Troubling History

 The other day, I passed a car painted like the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard.  I was going to snap a picture of it and post, saying something like.... A great car from a great show that was hardly as controversial as it became decades later.  I was going to say something like... when we watched the show, it was just kids of a moonshine running guy that were out there having fun and avoiding the law with a very hot actress.  Then, my mind started critiquing my own narrative..

..why DID they have a confederate flag on the car?  Was it supposed to be good to be breaking the law?  And, when this guy painted his car with that flag, was it just for the show or more?

I know... the confederacy had good things in it that the North rarely did.  In an age of industrial growth, they were focused on things like family, civility, and tradition... but they did also OWN people.  There was definitely mistreatment of slaves, women, and even children.  Not all of that was part of the tradition, but it did exist.  So, when those that promoted the good ignored the bad, it was like an enabler saying what a hard worker and provider the abusive father is.

But, we have a history of doing this.  The church is particularly clear as an example of this.  A few months ago, a trans kid was beaten up and later died after being bullied.  Whether that beating or the harassment of the trans student directly caused the death or indirectly did is beside the point.  The facts of the events are clear.  It happened in that order.  Shortly, a church of Fred Phelps showed up that has been the subject of controversy for decades for showing up at funerals to condemn soldiers and LGBTQ events to shout that they are all going to go to hell.  However... neither the abuse of the trans kid or the actions of the extreme church was condemned by churches around the country, nor church members that were out there saying how loving Christ and the Church was and that others should come.

But... again... without acknowledging or calling out the evil done by church members, we are back to the enabler justifying the abuser.  If you can't condemn someone in your group for saying or doing something, it makes you seem to be an ally of the evil.  And, while SOME FEW of the church are out there doing some good (which deserves congratulation, albeit acknowledgement that non religious people are doing that too), MOST in the churches never give to charity, and almost all of their contributions go to a bigger church and well dressed and driven and housed ministers.  That's just a fact.  Also a fact is that the historical church defended the above slavery, since even in the Bible Paul tells a slave to go back to his owner.  The church was very slow to condemn Hitler, because Hitler used religious symbols and had a perverted church.  The church burned witches for hundreds of years in different places... picture it... literally BURNED women who even if their charge was true simply believed otherwise.  They marched into the middle east in the crusades and killed men, women, and children and sexually abused many, simply because they had a different faith.  Simply having a different faith has been the origin for MANY wars in the past and even some of the present, I believe.  Women were treated like property, and there are BIBLE accounts where "God" supposedly told his people to go kill every man, woman, and CHILD of other regions... as well as all their animals.

All of that is truth.  Ignoring it won't make it any less true, but it will make it look like you tacitly approve of what was done.  Then, whether or not you actually approve of those events, children and generations grow up watching all this and BELIEVE you approved of it and it gets re-enacted.  My point is that you can't just sit silently on some things, and you cannot hide the truth.  I've mentioned in other posts how my silence for a long time in personal matters allowed a narcissistic ex and others to create false narratives about me, and because I wasn't vocally objecting to them even my children were and are being swayed by the fiction to make the ones saying it have more power over me and more sway over others.  Indeed, even as I move, I must explain WHY my ex withheld my child from me to diffuse the created narrative that I did something wrong, which is automatically the assumption when any man divorces... because granted it is rare for a woman to be as big of a btch as mine was and is.  It is why Johnny Depp faced such an uphill battle upon accusation BY the abuser.

I am always focused on truth, but the truth needs to have more effect in our world, today.  It needs to be spoken, owned, and if needed contrition shown.  It may be truth that WE are not the racists that our ancestors were, and they may have been just doing it because it was trendy and done in the day... we can definitely understand that in our trends driven society.  However, if we fail to acknowledge the evil done, we are only setting ourselves up to be judged guilty of the same crime.  Even in Christianity, you cannot get forgiveness without confession, and there seems to be VERY little confession of any evils done being done in our world, today.

The Truths We Don't Speak

Part of the reason so many live disillusioned lives of depression is found in one society problem that has existed all my life and will probably always exist.  We celebrate fantasies and literally tell and expect people living dark days to keep silent.  We... don't say bad things out loud.  I was never very good at that rule.

The unfortunate result, of course, is that no one can learn from the failures of others, so we keep having to learn them over and over like one of those movies of days on repeat.  I try to make a difference in that area and honestly feel peace only when the truth is spoken.  I thought it would be good to post a few of those truths that are known to those that lived them but kept silent from those about to live them.

1.  You can do everything right and still lose... often that's the case, in fact.   Why?  Well... in part it us because while you're living a code of ethics, others are ... not.  So, you become easy bait and meal for the sharks that would feed on you.  In fact, it is my experience that when you start to object and defend yourself, that is seen as an attack by those only wishing to use you.  But... rather than lamenting all that, why not break free and save yourself.

2.  Religion has been anything but a history of comfort.  The religious get all silent when you mention their dark history... in part because many approve of that past and know it's non pc  to say it.  They don't see anything wrong with the church spending centuries trying to convert otherwise by the sword in the crusades, hanging scientists, burning witches, selling tickets to heaven, expecting women to keep silent in church and submit to men and make babies, and imposing christian morals on everyone that is NOT members of the faith.  Again... we keep the bad things quiet, so we can repeat them again.  And, we definitely don't talk about things like churches harassing LGBTQ members or the sexual assault happening in many church camps or by ministers to altar boys.  I'm not an atheist, but I definitely don't believe in churches from my experience.  I just haven't found one that doesn't turn out to have more sin and problems than the world from whom they... separate and condemn.

3.  Bad things happen, and that's a good thing.  People STILL maintain God will bless those that does good, and they judge those with struggles as sinful.  To be wealthy is to be "blessed" the belief goes.  Problem is that we have literally thousands of years of believers suffering and dying in their faith, and Jesus, himself, said its hard for a rich person to enter heaven... another thing we just don't... say.  But, facing challenges helps us all to grow up and mature, and that's what you need to do, if you're going to actually address your problems and overcome them, yourself.

I have much more I could say, but... some other time.  That's enough for today.