiny little bitches. I am done with the idea that conservatives or Republicans have a fucking monopoly on patriotism. I'm fucking taking patriotism back!

You know who isn't a US patriot? Someone who flies the Confederate flag. The Civil War was over 150 years ago and you lost. Let me just write that again because I get the feeling that you fragile fucking snowflakes haven't really accepted this yet. You LOST. Your flag is not our flag. Your leaders are not our leaders. Your statues are not our statues and your monuments are not our fucking monuments. You cower behind the idea that keeping these things is important to our history as a country and that's simply not true. This glorified memorabilia of yours doesn't remember history, it praises the losing side. It praises the things that this country chose to let go of, and rightly so. We have plenty of things in this country that properly remember the history of the time. They're called books. Maybe if you were a little more familiar with art and literature instead of believing that the cultured person's passions and vices are a weakness, you'd realize this. 

You tell liberals on a daily basis that they aren't patriots. You use the fact that they don't believe burning the flag should be illegal as your ammunition. You use the simple man's agenda to mislabel an entire group of people just so that you can steal the idea for yourself and yourself alone. 

Do you truly not understand the ideals this country was created under?

Or are you just still so upset that these ideals mean that you don't have the upper hand that you would spit on the very idea of American values? 

You claim our country is Judeo-Christian. You scream it into microphones and you write it on your Facebook page. You tout it like you fucking understand its origins. You don't. George Orwell came up with that concept (in 1939, long after our founding father's were dead). And it wasn't being used as a fucking compliment. 

You do know that we only added "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, right?! The founding father's had NOTHING to do with that. This is the original:

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

And this was written incidentally by a socialist minister (Francis Bellamy), ya dicks. 

In 1923, it became this: 

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

And it wasn't until our fear of communism came along in 1954 (which none of you people seem to have a problem with anymore) that Eisenhower asked congress to add the "under God" section. 

This country was founded on freedom. It was founded on liberty and justice for fucking ALL motherfuckers. 

Now, that doesn't mean that we haven't had some fairly huge missteps. That doesn't mean that we've always lived these morals the way that we should have. We've made major mistakes. But you trying to make those mistakes our actual value system is hateful, deplorable and embarrassingly ignorant. 

You tell liberals and progressives and that if they don't like this country, they can go ahead and leave it but it seems to me that you're the ones who don't like this country. You're the ones who are trying to change the country to fit your values. You're the ones trying to put your beliefs into the fabric of a country that's already been woven. 

You've added God to our Pledge. You've added God to our money. You've made your religion the backbone of your political arguments. And all the while freedom of religion and separation of church and state is fucking fundamental to the foundation of our country. 

The building blocks of this country are what we and the rest of the world view as true freedom. The ideals of the founding fathers are what we think of when we think of liberty and justice for all. 

The goal of our country should be to continually get closer and closer to those ideals and to use these ideals as a basis for how we respond to our environment. And you, the self-proclaimed patriot, have done absolutely nothing to honor these ideas. The only amendment you seem to care about is the one that gives you guns. 

You're blatantly selfish.

You're paralyzingly ignorant.

You're inexcusably greedy.

You're blindingly hate-filled.

And you're just plain wrong. 

You shout about fucking patriotism while you fly flags that are the polar opposite of patriotic. You holler until your voice is hoarse about a liberal or progressive agenda being unAmerican while you throw temper tantrums over the removal of your monuments and statues that celebrate unAmerican values.

Do you even understand what it means to be a true American? Can you even comprehend the real values that built this country?

You want to make America great again by abandoning American values, you stupid, stupid fuck. 

We're done listening to the white noise of a people (yes, pun very much intended) who can't even begin to understand the irony of their backwards, contradictory ideas. You think there's any pride to be taken in being a fucking fool? You think there's merit in being willfully ignorant and stubbornly stupid? You think that's American?

Cause it's not.

America is about freedom. America is about freedom and liberty and fucking justice. America is about equality and giving a finger to authority figures who try to take all of these things away from us. 

