Some Of You Should Know Better

I normally don't talk politics because doing so has the potential to break up some pretty decent acquaintanceships (as opposed to friendships), but I was so proud of my President last night, I couldn’t hold back!

What I saw in my Facebook Timeline later in the night however, was rather disappointing. I saw people announcing that if they had any connections who weren’t voting for President Obama, to delete themselves from their contacts. All Republicans are stupid. All kinds of stuff. When did political party become a requirement of friendship? I know I have some connections who are not supporters of President Obama. That’s their choice. There is more to a person than their political party. We may not agree on some things, but something clicked between us at some point and I personally refuse to remove them from my life because they don’t want to vote for the person I want to. I mean if you’re going that route, you might as well get rid of anyone who cheers for a team that rivals your favorite, right? Or only keep people who prefer lemon cake over chocolate. Now I’m not saying that I have friends who are undercover Klansmen or anything so extreme, but I respect my friends and acquaintances enough to understand that we will not likely agree on everything and not let that affect the relationship we’ve built, whatever it is. While we’re talking judgment here, I want to address something else. I see a whole lot of people who say they believe in God and love God, hate on a lot of folks. I think the most “hated” these days is Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. At least those are the names I saw most last night between Twitter and Facebook. Folks are giving Nicki the blues because she’s (allegedly, because I didn’t hear her say it) voting for Romney. That is her choice. I don’t know what the reasoning is behind that, but I would assume that she has made an informed decision based on her beliefs. That’s what we do in America. Everyone is criticizing her, but do we even know how she came to that conclusion? Do we know that she will actually follow through with that? Do we know if she said that just to get a rise out of folks? Not at all. Which one of those people has actually spoken with her? Do they know the reasoning behind the things she does? For all they know, she could have been very poor growing up and paranoid about being there again after having so much money. *shrug* It’s just hard to pass true judgment when you really don’t know someone.

What I see when I look at her is sometimes real strange, but it seems to work for her. What I also see is a lot of “Barbz and Ken Barbz” who dress similar to her and who are devout followers. I see little girls who might otherwise be loners, up their self esteem when Nicki addresses them. It’s not much. It might not be the inspiration you and I had, but things aren’t like they were when we were younger. Which brings me to the next one, Lil Wayne…I “liked” him on FB and almost immediately got an inbox message from someone saying “I didn’t know you had a thing for roaches”. Wow, really? Perhaps your mirror is too small to show you your shortcomings. I guess people don’t realize that the entertainment business is just that, people doing what they do to ENTERTAIN people. If everyone entertained the same way, guess what? People wouldn’t be entertained! So entertainers, in the midst of what they do, find a way to be different while being the same. Does that make sense? Oh I didn’t see the VMA’s, but someone went IN on Wayne because he came out on a skateboard. Guess what? He loves to skate! They go in on the skinny pants he wears. Guess what? That’s what some skaters wear. It doesn’t make him gay, it makes him comfortably dressed for when he hits an ollie kickflip or an ollie heelflip. Don’t know what that is? Oh, you probably know just as much about him! Do you get it yet?

You won’t understand why people do the things they do until you get the opportunity to sit down and talk with them and you may not understand even then, but this has become such a judgmental society that no one even cares to find the why’s. In my head, Wayne isn’t much different than Michael Jackson. He became an entertainer when he was what? 13 or 14? That is still a kid. He didn’t have the easiest life, so maybe skateboarding gives him the kind of freedom you should have in childhood. I don’t know. I know I admire the fact that he’s got an education. He’s not a deadbeat dad and he has an amazing memory (did you know he doesn’t write his lyrics down?). Stop always trying to see the negative. You’ve probably looked at someone and thought umph, he thinks he’s the ish. That ain’t even her hair. SO WHAT. Not saying I’ve never done it, but who am I to decide what THEY think? NOBODY!! And neither are you. We have enough things to deal with in our day to day lives, stop adding unnecessary things to it. Sheesh. At the end of the day, we really aren’t all that different. We’ve just had different experiences that make us who we are.

Back to what I originally said, the bible says to love thy neighbor as thyself, not love thy neighbor if he votes for Obama, love thy neighbor if thy neighbor isn’t weird or love thy neighbor only if you understand them…