Here comes the hate mail.

So I posted a link on my facebook where a state tea party president (since removed) made a joke about Matthew Sheppard and the way he was brutally murdered.

Of course, as a queer identified woman, this is upsetting. As a mother this is reprehensible. As a Buddhist this is an opportunity to prove that I can rise above my anger for him. But before I take the high road, I would like to say this:

Restoration is the name usually reserved for the period of rebuilding America after the Civil War. Part of the "Restoration" in America included things like taxing the fuck out of newly "freed" slaves to help offset the cost of the war. Dangling the proverbial carrot of things like property ownership and their half-assed attempt at citizenship was their way of offering "equal protection under the law".

Why use the word "Restoration"? If you restore something, the implication is that is it something was wrong with it, it was broken or damaged. After the Civil War, America was in fact, damaged. Financially, politically and physically. They had given their sons and most of them did not come home and now they had to rebuild. Now in America, we do not use the word "Restoration" when talking politics. We say things like "rebuild" and "create". Because these terms do not implicate that something is truly broken. These terms are not inflammatory. They do not suggest that America has failed America. That we have elected leaders who have failed us.

When people call for change (either camp, tea party, bleeding heart liberals etc) and feel the only way to get their point across is to unilaterally attack the civil liberties of a minority, I am not ok with that. EVER. When I think of the history of this country and it being hell bent on assimilation, I am enraged.

How dare we say that is not our past? Ask the millions of displaced Native Americans, the thousands of American born women of Mexican descent who were sterilized, the Japanese in interment camps, the Muslims not able to practice here in America (the country founded on freedom of religion, right? Just checking), Uncle Sam wants YOU to assimilate.

Mr. Douchey McGee from earlier who wants to joke about a dead kid,

You would be appalled if a joke was made about a dead soldier. That person would be verbally crucified and tried by your propaganda machine. And frankly, I think joking about someone who was literally crucified shows  your lack of vision for our country and why should I even care about what the tea party has to say? I care because the tax dollars of everyone in this country kept paying for a war(s) that has left our country damaged. We have sent sons, husbands and partners (Yes, gay soldiers have died, imagine.) to protect the ideals of America and democracy. You want the country to step away from the neo-socialism of Obama and return to what America is supposed to be about...democracy! The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees you can say whatever the fuck you want. But as a woman, the 19th Amendment gives me the right to vote, and come November, you and your "visionaries" will have my response.

Amy