Mass Incarceration in The United States

One out of every 5 adults in the United States is Incarcerated.

Approximately 74% of those are Black or Hispanic.

Mandatory sentences MUST be abolished.

Mass incarceration is institutionalized racism and an unacceptable violation of the civil rights of minorities in the United States.

The United States as less than 5% of the world’s population yet, houses 25% of the world’s prison population.

Many are imprisoned on non-violent offences.

We must end the drug war that is unfairly targeting minorities and those in poverty.

Take action-

https://secure2.convio.net/dpa/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1247

This hurts minorities and those affected by poverty.

This hurts families and children.

We cannot remain silent.

This has to stop.

Someone Just Called Me a Nazi

I am an American.  My great grandparents came here from Germany, Austria, Ireland and England.  I watch with horror the racism that occurs in my country.  Racism is nothing new in this country but, it seems that no amount of education seems to make much of a difference.  Everyone seems to have a target of their ignorance.  If it isn’t racism based on ethnicity or religion, then it is hatred targeted towards members of the LGBT community.  Everyone seems to feel the need to hate, mistreat, or do worse to someone.  Just the other day, I was telling Harsh Reality that I was routinely called a Nazi while growing up because of my German ethnicity.  Well, things haven’t changed much because someone on Facebook called me a Nazi last night when I asked him to take down a picture of me without my permission he had posted with a derogatory comment about women.  I didn’t know this man and I have no idea how he got my picture (with my name on it) but, apparently he was using the picture to illustrate how much he hated blonde women because his ex-wife was blonde.  Somehow, he thought using my picture was a great idea even though he didn’t know me.  I asked him nice to take it down the first time and he became belligerent and called me a Nazi…..something I take great offense to.  It was a double wammy…he was degrading me because I was a woman and then went on further to degrade me based on the fact that I have German ethnicity.  Hate is alive and well.

I grew up in a mostly white town.  My best friend in High school was black and we were friends because he was a great guy and we had fun together.  After I graduated High School, my sisters and I befriended Gary.  His Mother was openly gay and living with a woman at a time when it was not cool at all…..in fact, it was horrifying to most people.  My sister’s and I took it in stride.  Gary and I remained friends until he died suddenly at the age of 43.  He came out to us when he was 30.  Our response was, “Um, yeah Gar…we already knew that”.  He was floored.  Even with an openly Lesbian Mother, he still felt he had to hide who he was.   The fact that we always knew, and still loved him anyway, created an amazing bond between us.  I miss him so bad.

This country has serious problems.  It seems the “melting pot’ we all learned this country was in elementary school has boiled over and become a huge mess.  When I say I can’t imagine treating someone differently based on their race, sexual orientation, gender, or religion, I am not kidding.  The things I see happening trouble me.  This country has more of an “us against them”,  attitude that couldn’t possibly end well.  I see it every day.  Our young people are growing up surrounded by this.  It’s either hate or be hated.  We have all seen the tragic results of being the hated.  We see it in the news every day.  Sometimes I feel like the hatred has taken on a life of its own in our society.  How do you stop something like that…something that has become so powerful?

The blame game isn’t working.  It seems to only fuel the flames.  For me  to hate all white men based on that Facebook exchange where I was called a Nazi AND a bitch seem ludicrous.  That guy was an idiot standing alone.  He obviously has some deep emotional pain that caused him to call me, someone he has never met, those things.  If I were robbed by an Irish guy, I wouldn’t go on to hate all Irish people. I have been called a Nazi more times than I can count, been told I must drink a lot because I am Irish more times than I can count, and been called a fucking Kracker by one of my patients who was angry for a reason unrelated to me.  I am not even going to get started on my treatment based on the fact that I am a woman.   None of this makes any sense to me.  It breaks my heart, if anything.

I just see things getting worse.  The media is making millions fueling the flames.  The white man good old boys club wins again because that’s who owns the American media.  They are laughing all the way to the bank.  They intentionally sensationalize racism to make money.  Now, I am not saying it doesn’t exist and that there are not severe problems with racism in America but, creating a greater divide isn’t helping.  People hating me because of the color of my skin is now a reality for me.  How does that fix anything?

People do need to be called out on their bad behavior.  We have to get our black men out of our prisons and give them hope for an education and a better life.  We have to support single parents of all races so that their children can go on to become educated.  We have to overhaul our education system so that it isn’t only catering to the privileged.  We have to stop turning our backs on our LGBT teens and stand beside them and give them a safe world to live in.  That is just the beginning of the list.