And that includes the police. A true American believes that just because someone wears a uniform and a badge doesn't mean that they get to modify our ideals to their liking. It doesn't mean they get to shoot first and ask questions later. That is NOT their job. Their job is, quite plainly, to SERVE and PROTECT all people, not just themselves. And if they don't like that, they don't have to do that job. Sure, Blue Lives Matter but not any more than any other fucking life in this country and making it seem like they are is decidedly unAmerican. 

Freedom for all. Justice for everyone. Liberty for the masses. And equality for all our people indiscriminately. THAT is America.

And if you don't like it...if you can't be the patriot that our country deserves...YOU, you confederate flag waving, Jim Crow-loving motherfucker, can get the fuck out.

The Bottle of Zima with Two Names

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away and not so different from ours, lived a lonely bottle of Zima. This bottle of Zima had no name, for bottles of Zima were not different enough to need names. Zima thought he had a good life, for a Zima, and couldn't quite understand why he was so lonely. He was surrounded by friends, other similar bottles of Zima, and his friends all said they looked up to him. He took care of himself, making sure his bottle was always polished perfectly, so that the clean lines of his hard body were prominent. He really thought he was one of the more attractive bottles of Zima but he still felt empty, somehow.

One day the bottle of Zima was walking through the woods when one particular tree caught his eye. It was tall and gray. He thought it might have been a Birch but he really couldn't be sure. He was a bottle of Zima, after all. The bottle of Zima walked up to the tree and studied it. It's roots were firmly held in the ground, having spent countless generations lasting the inconsistent and fierce, and sometimes even baffling, weather. He was mesmerized by how strong the tree was despite the fact that it still seemed so delicate.

The bottle of Zima moved forward to touch the strong and powerful tree and as he did, a fairy burst from its smooth, sturdy bark. The fairy's wings flapped quickly and effortlessly, shimmering in the sunbeam that had suddenly appeared in the forest. The fairy turned quickly, looking for the specimen that had brought her from the safety of her home in the hollow. The fairies of the wood were incredibly powerful but often misunderstood. They came in many shades and made their homes in many different habitats but all had the magical powers of compassion, empathy and justice and they all had the abilities to make the unimaginable imaginable. Because of this, they had been forced into hiding long ago, knowing that was the only way they'd be able to continue their work.

When the fairy's gaze landed on the bottle of Zima, her head tilted and her eyes scanned over the figure in front of her. The bottle couldn't move under her scrutiny, he could feel her assessing him, seeing deep down to his core.

The fairy jolted suddenly and flew in a circle around the bottle, glittery dust following in her wake, slowly dancing in the air. She returned to where she started, doing two swift flips before stopping and hovering in front of him.

"What is it that you seek?"

"I don't think that I should be a bottle of Zima."

"No?"

"No."

"And why is that," asked the fairy.

"I'm much stronger than the other bottles of Zima and much more attractive, everyone says so. And I should be, I spend a lot of time making sure I look good. I make all of the right choices and I think all the right thoughts."

"You do," asked the fairy.

"I do."

"And you think this means that you aren't supposed to be a bottle of Zima?"

"Yes, I'm better than that. I'm better than just being an anonymous bottle of Zima. And I'm tired of not having a first name. I want a name. I deserve a name. Two names, even!"

The fairy looked at the bottle and circled once more
Dipping and flipping and beginning to soar.
She glided around and sprinkled her gold
and paused at her subject before she foretold:

"Whatever I do, you will always be you.
Whether a bottle of Zima or something totally new."

The bottle understood, that was fine with him.
He was too good to be Zima, this wasn't a whim.
Once the fairy was sure it was the right thing to do,
she took out her wand and tapped his cap, one...two.

A bomb of tiny stars surrounded the bottle, swirling quickly and kicking up the wind around him. He could feel an immeasurable pressure before the sky changed around him and the wood was no longer a wood.

The nature had turned to stone and cement. The crisp, clear environment had turned thick with hot air. What was once his home, was now far away. He was in his new home. The home he had asked for. The home he felt he deserved.

And that, boys and girls, is the story of how Paul Ryan became Speaker of the House.

