Bathrooms

Ah news. You never fail to disappoint me.  It's not really the fault of the journalist.  It's mainly the fact that people themselves are flawed individuals and subject to failing spectacularly on a regular basis.  I often wonder if ignorance is bliss and I should just not watch the news...like ever.  I then realize that ignorance is never an option, because life moves quickly, and you never want to just let things pass you by and affect you without knowing what's going on.

With the news of the White House lifting Obama's guidelines on protections for transgendered kids, it makes me wonder just who has the right to decide for these children what their identities are? Many parents of transgendered children state that their child knew from the very start what their identities were.  Some parents have stated that they are the ones who decide.  When children are born, doctors take a look at the external genitalia and assign the child a gender.

Looking through Twitter, tumblr, and just hearing from others, I've learned that being transgendered is difficult enough as it is.  Many are already afraid to use the bathroom that fits with their "chosen" gender. (I've placed the word "chosen" in quotes because I don't believe it's something they just chose out of the blue for kicks. It's the gender they feel that best suits them.) Why should we, cisgendered persons, make ourselves the genital police and tell someone they can't potty because they don't have the right genitals? It's really none of our business.

Childhood and adolescence are hard enough.  Why make it harder for kids to go to school and be able to feel comfortable in the skin they are in? Bathrooms are just bathrooms. People are just people.  How hard is that to understand?

A Little Rant

I'm a Christian, but I don't consider myself to a fundamentalist. I find that trying to shove my belief system down the throats of others never tends to go well, and it actually is pretty disrespectful to others. I tend to treat people the way I expect to be treated and lately that's caused me to look at issues that have happened in recent weeks in a way that may be quite a bit different from my Christian friends who have supported Trump.

For instance, on Facebook, I've heard some people compare the recent immigration ban to the fact that people won't get into heaven without "vetting." (I.e. salvation) I don't find that a valid comparison to the immigration ban. First of all, this isn't heaven. The United States is far from perfect, we're just a country that at this moment isn't undergoing a civil war. People are coming here for refuge, not because they believe this is some type of paradise. Refugees are escaping to other countries as well, not just ours. Secondly, refugees already undergo a detailed vetting process to be able to come into the United States. Many of the people who were subject to the ban already had been in the United States and held visas. Some were green card holders. They had already been vetted. It is a complex process to get a green card and be accepted as a permanent resident. A friend of mine and her husband can attest to that. Thirdly, if we're going to pull religion into this, here's what the bible has to say:

Luke 10:25-37
Luke 3:11
Matthew 25: 35-40
1 John 3:17

So that comparison is invalid.  If you're going to ask "What would Jesus do?" this is what he'd do. He'd feed the hungry, clothe the poor, welcome the little children unto Him, and probably take out after congress with a bull whip and overturn tables at the marketplaces. 

Honestly, this land doesn't belong to us to begin with. It was forcibly taken, invaded by outsiders and then the residents were forced from their homes, killed, poisoned, and we have the audacity to say "Nope, not here. We don't want you here." Um. Okay.

I'm so over people trying to convince me that the Tangerine Nightmare was the moral choice. You won't convince me. Maybe you're trying to convince yourselves. A man who wants to take away healthcare from those who can't afford it, who wants to strip our rights away, and who refuses to help people who desperately needs it is not a man with morals. He wants to take away business regulations that harm his buddies (look it up, he said it directly) but make businesses more transparent in their dealings with the public. The ban that was taken down didn't affect any countries that held financial interests of his, or had harbored terrorists that affected the US and our interests. (Again, you can look that info up) He was sued for sexual assault on a minor, and accused of such from adults as well.

So comparing Trump to "God" and using the United States as a metaphor for Heaven is an unfair and incorrect comparison.

First Post, First Post

Well, welcome to my new-ish blog.  I've been encouraged to set up a new blog by a teacher of mine, and I've had blogs before.  I spent a lot of time on LiveJournal back in the day, so I'm not a newbie to the whole blogosphere. I also spend way too much time on Twitter and tumblr for my own good, and I also haunt the hallowed halls of Facebook,

As for my analog life, I'm currently a non-traditional student at a local private college.  I'm majoring in English with a creative writing minor.  I have a cat, and a mom, and a lot of friends that I'm lucky to be surrounded by on a regular basis.

Hopefully, in the future, you'll see some regular posts about my life, my joys, and my current hobbies, but I wanted to at least introduce myself for now.