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Monday, January 16, 2012
Be a Squeaky Wheel
One of my biggest challenges is to allow people to believe what they need to believe, regardless of the facts. But after a couple decades, I learned when to speak up, and when it just wasn't important. Getting to that point was a long road, and my choices and beliefs were often as wrong as they were right.
I know where I got this need for definitive fact-checking. My father.
You see, my father lived in a mental fantasy of "if it sounds right to me, it must be true." Perhaps in a reasoning, logical person, this is not such a huge flaw, but my father had an 8th grade education and bible-thumping farmer-parents from Nebraska. So what sounded true to my father was often the furthest thing from it! (disclaimer: I'm sure that bible-thumping farmer-parents in Nebraska are much smarter today than they were 60 years ago).
(In other words, The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease)
When I learned how often my father was wrong, I became a person who questions everything he's told (to this day). Needless to say, that catapulted me in the opposite direction of blind faith and organized religion. And for my teachers at school, well, let's just say those who didn't like to be wrong were about as fond of me as my dad was.
I grew up in a family who stubbornly masqueraded opinion as fact. So, I personally tend to be less patient about that. But growing up with it was just about the best training for the real world. I learned how to deal with blind beliefs and poor fact-checking early on. But I also stepped on a lot of toes before I realized where the fine line was. I eventually discovered that I don't care what people choose to believe, as long as they're reasonable and respectful and compassionate.
Today is Martin Luther King Day, a day that reminds us that standing up for compassionate truth is important.
If you tell me the blue sky is actually orange, it hurts no one. If you are comforted by this, I am happy for you.
But if you tell me black people or gay people are second-class citizens, I will challenge your bigotry.
If you vote for politicians you think will be great for the economy but also knowing they will take civil rights from anyone, I will not quietly tolerate your looking the other way. Because no person who devalues civil rights is good for the country.
If you tell me that god exists, and you know exactly what he believes and thinks, I'm happy for you that you have found your truth... but if you tell me that anyone who disagrees with you is wrong... I will not validate your intolerance, because you do not have the right to decide this for anyone but yourself.
Today is Martin Luther King Day.
A day to remember that civil and human rights are inalienable rights not decided upon randomly by what a person chooses to believe. We owe all our freedoms to those who came before and fought so hard to preserve and win them. I wish I'd learned how important this is when I was younger. Imagine the choices I might have made. Likewise, imagine the choices a new generation will make if we choose not to forget.
~Shephard
posted by Shephard @ 