It is time to hear our voice..

I am an opinionated woman. I have no qualms about letting my views be known, and I do not apologize for those views. Every single opinion I have is one that has been hard won, forged in life experiences and tempered (or ignited) by what my heart says is right. I do not regurgitate political drama, nor do I simply follow the party line, I listen, I research, I make a decision on the truth of things. I am not a democratic whore, and I am not a christian hate monger.. I am a human being attempting to remain human in a climate that threatens to rip the humanity from us all.

That being said: Do not think that you know me. Do not think that what is good for you, what is good for your family, is good for me or mine. I do not teach my girls to be ashamed of their feminine selves, I do not require them to be subservient , or believe themselves less than anyone because they have a vagina. I do not teach them to think that anyone's god hates them because of the way they think, or the way they live their own lives. My girls know love, and acceptance, and have the right to make their own way in the world someday. I do not berate them for a differing view, and can think of absolutely nothing they could do to make me disown them, or throw them into the streets. Neither of my girls shows any signs of being anything other than strong, beautiful, independent girls.. well on their way to becoming strong, beautiful, independent women.

We will not stand and be called names. You will not call us slut, you will not call us stupid, you will not call us cunts or whores or evil. We do not have to agree with your christian, patriarchal, narrow, hateful views of the world and those who inhabit it. We do not have to believe what you do, how you do, or in what you do. Hate based on a book is still hate, and you have no right to force your hate on the nation or the people of that nation.

I used to believe that we all wanted the same things, deep down. A home, enough food, some nice things and a bit of pocket money left after the bills were paid. Good schools for our kids, a safe place for them to play, and adults around them to nurture and protect them. It seems I was wrong. What I see today, is that many of us want something completely different. So many people want power, fame, a platform to stand on and tell us how to live, what to think, and to point fingers at those who do not fall in line. Independent thought has become a dirty word, education is frowned upon, and our children are taught violence and hate at their dinner tables. They are taught that anyone different, anyone they do not see at services on Sunday, is something to be turned upon, stoned, destroyed.. because your preacher says so. Do not hide behind a few difficult to interpret lines in a book, not while you ignore so many others. Your desire to pick and choose those passages that fit your version of how things should be, that alone shows how so much unlike the man whose words you claim to follow. Your god, the bastardization of him that so many choose to believe, is a false god.

This is not what our country was built upon. We came to America for the rights of freedom.. freedom to speak our minds, freedom to worship how we wanted- who we wanted, freedom to learn and work and live and prosper. We were never a country built on christian values, no matter how loudly you claim otherwise.  Those rights belong to each of us, every woman, man, and child born to this country. You have no more right to happiness than I do, and your happiness does not supersede mine because you have more stuff than I do. None of us have the right to seek out the demoralization  and destruction of another human being because our god says that we can. This is a country, not your heaven.

Live your life however you want. Allow others that same right. There will be things you do not condone, things you cannot abide, your only rightful recourse is to not do those things- you do not have the ability to rip the rights away from others because you do not agree.

We will not be quiet. We will not lie down and allow our rights to be taken from us. We will not continue to be called names, to be vilified, to look up at you from the floor. It is time to hear our voice, yours has gone mute.