WHY THE HATE?

*off the net. when i find the source i will credit it*

Let's talk.
Let's talk about bigotry using the political machinery of the untied states
in numerous attempts to dictate what our lives and beliefs should be.

Let's talk about the literalist christians who are jealous of all of the attention that we've been getting so they decided to grab some of the attention for themselves by proclaiming that they are being "persecuted."

Let's talk about people who LACK basic civil rights.

Let's start by talking about "those people" who your parents warned you about.
You know who I mean.
How did that list go?
The gay men. The lesbians. The witches who--well, of course they worship satan. The pagans. The promiscuous. The single parent. The welfare bum. The unchurched. The bisexual. The transgendered. The atheist. The humanist. The non-theist. The polytheist. The migrant worker. The illegal alien. The downtrodden. The "turban wearers." The disabled. The "retards." The "mentally ill." The homeless. The druggie. The people ripping off insurance companies and workers comp. The libertarians. The liberals. The radical left. ..........
Anyone who doesn't act like "we" do or believe what "we" do or love like "we do" or look like "we" do.

You know who I mean now, right?

NEWS FLASH!
I am those people.

Are we still talking???
-sapphoq

Breaking Out in Spots 8/29/05

Some witch groups have gotten together and have written a letter condemning Pat Robertson for his recent remarks concerning another country's leader. Mr. Pat Robertson apparently wishes that particular human being dead. Mr. Pat Robertson is an evangelist and a christian. He has used prayer for cursing rather than for blessing.

I too object to Mr. Pat Robertson's recent display of prejuidice. While I believe along with Howard Stern that "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it," I also have a right and a responsibility to speak out against injustice when I see it or hear about it.

What I see happening in the United States is an outbreak of hatred. The evangelicals and the fundamentalists got their man in the White House. Now some christians are claiming "persecution."

These same people who claim persecution for their beliefs would deny me my basic human rights to love who I love, to commune with the gods and goddesses of my choosing or to be free from all religions, to raise my children without interference through the "teaching" of "intelligent design" (a ploy for getting creationism taught in science classes in public schools)...

How many christians have been asked to leave a hotel during vacation because they are christian? Two gay men were recently asked to leave a hotel in Maine after one night. Why? The owner objected to them sharing a bed. [The staff person who took their reservation did not mention that the owner might object.] The two men were forced to hotel-hop for the rest of their vacation. It was during Maine's busy tourist season and none of the hotels in the area had a room available for six nights. The right to public accomodation exists for christians and for heterosexuals. It does not exist for non-heterosexuals in many states whether or not the non-heterosexuals are christians.

How many christians have been told that they cannot run for office? In some states, a law remains on the books excluding nontheists from holding public office.

How many christians have been fired from their jobs just for being christian? People who are not heterosexual are terminated from employment due to their sexual orientation. They are shown the door because of a state of being. People who lose their jobs because they are homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered are not being caught having same-gender orgies in the stairwells.

How many christians have been excluded from the hospital bedsides of their spouses? Are excluded from survivor benefits for 9-11? Same-gendered couples routinely experience these things.

Are told as kids by classmates that they are condemned to "hell" because they are not part of the "frozen chosen?" Many children who are being raised as non-theists or pagan have had the experience. In my own sixth grade class, a classmate who was being raised as a unitarian was put on the hot seat by other classmates because she did not believe in any god and she acknowledged evolution as the best explanation for the beginnings of humankind.

Commit suicide because as teenagers they find that they are christian? The suicide rate of teens who are homosexual or lesbian is astronomical. I also am personally acquianted with teens who were kicked out of their homes because they are gay or lesbian or bisexual.

How many christians find that other voters in a state [like Maine] are interested in denying them their right to vote because they reside in a group home for being christian and must have a representative payee for their SSD checks? In Maine, a person residing in a group home must have a representative payee for their SSD checks. In Maine, a person with a representative payee for their SSD check is denied the right to VOTE. Not everyone who resides in a group home has a developmental disability. [what used to be called "retarded"] People with mental conditions or brain injuries or learning disabilities who happen to land in a group home in Maine cannot vote. People with developmental disabilities who are interested can be taught how to become a successful voter. But this does not happen in Maine's group homes.

How many christians were ever forced to sit in the back of the bus or the subject of a protest to end segregation because they were christian--unless they were also people of color? Prejuidice did not end with the Emancipation Proclamation. My little sister at the age of two was taught to refer to little black kids as "chocolate babies." My little sister was not taught to make fun of other christians.