Building His Army

This notice went out to Trump supporters along with an accountability survey of the mainstream media.

THIS should worry us all.

"...I don't trust the media..."

"...you -- the American people -- are our last line of defense against the media's hit jobs."

"You...greatest asset in helping our movement deliver truth to the American people."

This is POTUS45 setting up his army. An army far more worrisome than one under the guise of the military. An army with more influence, more motivation and way more anger. This is Trump assembling his troops of propaganda warriors, yellow journalist citizens and soldiers of alternative truth.

We've seen this before. We've seen this very clearly in history.

And his warriors are more than ready to fight. We've all seen them. On Facebook. On Twitter. In our families. I've seen people who are fighting for the right's of all humans being publicly torn apart by family members. I've watched as people who have chosen to build their government on a platform of hatred, violence, isolation and bullying screech at those trying to stop the madness.

The hypocrisy is palpable.

And if that's what's happening out in the open, I can only imagine what's happening behind closed doors -- where the bullies really come out to play. All of us who are witness or recipient to this need to be very aware that we've now reached the next level of this war we're in.

They are officially coming for us.

They'll say that this is paranoia. They'll say it's a scare tactic. They'll say it's fear mongering.

We all know it's not. We mustn't fall victim to these ploys. We mustn't allow his army of hate to undermine what we know is true.

Our country and it's values are at stake.

The people we share this Earth with are in danger. People in this country. People outside of this country. Us.

POTUS45 is working to remove the facts from our daily lives. He's looking to destroy what we've spent centuries building. He's looking to take us back to the days where one type of person has more power, more rights and more freedoms than the others.

We cannot stop our fight.

We cannot go silent just because we become targets.

We cannot allow things that make our blood go cold to halt our progress.

If I go down during this fight, I know that I will have given myself to the greater good. If I lose people because I won't get off the front lines, then so be it. I answer to myself and to what my soul and conscience know is right. You can call that God or whatever word or name is most comfortable for you. The moniker doesn't matter to me -- only the love and acceptance that I find there does.

"But I can't do it alone. I need you by my side, supporting our message and doing your part to get the truth to the American voter."

His call to action for his followers is a call to action for us as well. We must stand up to hate and bigotry. We must stand up to racism and bullying. We must stand up to sexism and every other -ism out there that works to make perfectly good people out to be less than their fellow human beings.

No matter who tries to stop us -- be it a President, a soldier, a stranger or family.

Thankful

There's been a lot of negativity in our country during this election cycle and now during the start of this presidency. And let's face it, the negativity has just been more publicized, it's not new.

It's been with us forever.

It's plagued us.

We've plagued ourselves.

But it's time to put that behind us.

Not forget.

Not at all. There's been far too much forgetting in this country. Far too much.

But it's time for us to turn that negativity into growth. It's time for us to use it. Because if we don't, then we're just going to let it destroy us. And I don't plan on letting that happen, at least not without a fight.

And it seems like there are a lot of other people out there that think the same thing. And that gives me hope. A lot of it. Because it reminds me at a time when everyday brings more and more vulnerability, that the beautiful ideas our country is supposed to stand for are important priorities for so many of the people that stand beside me.

It's nice to know that as powerful as the word "racist" is, the word "resist" eclipses it's power. It's bolstering to know that as intimidating as the word "sexist" is, the word "persist" is going to define this time in history much, much more. We've turned words that were spat out with condescension and hate into a rallying cry that we shouted from rooftops.

One by one, I saw my American brothers and sisters become "nasty women" and "bad hombres". One by one I saw people, of all colors, all creeds, all genders and identities embrace each other and say, "you're safe", "I'll fight for you" and "love trumps hate".

I saw people join hands with each other. I saw people hit the streets in droves. I saw people standing up for themselves and standing up for the people around them. And that's something to have pride in. That's something to remember when the negativity and hate is weighing us down and making it hard to hold your head up.

#blacklivesmatter

#NoBanNoWall

#NoH8

#NoDAPL

These ideas have ensconced us. They've immersed. They make me glad for the concept of hashtags.

