Red Rover

I’m disturbed at the world

I sit here

At my keyboard

Grasp at words

To form my thoughts

I’m off the Red

Out of Bulleit

But the Crown ain’t half bad

We live in a world of emotion

If you try to reason

For even a moment

You are damned

It seems impossible to speak

Comment

Live

Connect

Disagree

Without being crushed by an overwhelming tide of emotion

From one side

Or the other

There’s the second problem

Sides

I have always hated them

Since Red Rover

Wrenched my arm

Nearly from it’s socket

Strictly

So I could resist

Another

I remember thinking

This is the stupidest game in the world

Now

It seems the only way to argue

In place of listening

Welcoming another opinion or experience

We lock arms and forbid them passage

The second we hear a trigger word

Like

Guns

Conspiracy

Liberal

Conservative

Left

Right

Christian

Muslim

I don’t have an angry

“Righteous” video to post

I don’t want any high fives

I don’t belong to either club

I believe they exist almost entirely

To divide us

And to keep us that way

I

Like maybe most of you

Have eternally edged my way to the precipice of an opinion

Only to cringe back

From the coliseum

From the roar

And the gnashing of teeth

To be crystal clear

The bedrock

Underneath the Roman Coliseums

Wasn’t rage

Wickedness

Naked barbarism

Or even emotion

It was the ugly stepsister

Stupidity

Because only stupidity

Causes us to thrall our baser lusts

At the expense of understanding

Only stupidity

Makes us think

We are smarter

Or better

Or more enlightened

Than the food for Tigers before us

And so

The third problem

Must be stupidity

I want to say it’s empathy

I want to give the world that pardon

But it’s not

People

We have allowed ourselves

To become stupid

I have been so

Once or twice in my life

We swallow down whatever

Flashes through our feed

We hold our beliefs

Oftentimes

To be liked

To get likes

To avoid confrontation

Or to create it

You may be reading this and thinking

“What a load of crap

I never do that

My opinions are my own”

Are you sure

Never be so sure

That you can’t stop and check yourself

Often

In my own mind

I remind myself of the wisdom

Of Mr. Twain

“Whenever you find yourself

On the side of the majority

It’s time to pause and reflect”

The next time you hear an opinion

That chaps your hide

Pause

Reflect

Ask yourself why

Hear the whole story

Get the baby out

Before you chuck the water

Sadly

We seem to be losing the art of discourse

We quickly whittle down

To school yard taunts

And emotional manipulation

Yes

Emotional manipulation

If I say one thing

I am labeled

Catergorized

Trodden

Fed to the dogs of comment

I must confess

I’m writing this in response

To the words of a woman I admire

She is angry

Rightly so

If we give anger it’s way

It will always seem “right”

She is a Mother


A woman of courage

A woman who has sacrificed

But the post I read of her’s was a disservice

Or else

It was a mask torn away

She could have chosen thought

She could have chosen to include her opponents

Embrace them even

Often times our perceived “opponents”

Are one kind word away

From becoming Allies

But she chose emotion instead

As it is increasingly more important

And easier

Than intelligence

In doing so

In place of giving pause

To her dissenters

In place of giving them the moment

To see her side

She locked them out

You are here

I am here

If you don’t agree with me

The gates are closed against you

“I’m not here to make you feel good”

Which is stupid

Because why else are we here

On this hot little rock

If not to lead each other to water

When we can

Not to force another to drink from your well

But to show them

There is water here too

Let me tell you why I drink it

A friend of mine

Posted a status to her FB page today

One that stuck me like a thorn

After reading the aforementioned tirade

She said

“No one ever came to Christ because

They lost an argument

Throw ropes

Not rocks”

Trite

Maybe

Maybe a little obvious for the frothing mouthed masses

But it’s true

And it’s not stupid

Whether you believe in Christ

Or not

The rationale is sound

No true or lasting convert

To anything

Was ever birthed from humiliation

Or a condescending eye roll

No heart was ever moved

By “I’m right

My cause is more just

If you don’t agree

You’re other”

The truth is

No matter what party you pay dues to

No matter which President is your favorite

There are floodplains of victims

THEY ALL MATTER


Or else none of them do

Logic demands it

Language in it’s tremulous sanctity demands

That victims

The word meaning

“ One that is injured

Destroyed

Or sacrificed”

be seen

Through no other lens

Than that of blind justice

It’s as important as

The separation

Of church and state

And for the same reason

If you negate the rights of one victim

You negate the rights of all

So yes

It does matter

If this woman

Was sexually maligned 35 years ago

It matters

If she’s lying

She should be held accountable

For victimizing another

The victims of President Clinton matter

The victims of ALL Presidents matter

Their number may be more than you would guess

They may even be stuck to the shoes

Of the ones who give really nice speeches

And they are a valid part of this world argument

To say otherwise is nonsense

Because

If you use your brain

If for just a minute

You tell your emotions

Where they get off

The real argument is this

Does it matter who the victim is

Or only if their sacrifice

Serves my purpose

Wins my argument

Does it matter if people of power

Victimize those who can’t bring them to book

The answer

Should be yes

YES

On every side

Whatever level of melanin

Republican or Democrat

Gay or Straight

Religious or Not

Sugar or none

I have been a victim myself

Once or twice

Of sexual misconduct

I have been a victim of abuse

I have more than once or twice

Been a victim of my own emotions

And my own moments of stupidity

You can’t sanely say

That the defense of one victim

Must happen at the exclusion of another

Does Justice exist

For our own ends

Or is it a cold indiscriminate hammer

Brought down

In it’s turn

Upon those who would deny it’s right

That’s humanities contract

We may all be different

Sexes

Races

Belief systems

Tax brackets

But when we have been

Wronged

Destroyed

Or sacrificed

We are all

One victim

Jesus said

“If you have done it to the least of these

You have done it unto me”

If you remove the emotion

From that sentence

The reasoning resounds

We are never disconnected from one another

The abuse of one

Is the abuse of all

So save your “activist warrior speech”

“Check your own humanity”

Before you demand it of another

Don’t condescend to your fellow beings

And then sniff in the piety of your rightness

And your party lines

Put down your rock

Lower your voice

To a mighty whisper

Bind the eyes of justice

Throw a rope

Not a hand grenade