What do you See?

Hello all from my living room,

I am celebrating the fact that this is the last "real" week of school. Not that I really go to school since I only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, bringing my total time spent with me physically on campus to a whopping 4 hours per week. I am truly living the dream. I am excited though because instead of writing an endless string of assigned papers and discussion boards, I can finally get back to blogging more like I was in the beginning. I am about to start my new job, one which I am sure will produce tales to tell.

Earlier this week I posted a plea to the public to care about our nation and the people in it and even those all around the world. Since then, the Boston Terrorists have been captured. Well really, one had his date with Karma sooner than later seeing as his brother ran him over and left him for a death that eventually came. What a way to treat your brother! The other is unable to speak from a gun shot wound to the throat. Good. Serves him right.

For the most part, everything I have seen on Facebook, Twitter, and the news has been supportive for those who are hurting in Boston, for those who have lost loved ones and also those have sustained life- altering injuries. Also, for the ones who made it out alive and unscathed who are truly baffled as to how they got so lucky. I have heard of a man who crossed the finish line only moments before the bomb went off, who then returned to his hometown outside of Waco, Texas to experience the fertilizer plant fiasco leaving both scenes without a scratch. People have been asking him if he feels unlucky. He says that on the contrary, he feels very lucky to be alive.

I have seen an outpouring of love from this country that makes me proud to be an American woman. The words "prayers for Boston" are in almost everything I see and hear from radio updates to tweets to alphabet soup. With all this support and caring from everyone, I felt as though I was seeing something truly remarkable.

But of course, like a worm in an apple or a bug in my sweet tea, someone came along and ruined my feelings of elated happiness. Out of all the love I have seen on Facebook, it was brought to my attention that someone was feeling love for the wrong party involved: the terrorists. Cassie brought it to my attention this past Friday night while I was getting crafty and beading a wooden wall initial with small pearls for part of her graduation present. There is a boy who feels that we are treating this criminal dog unfairly and unjustly because we are denying him his God given American rights. He feels it is wrong because this piece of sh*& is in fact an "American citizen."

For whatever reason, I was truly floored and disgusted when I read for myself what he wrote on Facebook for millions to see since his page is not private. This boy is far younger than I am and maybe it was wrong for me to... "attack" him as he put it, but I could not hold my tongue any longer. You see, I have seen his racy Facebook posts before. For someone so young, he has intense opinions on really sensitive situations.It is okay to have opinions, but the sensitivity to the situation was clearly in a lack thereof. Needless to say, I felt he needed a good kick in the pants for his overtly insulting comments. I have wanted to say something to him before but refrained because of his younger age. However, I decided he needed this, so I responded to his post in the nicest way I could. I have to say, I am proud of myself because while I had a stream of curse words a mile long running through my head, I did not say one dirty word. Trust me, it took strength.

I simply wanted to say what I had to say, voice my own opinion, and get out of the conversation. I would say that I wasn't there to argue, but who am I kidding really? I knew he would have something to say back. He said that this man was a citizen of the United States and that we were doing him wrong and being "un- American" by denying his rights. He also said something along the lines that we were degrading what our founding fathers wrote in the constitution. I'd like to point out, our founding fathers actually put nothing about this in the constitution, as there was no such thing as terrorists. A terrorist attack back in their day would have consisted of a 3 month boat trip, and by then they could have been well prepared. If our founding fathers were alive today, they would probably add something like to fix this "rights" issue and who deserved them. They would probably add something like, "anyone who makes an assault or an attempted assault on our nations is to automatically have their "rights" taken away." I mean, that would be the first thing I changed if I had a say so in politics and how the government is run. Anyone who bombs the country they claim to have citizenship in should have zero, zilch, nada rights. They are obviously not true to their country. I'm not about offering up resources to people who don't deserve them when other people who would die to have the rights they have. He also mentioned something about innocent until proven guilty. Have you ever noticed it's always the guilty ones who chirp this out like birds on a high wire? Our fine founding fathers probably turn over in their graves every time we exploit their words in such negative ways.

I was angered that someone could come in and just ruin the whole happy atmosphere. Turns out, I wasn't the only one who thought so. Other people commented on his status in protest as I did. This man is a terrorist they said, he should have no rights they said. Well I did too. Here is what I had to say to this whole thing:

"Let me tell you something... What is un- American is your statement. Our founding fathers never wrote that we were to cater to terrorists international or not. There is no question about it. Any innocent man does not have a stand off fire fight with police officers. That is a guilty man who knows it. By the way, any person who takes it upon their self to assault our great nation is obviously not a "true" American. We catch people and ask questions later. It doesn't work the other way around. If we did it "your way" these pigs would be ten countries away by now. Did you also think we should have brought bin laden in for tea and an interview before killing him? The next time you want to speak about being patriotic, I think you need to think about the little boy who lost his life at the mere age of 8 years old and the 29 year old woman who was in the prime of her life. Go tell the man who got both his legs blown off and who will never walk normally again that we are treating these men unfairly and wrong. You are a child, who is obviously too big for his britches. Grow up first before you make anymore of theses opinions of yours known."

It turned into quite a debate online and some of it was pretty harsh. I later on felt kind of bad because people were starting really angry and were saying hostile things. I'll admit, I was one of those people. I never threatened or called names but it was still sort of mean. I messaged the kid later on to offer some advice on voicing opinions. There is a very fine line between being your own person and being obnoxious with your so called views on life. He didn't seem to really want to hear it to be quite honest. He was okay with making enemies along with friends.

There is a difference in having your opinions and having your opinions if you know what I mean. It's good to have a stand on a certain issue. There is a way to voice your ideals in a way that makes you sound smart and considerate. Go ahead and say what you want to say, be yourself, have your own voice, but maybe do it in a way that doesn't make people want to cuss you out. Once people think you are an asshole, it is very hard to lose that title. Nobody wants to hang around someone who appears to be a jerk. When there are people who have died and people who are hurt, and you stick up for the person to blame for all this tragedy, you are the jerk. Whether you mean it that way or not, that is the way people will see it.

I guess what I am trying to say is, there needs to be a balance in between being you and having people view you in a certain light. I am not saying conform to society and be who others want you to be, but be a person others want to be around. This world is a great place with lots of interesting characters. Embrace your inner character while still being likeable. Show people what you see, but in a way that makes them want to see more.