This is how NOT to think!
Yesterday I had a discussion with the writer of the email below, my point during the discussion was how you are received is largely based on how you feel about yourself. There are going to have prejudices as long as the globe is turning. But in 2008 the human race in general is moving in the right direction. The most effective weapon against a group that has been oppressed is any person or persons in the group that have internalized the lies, myths and propaganda from the outside. The Womens movement would never have advanced if women believed they should stay barefoot and pregnant or what if Rosa Parks believed she didn't have the right to keep her seat, the civil rights movement may never have happened. One persons positive outlook, self confidence and willingness to KNOW that they are just as good and that no one is any better than they are can change the world. My parents and grandparents generation had a saying that was used regularly during the height of the civil rights, "some black people are like crabs in a barrel, as one crab gets to the top, another crab will pull him down". Fortunately that statement isn't as popular as it used to be, unfortuanelty it's moved to a different species of crabs. The thing that really saddened me about the email was the death of two people was used to make a point, a sad and unfounded point. I was not offended by the email initially I was angered, but after a few minutes I realized, "no need to be angry, I know better". Anger turned to sadness because it has to be sad to live with an internal voice telling you "there's something wrong with you." I've never heard any such voices, I guess the closest would be my own voice telling me, "get your damn teeth fixed!"
EMAIL from Rick
My home town newspaper reported that two men, Scott Wiggins and Michael Compton, were murdered execution style near their home in Bryson City, North Carolina. The person who told me, my cousin, stated that one of the main reasons was due to the fact the two men were an openly gay couple.
This awful tragedy supports my argument that being gay— especially especially in rural communities—is a handicap much like being physically challenged is a disability. My heart is aching with pain as the reality of this terrible news settles knowing that Scott and Michael are lost to us forever.
What is even more disconcerting is that many in our community chose to live as though this sort of raw hatred does not exist. Moreover, they chose to wear “rose colored glasses”
probably thinking that there is nothing wrong with them and that their straight neighbor is their friend. Only in places such as New York and San Francisco can the openly gay man or woman live freely, where the gay community is the majority not the minority.
If I have offended you, I apologize. I am merely reacting to reality of what happened.
Rick
Categories: Any and Everything, Current Events and Hot Topics, Your Best Life
The aim of my email was not to offend anyone. Merely, I was responding to the news that I have lost a relative. Initially, I was in shock because Scott and I are kin, and now I feel so sad because I can’t believe he is gone.
But at the same time, I wanted to respond to our past conversation because this, I feel, is a case-in-point. It is neither good nor bad; it is what it is. Homosexuals can’t function the same way heterosexuals can because there will always be members of the majority group who will always work to suppress the minority. Thus, we become handicapped by virtue of something that comes natural to us yet is something that is despised by a wider population. So long as members in our community do not exercise caution and are not mindful, tragic events such as what happened to Scott and Heath will happen again.
The few areas where the gay community can systematically flourish are in large urban regions such as New York and San Francisco because there are pockets of places where the numbers of gay people outnumber straight people. This is why I exercise extreme caution and will reveal myself only to those people, such as you, who are in my inner circle and whom I trust immensely. I come from a rural region where there are serious consequences for being gay.
While I wholeheartedly agree with you whereby you state that, “how you are received is largely based on how you feel about yourself,” I can’t help wonder whether your statement is valid in most cases. I believe it is more accurate to say that in today’s world how you are received is largely based on how you present yourself. The world’s population does not give a damn about how I feel about myself. But, the world will react to how I present myself.
Feel free to read and share with your readers the article from my hometown’s newspaper: The Smoky Mountain Times.http://www.thesmokymountaintimes.com/articles/2008/08/14/news/news02.txt
Love you
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If you cant function as a gay man the same way straight people can then thats your plight and you have to live with it. The rest of us function EVERY day just like everyone else. As long as you CHOOSE to live in the dark and crawl around the baseboards in the dark like a roach you NEVER find true happiness. You know full well that everyone of my friends that you have met are OPENLY gay to families and work and NONE of them are MINOR in anyway. The majority make as much (if not more money than there heterosexual neighbors), own a home (or homes) and live like everyone else. You need to realize that you are a self hating gay man, and deal with that or separate yourself from the rest of us who have no issues with who we are. As a black male I've dealt with discrimination in subtle and overt ways, yet it never suppressed me or made me feel minor in any way, because I KNEW IT WAS A LIE! I can say that as of 11 PM August 28, 2008 I realized there is nothing that's not within my reach. In closing realize this, nobody wants to hear the negative, depressing, pathetic rants of a grown man who hates who/what he is, get over it. I'm not discussing this ANYMORE, I have things to do, there is a world that needs CHANGE!
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As usual you have missed the point of my message! It’s because the truth is so blatantly obvious that you and a host of other gays choose either not to see it or just ignore it altogether. There is nothing wrong with being handicapped; you just learn to function with a disability and move on. ‘Nuff’ said, now I must see what I can do to get McCain and Sarah Palin into office.
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