How many christians are kept out of public building by virtue of their christianity? A woman in a southern state who is a wheelchair user had to crawl up the stairs to attend a court hearing about a legal matter. There was no elevator. When she refused to crawl up the stairs a second time on a different date, she was ticketed for non-appearance. People who are mobility-impaired are routinely not able to access some public buildings or some restaurants or some museums due to physical barriers. People who use wheelchairs find that many public forms of transportation
--like most buses--are inaccessible. So they wait for the "special" bus-- if there is one.

Please don't talk to me about persecution until you have walked in my sneakers. Because although you have a right to claim persecution for your freely held beliefs, I have experienced prejuidice and discrimination for my state of being. Shout all you want to but I will not be listening.
I will be out there fighting for my basic human rights as a bisexual, as a person with disabilities, and as a pagan witch. I will be out there fighting for the lesbian who lost her children because of who she is. I will be out there fighting for the "mentally ill" people in Maine residing in group homes who are denied access to the voting booth. I will be out there fighting for the wheelchair user who refuses to crawl up courthouse steps and who is blocking non-accessible buses with my comrades from ADAPT. I will be out there fighting to ensure that public school education remains free from the demands of the creationist non-science people and free from christian recruiting.


The witchvox link I have provided is a source of news for witches and pagans.
The artwork is my own, made with the help of "Paint Pro."

ACCESSIBILITY

*photo below--"Montreal Train Tracks and Photophobia" by sapphoq


I am so sick of the wheelchair
sign for accessibility.

Not all of us use a wheelchair.

Along with Dan Wilkins and my other acquaintances from the organization ADAPT, I
vote for getting rid of the wheelchair sign and using the all inclusive letter A
instead.

A is for Accessibility.

A is for all of us.

A is for "an inclusive society" that does not distinguish between "obvious" and "invisible" disabilities.

A friend of mine who has neurofibromatosis [von Recklinghaus disease or "Elephant's Man Disease in the vernacular--a cancer of the nerve cell endings caused by a genetic mutation] came up to see me once. She has a "handicapped" permit. Some man pulled up behind us and started verbally abusing her. She looked at him and said, "I have CANCER, do you mind?" That is just one example of why I vote for using the letter A for accessibility. Society is used to equating "handicapped" with people who use wheelchairs. This needs to change.

When my friends who use wheelchairs cannot access independently the entryway to a medical clinic that gets medicaid funding, THAT IS WRONG.

When government
buildings do not provide
accessible elevators and restrooms,
THAT IS WRONG.

Every time any member of this society is denied services, access to public places, or the ability to move within this society, THAT IS WRONG.

It should not matter whether any individual with a disability uses a wheelchair, has hearing or vision problems, mobility problems, cognitive problems, a mental condition.......

What should matter is that ALL OF US need to be able to maintain real employment [not sheltered workshops thank-you as they are akin to slave labor], housing, public accomodations, transportation, education, financial solvency, intimate relations, etc-- with or without supports-- of OUR choosing.

When the regional VESID office refuses to sign off on a waiver so that I can get a job coach and work less than twenty hours a week, that is discrimination.

[Yes, I am complaining.]

When the "special bus" has a very limited schedule or is too "busy" to pick up disabled tourists in Myrtle Beach so they can go out to dinner at a restaurant of their choice, that is discrimination.

When a human being with a history of severe trauma and resultant mental condition who has self-inflicted healing scars on their arms is asked to leave a diner in Pennsylvania because those scars are upsetting to the other patrons, that is discrimination.

When I went on vacation in Montreal in April of 2005 with my cane, suddenly there were obstacles that I do not have to deal with in my hometown--uneven broken sidewalks, long long walks to change metros [read:underground subway trains], and people who could not wait for me to find the words to express myself with in retail establishments.

YES, the whole world needs to be accessible to wheelchair users. YES, insurance should pay for equipment that would most improve quality of life. YES also, many of us need society to be INCLUSIVE OF ALL DISABLED PEOPLE.

When I brought the disability papers to one of my doctors to fill out when I was applying for SSD, he said, "But you can do housework and drive!" And I thought to myself, hmmm, I'm the one who got the brain injury here???

I did get the SSD-- but there are horror stories about people with cancer on chemotherapy being denied SSD because some bureaucrat believes that between fatigue and throwing up, they should be able to find some time and energy to work.

Cross-disability work is so important, now more than ever. Let's get rid of the wheelchair sign and substitute the letter "A." Let's gather together as a coalition to fight for the same rights that the temporarily abled around us take for granted. The horror stories need to stop. There are real people behind the horror stories suffering because our politicians and our big lobby insurance companies want to save money at the expense of our lives.

-sapphoq