Climate Change Matters

Science is Not a Conspiracy

The Affordable Care Act

The EPA

The Department of Education

These issues and areas have become priorities. They've stopped being punchlines in a political agenda and have started to turn into pieces of our lives.

And you know what, they should be.

It's awesome to just go about everyday and get our Starbucks and go to work, pin items on Pinterest, heat up leftovers and go on Facebook to share pictures of our kids or pets or dinner. That's great.

But that's a life half-lived.

Our planet needs to be important to us.

Our children's education (whether we have them or not) needs to be important to us.

Curing disease needs to be important to us.

Human rights, ours and those of every human, need to be important to us.

We need to stop judging each other.

We need to stop hating each other.

We need to realize that coming together and supporting each other is the only way to truly create something to be proud of.

Having a gold toilet? I'm sorry, that's not something to be proud of. That's not. Sure, working hard to be able to afford a gold toilet may make you proud but the toilet itself is just a toilet, whatever it's made of. Helping yourself or someone else get access to water, plumbing and proper sanitation -- that right there -- that is something to be proud of.

It's not honorable to lead an easy life.

It's not honorable to lead a selfish life.

And as I look around, no matter where I am -- in the real world or online -- I see honor in so many places. I see good, honorable people -- people so I'm proud to walk this land with -- standing up for themselves and standing up for their neighbors, saying...

"I matter."

"You matter."

"He matters."

"She matters."

"They matter."

I see people stopping and saying "this doesn't sound right", "I'm not sure about this", "this doesn't feel good".

Those words, that questioning, it's beautiful. Even if you thought that you would feel differently, if it turns out that you just can't bring yourself to hate people the way you're being asked to -- that's beautiful.

Please, see the beauty in that.

See that it's never too late to change your mind.

See that there is amazing power in the courage and bravery to change your mind, to change your heart.

Amidst my anger and fear, I'm beginning to be thankful. Thankful that God thought to put me on the earth during a time where I could witness this love bringing us together; this love and respect making us stand up and fight, for ourselves and for each other. I'm thankful that God has given me the chance to do what's right, to be actively involved in my life, to care about more than just my own, small piece of this place.

And I'm thankful that God has given me the chance to participate with and witness so many honorable people that I proudly call brother and sister.

Thank you all for giving me something to strive for...to give me something to aspire to.

Grandma Bernice: The New Propaganda Machine

In this age of the Internet and social media, propaganda is not just the work and ammunition of governments and political parties anymore. Any run of the mill human being can now join in on the fun of spreading lies and misinformation just like their favorite underhanded politicians.

In just one afternoon on Facebook, you can see dozens of articles, click bait and videos promoting false angles on news stories in addition to the straight-out lies being floated around.

And even though we may see that these stories have originated from websites or organizations that are fueled by alternative facts, also known as fiction, most of the time we see them because a friend or family member has shared them.

We are assaulted with this propaganda every day of our lives and multiple times a day at that, either from some random trashy pop-up or a hate-filed meme that Grandma Bernice shared implying that illegal immigrants collect welfare and she can solve the problem by typing "Amen".

This new society of ours is moving and expanding at such a rate that we're not even aware that we've become the yellow journalists of the past. Who needs unethical reporters when our own citizens can spread gross exaggeration much easier?

When @POTUS45 said live and on the air that Chicago was worse than Afghanistan and that people were being shot left and right, real reporters across the country did their homework and checked his false figures. Real journalists and writers began immediately shedding light on his lies while the yellow journalists out in the Interwebs began to spread his disease of misinformation like wildfire.

Sure, a number of "real" news outlets have stoked the flames but even those are finding it hard to completely ignore the lies coming out of our current administration. But have the great citizens of our country who follow our @POTUS so blindly been listening to these organizations that they once loved to quote outright?

No. No, they're not.

They've been ignoring anyone with a degree and the ability to put two words together and opted instead to become the wheels of their own propaganda machine. They latch on to anyone they can find with a matching opinion and a loud enough voice and then throw their false facts, their exaggerated claims without one speck of research behind them and their righteous indignation to the masses.

And we of the world are their victims.