Someone Triggered the Snowflake

Today is a writing day. Clay is gone with his buddies, and I texted my kids that I would be holed up in my workroom all day (pretending I was back in that little TV-less room at St. Meinrad where I was oh-so productive, dashing off pages and pages of serious prose and a couple of not-so-serious poems) and would be avoiding my phone.

While the coffee was brewing, I checked my email (constructive) and Facebook (not as constructive, but more fun) when I saw a post by a young woman I love but strongly disagree with. She loves a shirt that says "God is great, beer is good and liberals are crazy." I'm cool with the first two assertions, but disagree with the third -- actually, I was hurt by the third. Because you know how I feel about name calling, which is how I think everyone should feel about name calling (and if you don't know, I wrote about it here.) Even though I know that this shirt is just a light-hearted jab at liberals. And so I started typing a reply, which was destined to be come a "TLDR" (too long, didn't read) reply, and which Clay (after I read him the first draft over the phone) suggested would be a pretty good blog post. He also suggested the title. Thanks, husband.


You know, it hurts to be called crazy when all you believe in is equal opportunity for all.

When you believe in civil rights.

When you believe in the beauty and power of public education.

It hurts to be called crazy when you believe the death penalty is an American atrocity.

When you believe that immigration is a natural part of the growth of our society and that all should be welcomed and more quickly and easily granted the path to citizenship if that is what they desire.

When you believe that love is love is love is love is love.

When you grumble like every other American at the prospect of tax increases, but understand that taxes are what you pay to live here. To drive on paved roads, receive police and fire protection, hike the National Parks, sleep at night knowing that our country is protected by its strong military, and pray that a greater portion of those taxes will be used to bring about equality and justice in the forms of more jobs, more programs for those in need of healthcare, housing and nutrition, and more assurance that as we grow older our needs will be met, as well.

When you believe in business and industry, but also believe that business and industry have been allowed to "over benefit" from revision to tax code and deregulation; when you recognize the financial disparity between those at either end of the American class system brought on by those "benefits."

When you love this great country with all your heart and cannot imagine living anywhere else, yet understand that Americans are just a small part of a global community who carry a great socio-economic responsibility to bring about peace and justice worldwide.

It hurts to be called crazy when you believe that we are all stewards of the earth and owe the planet respect and love in the forms of regulation of pollutants to our vast yet finite supply of air, water and soil and in the development of energy sources other than oil; when you believe that climate change is natural, inevitable but amplified by environmental practices and must be studied further.

When you believe that the Second Amendment has been manipulated from its original vision -- that of allowing newly-minted Americans (ie, immigrants) in the infancy of our country to protect themselves from those foreign invaders who would challenge our freedom to be Americans -- into its current manifestation wherein people believe the Amendment guarantees their right to carry a gun anywhere, any time, without education, license or registration; when you believe that the rights of those to carry weapons seriously screws with your personal vision of a more perfect union and domestic tranquility. When you believe that those who signed the Constitution could not have foreseen a day when innocents are killed by gun violence every day.

Every single day.

It hurts to be called crazy when you know that you cannot possibly understand every single American's situation. When you recognize that you are highly privileged -- that you can read, drive, have a roof over your head and meals at your table, and therefore cannot even begin to make decisions/judgments/legislation about others without intense discussion, continuous conversation, and equitable representation.

It hurts to be called crazy when you believe that your liberal political views stem from what you see as simple kindness and love of every human being on the planet.

Even the conservatives.

Peace.