So, shut off CNN and go out there and just be good to one another.  It’s a start.  Every single one of us deserves the right to feel safe and to be themselves.  Every single one of us deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Hate just isn’t going to fix this.

The unintended consequences of being “tough on crime”

The graph in this article horrifies me.

Racism in America

This video CANNOT be shared enough!!!

#MuslimLivesMatter Goes Viral in Aftermath of Triple Homicide

My heart is broken by the senseless loss of these three beautiful young people. The man who committed this horrific hate crime is a terrorist and an embarrassment to all Americans. #MuslimLivesMatter

How to Raise Kids Who Aren’t Racist

I can tell you right now, this isn’t going to be what you think it’s gonna be.  I am the Mother of two brilliant teenagers.  My children go to a primarily white school.  After my Children were born their father and I purposely bought a house in a good school district and broke our backs working hard so we could afford to live in this district.  It wasn’t easy and became more difficult for me when we divorced.  The town is primarily single family homes and I was lucky enough to find a house to rent so my kids could remain in their school.  Keeping them here is killing me.  The financial burned on me causes me horrific stress and anxiety.  Sometimes I feel like I can’t go on anymore.  Right now my refrigerator is empty as illustrated by the above picture.  I have no idea how I’m going to fill it.  That has been my life for the last 15 years.  I am the working poor.  We are poor.  I stay here because it is best for them.  I have two years left and then I can live wherever I please.  I will then look for a place that I can better afford and I can’t wait.  There was never once a thought about the lack of diversity in the school district, our decision to live there was solely based on our children’s education.  Now that my son is in college, I can see how it paid off.  He was extremely well prepared for college.  He is on the Dean’s list.  That alone made me breathe a sigh of relief.  It’s nice to see your sacrifice pay off.

I grew up in a town that was primarily white.  My Mother was a woman who slowly went from the super Mom who was President of the PTA and President of the entire Girl Scout organization in our town to a woman falling into a deep depression  Prior to losing her to depression she would sew dresses for my sisters and I, cook lavish meals every night.  She was really a fantastic Mother.  Little was know then about depression back then so, there was no help for her.  We lost her but, we didn’t lose her gift.

One of the thing my Mother gave us four girls was the gift of looking at every person as a person.  It wasn’t an effort to do this on her part, it was just who she was.  She never said a bad thing about anyone.  It was us learning by her example.  It was just a natural thing, difficult to describe.  My Father on the other hand was extremely racist.  He came from a background of racism.  For some reason his views had no effect on the four of us.  We basically ignored his racists viewpoints.  As we got older, we corrected his inappropriate comments on a regular basis which was not easy because it unleashed his wrath.  We did it anyway….over and over again.  We all had friends from every ethnicity imaginable as we grew older.  My best friend Gary was gay and that was when I was 16 and that was far from accepted at that point in time and that didn’t even phase me.  We were best friends until he died tragically at the age of 43.  I loved that man like a brother.

I became a Nurse when I was 20 years old.  I have worked with and taken care of people from all over the world and treasure those experiences.  I have learned more from those encounters than you could ever begin to imagine.  It reinforced the quiet acceptance of all people as being equal to me that my Mother possessed.

Fast forward to my children.  Their father was fine until our divorce and his subsequent marriage.  It was then that my kids would come home and tell me about how their father and his wife made racist comments on a relatively consistent basis.  I had a friend named Giovanni that my kids spoke about with their father and he and his wife would go on to make racist remarks about how I was dating a Mexican.  Giovanni was from Peru and we weren’t dating.  They would make remarks like, “So, is your Mom dating a black guy now”?  My kids would come home astonished at how their father and his wife spoke.  It really bothered them but, like my Father it was best not to challenge him.  They were afraid of him.  On those days when they came home and told me these things, I just listened.  They knew it was wrong.  I didn’t have to tell them that.  It was an unwritten rule in our house that all people were people….it was just in the atmosphere.

My daughter and I were driving in the car one day when she was about 8 years old.  She suddenly asked me, ” Mom, what would you do if I dated a black guy?”.  I was a little surprised at the question but, quickly understood that it came from her interaction with her father and his wife.  I just told her I would probably invite him over for dinner so I could get to know him.  I looked at her in the rearview mirror and could see in her face that she realized that my answer was exactly what she thought I’d say.  Yeah, Dad was wrong…..again.

So, how do you raise kids who aren’t racist?  You just do it.  You raise them not to think that they are better than anyone else.  You raise them to be humble.  You raise them to love.  My son once told me I was like a sixties hippy without the drugs and the free love.  I took that as a compliment.