Political and personal opinions aside, pot is a drug. So is cocaine. So is caffeine.
Pissed anyone off yet?
Good, now hear this. Why does everyone want to be stoned in this day and age? I know why I would want to be (and I don't smoke pot, but I do have a tendency to want to "check out" quite a bit lately).
Have you picked up a news article lately? Telling a lie has become the norm. Even for the Commander in Chief of the U.S. The "land of the free, the home of the brave."
I take advantage of both freedom and the responsibility to be brave. I have a story to tell. Pieces of this story leak out, which usually prompts the person I'm talking to to tell me I need to get into public speaking. The way I write is the way I speak. Hope you're getting the message clearly.
I don't intend to create unrest. Okay, well maybe a little bit. Snowden, et al, have prompted me to use my social media platform to speak out against the institutional stranglehold taking place on our freedom. Why are there explosions of certain mental illnesses that spring up every few years? ADHD, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, etc.? It's a lot easier for the powers that be to think that there's something inherently wrong with the populous than to address the real issue at hand -- political unrest.
Sure, these disorders exist. I have personal experience with clinical Depression and beyond. However, what I've realized over the course of my life and over the course of my formal education is that the more I stifle my opinion and my feelings, the more depressed I get. I don't travel because there is an underlying stigma that mental illness creates weakness and fragility and that one suffering with mental illness should remain as close to providers that care for them as possible. I ascribed to this belief for many years. Yet, I want to travel, desperately. How does one cope?
Go for it. I am planning my next trip, albeit tentatively, right now. I don't plan to stay in the area I was raised for much longer. I grew up in a little town on the Central Coast of California. The population was 30,000 when I was a kid. Today it's over 120,000. That's way too many stifled, angry, fearful people in one small space for me.
I have friends who are gay, friends who cuss, and have a large network of culturally diverse individuals (racially, ethnically, sexually, politically, and socially). The more people that enter this area of the world, the more homogenous it becomes. That's counterintuitive in my world. I would think culturally diverse people would be welcomed into a primarily white working class community. Not so. I've often thought this would change but I've been waiting for 40 years, and the traveling must begin.
I love my friends, my family. But I cannot contend with a community that bars diversity. One that denies stigma, defends social injustices. This is morally, constitutionally, and ethically wrong. I cannot concede to this philosophical stronghold. I am white. I don't plan to act white. Join me on my continuing journey. The threads of freedom and diversity will be woven into my new journey. I hope you'll attend.
Pissed anyone off yet?
Good, now hear this. Why does everyone want to be stoned in this day and age? I know why I would want to be (and I don't smoke pot, but I do have a tendency to want to "check out" quite a bit lately).
Have you picked up a news article lately? Telling a lie has become the norm. Even for the Commander in Chief of the U.S. The "land of the free, the home of the brave."
I take advantage of both freedom and the responsibility to be brave. I have a story to tell. Pieces of this story leak out, which usually prompts the person I'm talking to to tell me I need to get into public speaking. The way I write is the way I speak. Hope you're getting the message clearly.
I don't intend to create unrest. Okay, well maybe a little bit. Snowden, et al, have prompted me to use my social media platform to speak out against the institutional stranglehold taking place on our freedom. Why are there explosions of certain mental illnesses that spring up every few years? ADHD, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, etc.? It's a lot easier for the powers that be to think that there's something inherently wrong with the populous than to address the real issue at hand -- political unrest.
Sure, these disorders exist. I have personal experience with clinical Depression and beyond. However, what I've realized over the course of my life and over the course of my formal education is that the more I stifle my opinion and my feelings, the more depressed I get. I don't travel because there is an underlying stigma that mental illness creates weakness and fragility and that one suffering with mental illness should remain as close to providers that care for them as possible. I ascribed to this belief for many years. Yet, I want to travel, desperately. How does one cope?
Go for it. I am planning my next trip, albeit tentatively, right now. I don't plan to stay in the area I was raised for much longer. I grew up in a little town on the Central Coast of California. The population was 30,000 when I was a kid. Today it's over 120,000. That's way too many stifled, angry, fearful people in one small space for me.
I have friends who are gay, friends who cuss, and have a large network of culturally diverse individuals (racially, ethnically, sexually, politically, and socially). The more people that enter this area of the world, the more homogenous it becomes. That's counterintuitive in my world. I would think culturally diverse people would be welcomed into a primarily white working class community. Not so. I've often thought this would change but I've been waiting for 40 years, and the traveling must begin.
I love my friends, my family. But I cannot contend with a community that bars diversity. One that denies stigma, defends social injustices. This is morally, constitutionally, and ethically wrong. I cannot concede to this philosophical stronghold. I am white. I don't plan to act white. Join me on my continuing journey. The threads of freedom and diversity will be woven into my new journey. I hope you'll attend.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave your thoughts, words of encouragement (or confusion), and other comments below: