Coming to terms with who we are is hard enough to tell people, but for Sean he must come to terms with his exploration in a world that he cannot hear and a world that does not always hear him. A fascinating story of love, trust, and friendship.
I often wondered what my life would have been like if I had been a kid in the modern age where being gay was so much more accepting than it was for me in the 1970s with Anita Bryant spewing her hatred and lies about people like me. Then I remember that today there are the Libs of TikTok and the red state governors / republican fundamentalist Christian legislators who are doing to LGBTQIA kids what was done to me back in the 1970s by Bryant. Spewing lies and hate to make us hated as much as possible.
But there is another part of my thoughts. Like the boy in the short video I couldn’t find the spoken words to tell of my abuse and the signs I was showing people either they couldn’t hear or did not want to. What if I had had the words to say as a four-year-old what was happening when I was asked to go next door, that even though the man was nice, kind even, it left my butt sore, and the hell spawn I lived with would make fun of me for it. They knew, which makes me now believe the adoptive parents knew also. Maybe they pimped me to him? After all, someone had to tell me to go over there, to give me permission. Yes the man was raping me. But he was kind and nice to me. Unlike at home.
Imagine as a 6 yr in first grade, in torn clothing who had bruises all over me who in class just put my head down on my desk and went to sleep because I knew there it was safe to do so because no one would hurt me. To my little boy mind that was shattered when the teacher took me to what seemed to me a large room with some other adults. Both male and female. They asked me to remove my clothing. I started to obey as I had learned not to disobey that demand … but when they told me to remove my underpants I started to cry, to sob. I promised to be good, I promised not to sleep in school anymore, I begged them, I even said as I stood there after taking off all my clothing and they had me move in different ways while touching me to make me stand or show what they wanted to see, that I promised I wouldn’t tell as they asked me questions I dared not answer. I kept repeating that, hoping they knew that I would cooperate and not tell so they would be nice when they used me. They did not understand what I was saying when I said I promised not to tell. I knew the punishment for telling, I did not know they were trying to help. They scared me, because these were adults I did not know and the few times before with adults I did not know first what they did hurt really bad. I simply did not have the words, I did not understand what they wanted, and I had no way to tell them what they wanted to know, yes I was being abused, I was being hit, I was being … In a way that was somehow more traumatizing to me because in my 6 yr old mind I was about to be forced to please and give my body to these four or five adults … If I was lucky and they did not want to simply hit me to make me hurt even more.
If only I could have heard them, and they could understand that which I had no voice to say. I am really tired, I hate that just watching a short YouTube video can bring back such strong memories, making me feel those feelings, relive those events. Hugs. Scottie
I had to use both the CC and the ones the move provided. I would shut the CC off when it would write over / obscure the movie ones. Starting to feel a bit better, kept supper down last night. Hugs. Scottie
This is a threat. Look at what they called it in the article, a loving warning to change your ways … just as burning a cross was a threat, not simply a loving request you leave town. The thing that gets me is no one cares if these people want to have their belief and their opinion, no one cares that they refuse to admit modern science says people are born LGBTQIA as long as they don’t act on it. They have a right to their beliefs, they do not have a right to force others to believe what they do. Yet this is what they constantly do, and are doing here. They have their churches, put these at their churches and pray over them. But that is not threatening enough, not enough to force others to live by their church doctrines and beliefs. I am tired of these people and sick of their faith, and beginning to despise their god. Their god is a hateful vengeful mean bully. He is tRump. Love me or else I hurt you. Hugs. Scottie
Last year, on February 28, 2023, a concrete replica of a millstone was left in front of the CRU Wine Bar and Coffee Shop on Turner Street in Beaufort, NC. Not just any millstone, but cast into its face was the Scripture reference Luke 17:2 and it’s inner and outer rims were painted in rainbow colors.
CRU Wine Bar and Coffee Shop had been sponsoring a “Youth Queer Night,” and openly admitted as such in the midst of the incident. But right out of the leftist playbook, they immediately shifted over to victim status, pleading the millstone was a threat to them and the LGBTQ community.
Far from being a threat to the LGBTQ community, the Rainbow Stone is actually a loving warning that, like everyone else, they need to repent of sin, receive the work of Jesus on the Cross, and be saved from a certain fiery judgment.
Read the full article. Luke 17:2 calls for drowning people who endanger children by tying a millstone around their neck. The owners of the bar say they considered the millstone to be a death threat.
Christians in Beaufort, NC, left this concrete millstone in front of the CRU Bar on Turner St. who was sponsoring a regular “Youth Queer Night.” Made quite a statement. There are people fighting back! pic.twitter.com/6yJmrrcKw1
Studies with fMRI imaging* have shown that believers reflecting on “what God wants” activate the very same brain areas as people reflecting on what they themselves believe.
* (Forgive me, JMG language police, for I have sinned. I have commited RAS syndrome, Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome, like entering your PIN number into an ATM machine.)
Their first mistake is assuming that those people who go there are Christian. Can you imagine the outcry if a different religious group did something similar to a church?
Thank you to Ten Bears for the link. This is what the entire Israeli genocide has been about. The removing of any Palestinian people so they can have the land. If you read the article notice how the Jewish assholes say that Palestinians can come back and live there also, as complete subjective servants with no rights to do as the settlers order them to do. This has always been what this entire thing has been about. Hugs. Scottie
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists seen building an ‘outpost’ inside Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024, photo: Oren Ziv
Over 100 Israelis stormed Erez Crossing at the northern tip of Gaza yesterday afternoon in the most significant attempt to re-establish Jewish settlements in the Strip since the war began. A small number managed to cross several hundred meters into Gaza before being intercepted by Israeli soldiers, while around 20 others entered the area between the two walls comprising the barrier that encages the Strip. There, they established an “outpost” in the style seen commonly in the West Bank, building for several hours without the army or police interfering.
From the first moments of the war, it was clear that right-wing Israeli politicians and settler leaders sensed an opportunity to radically shift the status quo in Israel-Palestine. For months, calls to resettle Gaza — often in the same breath as calling to expel the Strip’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents — have been getting louder, not least at a major conference in Jerusalem in January at which senior officials laid out their plans. In parallel, right-wing activists — mostly youth — have been coming regularly to the Gaza fence to demonstrate against the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip. Yesterday’s action, however, marked a new peak in their activities.
At around 2 p.m., activists began gathering at a train station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, close to Gaza. At that initial meeting point — for what was ostensibly a “protest” honoring Harel Sharvit, a settler who was killed while serving in Gaza — the mood was calm, even sleepy. A police car drove past, unmoved by the scene. From there, the activists drove in private cars toward the Erez Checkpoint, the only civilian crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has been defined by the Israeli army as a “closed military zone” since it was briefly taken over by Palestinians amid the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
As they approached the checkpoint, the activists got out of their cars and began marching. At this point, they were met by another convoy of vehicles full of “hilltop youth” — young, violent settlers who regularly establish new outposts across the West Bank and attack Palestinians to force them off their land. At least two of them were armed with rifles of the kind used by the military, and they brought construction materials to build an outpost.
At a certain point, some of them started running toward the checkpoint and managed to cross it unhindered, with the few soldiers present unable to stop them. In the space between the two walls enclosing the Strip about 20 of them began erecting two structures using the materials they had brought: wooden planks and poles, and iron sheets for the roofs. Meanwhile, a handful of settler youth ran further inside Gaza, again unhindered by soldiers.
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
On the soldiers’ radios, the message came through that a number of people had crossed into Gaza, and military jeeps and even two tanks were sent to look for them. About half an hour later, a military jeep brought the youth back to the Israeli side of the crossing, without arresting them. They exited the jeep to applause from the other activists, joining the bigger group as they chanted, “It’s ours.”
For several hours, those who had crossed into the space between the two walls continued building the outpost — which they named New Nisanit, after one of the settlements in Gaza that was evacuated as part of the 2005 “disengagement” — without interference. As in the West Bank, the soldiers stood nearby and provided protection, rather than trying to stop them.
‘This is our country’
Amiel Pozen and David Remer, both 18, were two of the settlers who managed to cross around 500 meters into Gaza. After being picked up and dropped back at the checkpoint by the Israeli army, the pair spoke to +972.
“There was no fear of being inside [Gaza], the Holy One is with us and the IDF is here helping us,” Remer said. “We came here [because] we wanted to go home. I live in a community of deportees from Gush Katif [the Jewish settlement bloc inside Gaza that was evacuated in 2005], and we wanted to go back. After everything that happened, there’s no doubt that we have to go back.
“The feeling is very good, like coming home,” Remer continued. “It is ours. The Holy One, blessed be He, said it is ours. If we will not be there, we know what will be there.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Pozen added: “We have come to represent the entire public, the Jewish people. We want to return to the whole Land of Israel, to all parts of our Holy Land. There are no ‘two states for two peoples’ — that’s not right. The people of Israel belong to the Land of Israel.”
Regarding the possibility of persuading the government to support resettling Gaza, Pozen said: “I would like the government to understand [what] the majority of the people already understood: We are here. It is ours. There is no political or international obstacle. We don’t need to consider anyone else. It is an internal matter. We need to go to Gaza, destroy all the terror there, and build there ourselves.”
Another of the settlers intercepted by the army after crossing further into Gaza showed his friends a photo he took on his phone of a strawberry plant in a Palestinian field, saying: “Look how beautiful the country is.”
Over the course of the evening, settler youth continued to bypass the army and run to the outpost. Many of them did so by crawling through a hole in the fence that was likely created during the events of October 7, until soldiers brought a bulldozer to close it with dirt.
Many of the youth were from the same organizations that have spent the past several weeks attempting — often successfully — to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. In their eyes, there is a connection between withholding aid to Palestinians and re-establishing Jewish settlements in Gaza: both are seen as a means toward achieving a decisive “victory.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Mechi Fendel, a right-wing activist from Sderot, told 972: “We came here to declare that the day after this war is over, we must settle, we must spread Jewish towns all over the Gaza Strip. Because without that, it’s going to become a hornet’s nest. You can’t leave a vacuum. There’s no reason why we want that to happen again. I live one kilometer away from the Gaza Strip. I can’t have terrorists as neighbors — and they showed their true colors on October 7.”
Regarding the construction of the outpost near the fence, she explained: ”It’s a symbolic act, showing that we built two houses. They came in with these big pieces of wood and they actually built two structures here in the Gaza Strip. Of course it’s symbolic because they’re not going to stay here tonight. But the point is this is where we have to be. This is our country. We cannot let a full strip of land be unsettled.”
And what would happen to the Palestinians in Gaza if Jewish settlements were to be established? “If they’re willing to take Israeli jurisdiction, if they’re willing to have us come in and control their education system and help them financially, then let them stay if they’re peaceful,” Fendel said. “I so far haven’t found a Palestinian that’s peaceful. As I described, Palestinian workers [who worked inside Israel] for tens of years became terrorists in a second.
“I think that the government, when it sees that we are behind them, that the people want this, the government will be for it,” she continued. “Because the government also doesn’t want a hornet’s nest of terrorists cropping up. I think that if we have the people and the willingness and we show that we’re there, we’re brave, and we want to do it, the government will help us.”
‘First the soldiers stormed in, now the settlers’
The dynamics were reminiscent of typical scenes in the West Bank, with settlers being given freedom of action while the soldiers stood idly by — despite being inside a closed military zone and some of them even entering a combat zone. Some of the soldiers could be seen hugging the activists. One soldier told +972 that the soldiers support the activists and that the problem is “the media that wants action, to film soldiers beating Jews.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Even though soldiers have the authority to detain Israeli citizens — and have detained journalists and other civilians who approached the fence in recent months — they invariably avoid detaining settlers who break the law in the West Bank, and this was the case yesterday too. One of the activists, who told +972 that he was an off-duty soldier and wore his military weapon over civilian clothes, said he left the area early because soldiers warned him they would “kick [him] out of the army.”
The soldiers spoke calmly with the activists, including the well-known Kahanist Baruch Marzel who arrived at a later stage. “It’s like the soldiers who stormed [into Gaza] — now they [the settler youth] are storming,” Marzel said to one of the soldiers.
Later on, when they were leaving, Marzel told +972 that the action reminded him of the “first settlement in Sebastia” — a village near Nablus in the West Bank where, some 50 years ago, a group of settlers from the Gush Emunim movement attempted to establish a Jewish settlement and defied the government’s attempts to evict them until it relented. He added that the main issue for him is not settling Gaza but deporting the Palestinians to “all the countries that support them.”
A security official present at the scene expressed to +972 his displeasure that the activists had been able to cross the checkpoint with such ease. “If they managed to enter Gaza, that means [Palestinians] can also enter in the opposite direction,” he said.
Police officers who arrived at the scene acted with the same indifference as the soldiers. They seemed to be in no hurry to intervene, and initially arrested only one protester. After sunset, around 7 p.m., some of the activists began to leave, and the rest were subsequently dispersed by police. A total of nine people were arrested and taken to a police station last night.
In response to an inquiry from +972 last night, a police spokesperson stated: “Israel Police forces were called in the afternoon to near the Erez Crossing, after protesters arrived and a handful of them crossed the fence into the Gaza Strip in violation of a general’s order. In light of the real danger to the protesters’ lives, the police forces were forced to operate within the territory of the Gaza Strip, where some of the protesters confronted them and refused to leave, which left the police no choice but to arrest nine of them for the offenses of violating a general’s order and failing [to obey] a police officer.
“The protesters were brought to the police station for questioning, at the end of which it will be decided which of them will be brought before the Court of Appeal tomorrow for a discussion of his case.” Police did not respond to another request for information today about whether those arrested were charged, but it seems they were released last night.
Oren Ziv is a photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a founding member of the Activestills photography collective.
About 972 Magazine: Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza.
We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.
Can we count on your support ? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.
This is a post on Jill’s blog. She has one of the most outstanding blog I have ever had the privilege to read in my life. But as grand as this story is and it is grand no questions asked, I wonder if the feelings directed to those different might be able to be used for another group of people, desperately struggling for their own rights. Hugs. Scottie
Remember the goal is to remove anything positive about gays / trans kids, to remove any anti-bullying programs, with the goal of wiping out LGBTQIA visibility in society. That will lead back to the horrible abuse of kids who are different as in the past. We have to find a way to stop this. Remember this is the same school that had the fundamentalist religious person on the board sneak a religious film crew in to take video and interview students. Please look at the actions the board / school districts have taken against LGBTQIA students. The effort was described below by one person interviewed, but to put it in my own words, they want to roll back all advances in acceptance, tolerance, and equality of anyone who is not straight and cis. To remove all protections for kids who are different, who might be LGBTQIA, or not straight or not cis. It is to enshrine church views / doctrines into rules and laws. Return society to what as allowed in the 1950s, which these people feel makes go happy because it makes them feel happy, good, and important. Hugs. Scottie
“What I see driving it now is an ugly push to deny LGBTQ rights and identity that, in some states, is being enshrined in law,” he said.
The Keller ISD school board recently passed policies decried as discriminatory to LGBTQ students.
Timber Creek High School parents received an email Friday night saying that students would no longer perform the show this spring.(NBC5)
A Keller high school production of The Laramie Project — a play about the aftermath of the 1998 murder of a gay student in Wyoming — was canceled.
Timber Creek High School parents received an email Friday night saying that students would no longer perform the show this spring. The email did not provide an explanation.
Community members are now rallying to reinstate the production, launching an online petition that has received more than 1,300 signatures so far.
“This play is a poignant depiction of queer history,” the petition reads. “By banning this play, we are not only suppressing an important piece of history but also denying our students a chance to understand and empathize with the struggles faced by the LGBTQ+ community. … It’s essential that our education system works towards creating awareness about these issues rather than shying away from them.”
In the brief email to families, school leaders said they are “working on developing an alternative production opportunity for our students.”
“We understand that it is unusual for a production change like this to take place. Students will still have an opportunity to read, discuss, and analyze the play during the school day,” they wrote.
District spokesman Bryce Nieman said in a statement that the decision was “made by many stakeholders.”
“The decision to move forward with another production at Timber Creek High School was based on the desire to provide a performance similar to the ones that have created much excitement from the community, like this year’s Keller ISD musical productions of Mary Poppins and White Christmas,” Nieman wrote in an email.
Mary Anne Weatherred, whose son was supposed to perform in The Laramie Project, said she’s concerned about a pattern of anti-LGBTQ decisions in Keller.
If people don’t agree with the message of the show, she said, then they shouldn’t come watch it.
“But they don’t need to take it away from the kids,” she said.
The Laramie Project, which is often performed in high schools across the country, explores the community’s reaction to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who was attacked, tied to a fence in a field and left to die.
His brutal death became a symbol of anti-LGBTQ violence and helped fuel the fight for expanded hate crime legislation.
Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother and president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, said she’s seen a spike in attempts to cancel productions of the show in recent years.
“My heart is broken when people still refuse to see how important this work is,” she said.
Shepard said the play can hold particular resonance for high schoolers, who are only a few years younger than her son was when he died.
“It might scare some kids. And it might wake some kids up. And it might make kids want to make change — all of those things. And they have the power to do it,” she added.
Roughly 25 years since his murder, many lawmakers and local school boards are targeting the rights of LBGTQ students.
Keller school trustees voted last year to establish rules stating that district employees “shall not promote, encourage, or require the use of pronouns that are inconsistent with a student’s or other person’s biological sex.” This means someone could intentionally use the wrong pronouns when referring to a transgender or nonbinary child.
Before that, the school board approved a policy prohibiting library books across all grade levels that include the discussion of gender fluidity.
A Keller ISD trustee resigned earlier this month after parental outcry over a film crew that was brought into a school without families’ knowledge or consent. Parents were enraged when they saw the crew was part of an evangelical network from the Netherlands.
The Matthew Shepard Foundation’s goal is to “create an environment where people are afforded an opportunity to discuss the play and its messages, the hate they encounter in their own lives, and how they can work collectively to build a more understanding and compassionate community.”
“We know educators are worried about the current wave of legislation mandating what they can and can’t teach,” the association’s director, Jennifer Katona, said in a statement. “What’s concerning about these results is the potential impact of self-censorship. School theatre should be a way for students to explore diverse perspectives, which helps them develop empathy and critical thinking.”
A different North Texas district recently triggered national outrage when a transgender teenager was removed from his part in the school musical. The community rallied to get him reinstated in his leading male role.
Howard Sherman, managing director of the performing arts center at Baruch College in Manhattan, is an arts advocate who tracks and fights against instances of theater censorship in schools.
“What I see driving it now is an ugly push to deny LGBTQ rights and identity that, in some states, is being enshrined in law,” he said.
Hearing that Keller ISD wanted to instead put on a show more like Mary Poppins or White Christmas, Sherman said those are great shows that have a place on the high school stage.
“But they shouldn’t be the only kinds of shows because that is not preparing students for college, for the real world,” Sherman said. “Students shouldn’t be relegated to escapism or assumed to not be capable of handling mature themes.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
Earlier this month this same school district was infiltrated by an evangelical group who filmed students without their permission. A school board member who reportedly helped sneak in the film crew later resigned.
Texas high school production of The Laramie Project – a play about the aftermath of the 1998 murder of a gay student in Wyoming – was canceled, without explanation. School board has recently passed other policies that discriminate against LGBTQ students https://t.co/OFfyLKsQ3H
More than 25 years after the murder of Matthew Shepard, young people still face hate and death due to their LGBTQ+ identities. @KellerISD should be ashamed for cancelling "The Laramie Project," which shows how hate poisons communities. https://t.co/MVP9JCwlCq
Well, you can’t let good ChristStain children learn that the hate their parents are spewing lead to the brutal death of an innocent young man whose only crime was being born the way he was born.
