FEAR...

Last night as I was drifting off to sleep, I had the thought that so many of the so called "truths" we are taught are really myths rooted in fear. From myths as innocent and simple as "old wives tells" to some theology of religion to hurtful, hateful myths as gays are perverted sexual deviants who cannot believe in God and have no benefit in society or in the united states military. These kind of myths breed fear, discrimination, hate and violence. In a Christian perspective it is anything but what Jesus Christ taught. Jesus Christ was the quintessential essence of love and acceptance--not tolerance or hate, or self-righteousness. He hung out with the "sinners", rejects, poor, "unclean"-now I am not saying being gay is a sin because it is not, and Jesus Christ never spoke about homosexuality in general or in it being a sin. He spoke of having integrity, being true & honest with self, God and others, loving ALL people, taking care of the earth we live on, helping those who need help; in short, doing the best we can with what we have, giving and helping others along our journey no matter where they come from, who they love, or their background-but simply because we are all one -we are all human beings.

It seems simple, the golden rule, loving and not judging, be open and accepting-those seem to me like the higher law if you will or what would be Jesus Christ-like living. It teaching and standing up even fighting for what is right and good. Equal rights and integrity are good, right, and worth fighting for. For me, it is a no-brainier and I am often flabbergasted when I hear and see anger and fighting over allowing EVERYONE to be equal and not allowed to be discriminated against. But instead society, people, families, individuals, religions protest to be better than others based on things like socioeconomic status, race, education, gender, religion, marital status, kin, geographical location, age, if someone has been divorced or the number of time married, if a couple has children or not or even on how many children someone has, and sexual orientation. Throughout history these are evident and today they are evident... and people have stood up, fought, allied with those being degraded and discriminated against and there has been progress...from voting for blacks in 1870, to voting rights for woman in 1920. I found an awesome time-line of human rights-in the enclosures. Homosexuality is only seen once, that is during the WWII block (1939-1945) homosexuals where included in the extermination order and where also committed to concentration camps, starved, tortured, experimented upon, and murdered. Human rights encompasses all humans...and we are still fighting for them.

I think it is all about FEAR. There is so much FEAR....so many MYTHS! Why??!?? Well, in my opinion, people in power who are SCARED of losing power or being proven WRONG create Myths based on fears and ignorance and preach them as truths in attempts to hold on to their power, become more powerful and have people follow in a blind, thoughtless trance.
MYTHS that I can think of:

-Women are less intelligent then men
-Traditional Religion does not oppress women
-Women cannot do the same things (hold jobs, work, contribute to society) the way men do.
-Homosexuals are dirty, anti-family, anti-religion, anti-law & order, unpatriotic, sexual deviants, pedophiles who want to destroy America and families
-There is only ONE right way to be spiritual
-Religion and Spirituality are the same
-Scientists hate God
-Natural Disaters are God's way of "cleasing" the earth from "bad sinning people"
-If someone can't speak English they are criminals, illegal, and unintelligent
-The Holy Bible should be the dictator of the Constitution of The United States of America
-Atheists are bad miserable people
-The world is flat
-The Holocaust never happened
-We can't pass laws to protect groups of people, because then we might be missing other groups and that would be discrimination. (this was the response I received from my reps in the US Senate & Congress...I will post their letters)
-If gays are allowed to serve OPENLY it will cause distraction, and everyone will have to fight of the gay from having sex with them, which will cause low morale and un-unified troops, and we will lose the war.
-If you watch the news, you will be brainwashed.
-If you question things then you dont have faith and therefore are less of an individual
-If you are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, or transgender, or questions, then you believe and agree with everything ANY GLBTQ persons says or does
-To stand up for what you believe is Patriotic unless it disagrees with the majority of Christians in America.

...Obviously I could go on & on...there are so many, it is comical in some ways to think that people beLIEve these myths. The reality that people believe and teach these and many more myths that contribute to discrimination, hate, violence is dispiriting.

Here is a vido-worth watching:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1qf84hCtjs

Here is the time-line of Human rights:
http://www.udhr.org/history/timeline.htm

Here is the Women's Rights movement 1900's:
http://www.now.org/issues/economic/cea/history.html

So, here is what I can do:
-Research "truths" to find out if they are "TRUTH" or myths
-Use my voice and keep e-mailing, writintg letters and calling my reps local and national
-Share the inofrmation I find
-Join with indiviudals, groups, and  communiites to advocate and take a public stand for Equal Human Rights for ALL human beings