The Enabling That Allows Orlando and Hate Must End!

Wow, I have been silent of late, no? I need to get back in gear. Fortunately, spring baseball season is now over and never again does my son play for three teams in the spring again.

A lot has been on my mind of late concerning Trump and his pro-fascisim idiocy. There is a correlation between Trump running for president and the deform movement we have seen in education over the last 10-15 years. But that is a blog post for another time.

What has been bugging me more since Sunday is the massacre that occurred in Orlando. I am sickened by it and sickened at how some of our "so called" leaders in this country have enabled and greased the skids for it to happen. In fact I am sick and tired of all this hatred in this country towards groups that just want to be treated fairly, as humans, and as Americans.

I am proud to be part of MORE and even though I disagree at times with MORE on the extent of involvement in social justice at times as well as how the message is delivered, I know that I share 99% of the sentiments.

Even if you don't agree with MORE at all about the social justice side, think about it. MORE will never ever be the type of caucus that associates itself with a racist former police captain that believes blacks lives mean diddly squat and associates with deranged mentally ill politicians. 

But I have digressed.

So a friend of mine of over 30 years posted something on Facebook tonight written by Elle Barts and a great meme that you see in the upper right hand corner of this blog post. It really touched me and I wanted to share it.

You say, "How could this tragedy happen?" It happened because Omar Mateen's hate was born and bred in America, not overseas. Just 2 weeks ago you were calling the trans community child predators. 1 year ago you were saying that our marriages shouldn't be recognized. 6 years ago you were saying that gay men and women couldn't die for their country. 10 years ago you told us we didn't deserve job protections. 13 years ago it took Lawrence v. Texas to decriminalize our sex lives. 18 years ago you took Matthew Shepard. 23 years ago you took Brandon Teena. 36 years ago the American Government sat silently for 5 years as 10,000 gay men were massacred by the AIDS virus. 43 years ago we were still considered mentally ill. And 47 years ago the riots of Stonewall began. For centuries this country has bred homophobia into our history, into our schools, and into the very fabric of society. Omar Mateen was the product of American hate. America taught him this, and even sold him the gun to do it.

Hate sucks. People who enable hate suck too. People who associate with hate suck as well.