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2003-02-07 - 7:47 p.m. My golly goodness, KitchenLogic started it all off this time, didn't she? She ranted a bit and made some generalizations about things, but I don't think any intention was being made to offend. Cripes, if you want to be offended, read some of the crap that hate groups put out. Life is difficult with all of us being different. Even among people of the same religion, tremendous amounts of bickering break out. People are people. Can I speak from experience? A bit. I am of caucasian persuasion. My sister is of African-American persuasion (although I'm not sure if that is pc - could be black, could be a person of color, frankly, I have a hard enough time remembering her telephone number and address, this added bit is too much). She is two years younger than I am. I could tell you we have different dads (we do) or I could tell you we have different moms (we do) or I could tell you she's adopted (she is) or I could tell you I'm adopted (I'm not, I just wanted to see if you were paying attention). We have pulled all manner of stories about our parenthood in our day, probably to our parents' chagrin, but usually with some good humor. When my parents adopted Jessica, they were politely but firmly asked to leave the church they belonged to. How's that for organized religion, eh? Turn the other cheek, all are equal who love God/Jesus, etc... Anyhoo, we were the family that everyone knew when we moved to a tiny town in Iowa - not because my dad was the new teacher but because my sister was brown. Now, there was a vegetarian family in town, and they always garnered a lot of attention, and the one Native American kid did, too (actually, they were both in my sister's class - what is it about that year?) but we definitely got our share of stares. Did we notice? Not really - we surely didn't notice the gross brown corduroy pants and matching flannel shirts our mom thought would be cute on us, so how could we notice people staring?!! Jessica did know she was different, and there is never a time in my life that I can remember not knowing she was adopted. We didn't ever talk about being "special" 'cuz she was chosen by our family or any of that - she was just my little sister. Still is, for that matter. She is still the one that would go to my mom and complain that I wouldn't play with her, still the sister that always cried that she couldn't breath when we were playing, then get up and run away. She is still the sister that had the singing talent while I was the smart one. She is the sister that was never taken to a nearby town (or me either, for that matter) because a lot of Ku Klux Klan members were sequestered there. She is the sister that nearly got both of us in a fight when we were in high school volleyball and a few members of a competitor's team bandied about the "n" word. She is a great lady - almost an exact opposite of me in many ways, but we get along great. Have I learned a lot about black american culture - you betcha. When I am with her have I been followed around a store by plain-clothes security? Yep. Have I gotten poorer service a restaurants? Yep. Have some of her boyfriends been critical of her white family? Yep. Displayed that ol' chip on their shoulder? Yep. I do a lot of criticizing (both in my head and here) of things, but I like to keep an open mind. I do think that a lot of religions get a bad rap because people don't know much about them, or because what is heard is strange or bad. I am very prejudiced against prejudism, but I struggle along because you have to be able to get along in this world. Being too p.c. drives me insane as well. I also eat meat and wear leather (although I must admit, fur holds no interest for me). Well, how's that for the longest entry competition?!! Until later.
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