One of the reasons for Theatre to be a part of our lives is that it causes people to think. Mary Poppins is not about thinking. White Christmas is not about thinking.
The Laramie project is intended to get people to think. For that reason alone, it would be anathema in Texas .
Meanwhile, the 2nd grade rendition of “Showgirls” (featuring pageant winners Marabelle and Lindsey!) will continue to be performed at the Timber Creek Saloon.
I still remember all those years ago when we had a memorial for Matthew Shepard. We were handed out stickers(which I still have) that read “We’re all Matthew Shepard” It’s the truth these days.
In the seventies, of the six plays we did each year, one was required to be a classic. After casting, but before rehearsal, Lysistrata had to be replaced with The Trojan Women due to one Harper Valley hypocrite.
What are the odds that they will “chose” Godspell or some other Christian-infused pablum? Not Jesus Christ Superstar, that is too “rock,” and not the Jesus-Is-My-Rock type, either.
“Looking Back, on the memory of, the dance we shared, ‘neath the stars above….” One of my favorite songs. Today I spent some time looking back and there were some tears, and there were some smiles, and there were some surprises that found me shaking my head in wonder all as I “thumbed through” a blog I wrote some ten years ago. In truth, it comprised some of the most creative and out-reaching time of my life, as short as that duration was. But, it also opened my heart, chipping off the armored crust that I’d built to keep me safe.
Today I reread a post I wrote about being invited to what should be a very nice thing: Christmas Dinner. I was miserable. (https://wordsthateffect.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-lonely-walker.html) What surprised me was that I still remember that pain. I don’t remember specifics of the day, I remember how much it hurt to be cast away as inconvenient only to be so magnanimously called back like a dog once again let into the house. I felt obligated to go, I felt obligated to forgive the hurt I felt, and I felt obligated to be the good guest who buries the hurt and the abandonment I felt even though I was an adult and shouldn’t be so easily hurt. I was the bad dog, let back into the house, and quite frankly I was “just fine” outside. Just fine, thank you very much. … …
There is a song written by the group Imagine Dragons, called “Believer”. I’ll not speak for the artist, but it always hurt, this song. For me, it spoke about how the singer was made a believer, was made what he was told he was no matter how he fought against it. Imagine the power we have over people that we can develop their very self image!
But, that song also gave me hope as I realized that if we have the power to negatively impact the very way someone sees themselves, we also have the power to positively impact their life. We can make them a believer of something truly grand for their life.
I left blogging because, as I mentioned, it forced me to open my heart and dang that hurt. I had to watch the greatest ugliness to find a way to demonstrate that it was not reasonable or godly to be so hateful, and often that ugliness was voted for by people I loved. I wrote posts about people being abused. I wrote posts about young people listening to others demean them and those like them. I wrote about hopes lost, lives lost, tears shed, and dark times. It frightens me as I look over those past blogs more than a decade old that things have not seriously changed, though I do think that more people understand that we are all different, each of us unique and special and worthy of love. As we come upon another presidential race I hope people will consider the world they want to create, the legacy we hope to pass down to our younger generation, because that is the defining aspect of the voting process.
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Today I spent some time looking back and there were some tears, and there were some smiles, and there were some surprises that found me shaking my head in wonder all as I “thumbed through” a blog I wrote some ten years ago. In truth, it comprised some of the most creative and out-reaching time of my life, as short as that duration was. But, it also opened my heart, chipping off the armored crust that I’d built to keep me safe. 
What surprised me was that I still remember that pain. I don’t remember specifics of the day, I remember how much it hurt to be cast away as inconvenient only to be so magnanimously called back like a dog once again let into the house. I felt obligated to go, I felt obligated to forgive the hurt I felt, and I felt obligated to be the good guest who buries the hurt and the abandonment I felt even though I was an adult and shouldn’t be so easily hurt. 
I was the bad dog, let back into the house, and quite frankly I was “just fine” outside. Just fine, thank you very much. … … 
I hope people will consider the world they want to create, the legacy we hope to pass down to our younger generation, because that is the defining aspect of the voting process. 
Scottie's Playtime 