Imagine......

The title of this post is imagine because I want you to imagine a few things with me. I'm sorta vamping here so it might be a short post or it might be a rather long post. This blog will probably be a little touchy but that's why it's called Unmentionables. When I first thought of the starting points of this blog, I thought about the song, "Imagine" by John Lennon which has a line that says, "Imagine no religion too." Sounds horrible doesn't it? The truth is that it does even to me. Religion has a place in this world but ruling it isn't it. Before you argue, the song speaks of quite a few things that if we could just imagine without and I think the main thing is that the song talks about the things that divide us. Not only those things that divide us but the things that we allow to divide us -- religion being one and politics being another.

Imagine (Straight, Married People).....

That your marriage was invalid or that you couldn't get married. What would it feel like if you could only get married in a handful of states? What if only those involved in homosexual relationships could marry and they begrudgingly allowed those of you in heterosexual marriages to get married but only if was put to a popular vote -- a popular vote among a largely homosexual population? What if the homosexuals kept saying no because you'll pro-create? because you're unnatural? because their God says so (which is the only God, by the way) even though they can't prove it and even if they could - they conveniently forget the other laws in the Bible? Have you imagined that?

Imagine (Black people).....

That your ancestors didn't fight the way that they did for their freedoms. Think about what you have today -- homes, children (that you choose to have), political office, being considered a whole person (or even being counted for that matter), choosing where you work and what you do for a living, going to school for that higher education and basically the right to be who you are with who you want to be. All of this could be wiped away if it hadn't been for your ancestors choosing to fight and their allies fighting with them. Now what if it was your rights on display? What if you wanted to marry? What if the politicians answer was let's put it up to a popular vote -- among a largely white population (obviously if we are voting on you're ability to marry then you can't vote). Does that make you mad? It should. It was all a reality at one point in time. But, for whatever reason, you are content with doing that to gay people. You are okay with denying gay people every single right that you have. So imagine what it would be like to want something but have to go through the majority to get it. You shouldn't have to imagine too long because it really wasn't that long ago. For those of you in an interracial relationship, it was less than 50 years ago and yet, here you are willing to impose the same narrow view that was imposed on you just a short 5 decades ago. Imagine if Loving hadn't filed suit against The Commonwealth of Virginia.

Imagine (Christian folk).....

That there was no religion or what religion you had was banned or you could be killed for possessing contraband items or worse yet, just simply refusing to say, "I'll believe your way." and, of course, you'd have to mean it with conviction (even if you didn't really mean it). You'd have to imagine a little further but still reading good book on history will remind you that at one point in time, in England (before American was a blip on the screen), that's what happened. A new king (or queen) would assume the throne and the religion of the court would change and the monarchy would send out people to convert those heathens to the correct religion even if it meant killing them. Some of you might even be surprised to learn that America was founded on principles to avoid this from happening. You see - the founding fathers knew that government and religion wasn't a good mix and it still isn't today. Some of you might even be thinking we would never do that to people in America but are you sure? How many gays, blacks and whites have died because of religion? Does the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 ring a bell? No? How about slavery? Still nothing? How about interracial relationships? If you are having a hard time, let me help you - religion - religion was the root of all of this evil. The Bible and even God's name was invoked to keep witches burning at the stake, blacks in chains and the races separated. Equal but separate....sounds familiar doesn't it?

This country was started in 1620 or well at least that's when the first settlers landed and wanted to start a new world free of British rule and state imposed religion. Now here it is almost 400 years later and we are still living the same nightmare over and over again. We, as a nation, have failed to learn our lessons and for that - we are repeating history.

Finally, I leave you with - Imagine.....

Imagine someone saying that you had to live your life in a way that made them happy. Your happiness isn't considered, needed or wanted. Imagine how that would make you feel. Less than fingernail dirt (thanks M for this phrase)? Less deserving of someone else's love? Less deserving of the life that you have? Now imagine the things you do to make someone else feel that way. Granted, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent but imagine that there are some people who simply aren't that strong and then imagine if you were one of them.

Ouiser