I'm back. Been a while since my last entry. Sometimes it amazes me how closed minded some people can be. We were at my parents for Labor Day and my brother in law made the comment that while in Chicago he saw a couple of men, although he did not call them that he used a derogatory term that I will not repeat, holding hands and he wanted to give them a kick in the balls. He repeated this statement again and both times everyone just ignored him. Probably the best idea when someone makes a comment like that. He was trying to get a rise out of us and did not happen. I've never understood why some people have a problem with someone who is gay. So what. If Bob wants to have sex with Steve who cares. It does not effect your life at all. I think there are more important things to worry about than whether Al and Dave want to get married. You suggest gay marriage to some people and they act like the end of the world is at hand. They claim that if you let gays marry it will cause the end of civilization. That's an argument I find very interesting. I usually ask how allowing gay marriage is going to cause the downfall of human kind and they never seem to be able to give an answer. It also seems that it is the church going people who have the biggest problem with closed minds. My brother in law who made this statement is a regular church attendee. The last time I checked it is not the place of Christians to judge someone. People who use their religious beliefs to justify there closed minded way of thinking are not true Christians. I do not attend church for this reason. I do believe in God I just don't attend church. I was turned off to church many years ago because of the church people I gew up around. Growing up in a small town I found that some of the most prejudiced people I knew were those who attended church. Even my own Christian peers were not very nice to me only because of my eye sight. At a youth convention one of the people in our group. We'll call him Dan actually told other people in the room not to talk to me because I was different. Luckily his comment was ignored. People like that to me are not real Christians. Even in my won family I have noticed this. When one of my cousins got pregnant at the age of sixteen she asked my sister and I to go and do something with her. My very own church going mother actually told my sister and I that we should not be hanging around those kind of people because someone might look at us differently. This from a woman who claims to be a God fearing Christian. I always thought it was our job as Christians to be supportive of people who made mistakes and not shun them. I told this to my mother and I was told that I needed to get a clue. She was right someone needed a clue but it was not me it was her with her holier than thou attitude. She should have been ashamed of herself for saying that about her niece. I did not find that very Christian and told her she needed to reevaluate her way of thinking and not be so closed minded. School was not much better in the area I grew up. People thought that since I was blind and have tourette syndrome I must not be able to learn anything and did not bother to try and teach me. Where I grew up they only taught you if they thought you could learn. Thankfully when I was a sophomore in High School I met a teacher who decided I could lean something. People have some strange behavior when they meet a blind person especially in this area. I get people talking louder to me as if I can't hear them. My response is to talk louder back to them and they seem to catch on. I ran in to a problem at our local Bergner's back in May where a clerk asked my wife if I wanted a Bergner's credit card. I will say the folks at Bergner's handled it very well. I received a phone call with an apology from the manager at the Mall saying they were very sorry this had happened. Always ask the person directly what they want. Never ask the blind persons companion what they want. blind people find this very insulting. Don't use the excuse that you don't know how to talk to a blind person. Talk to a blind person like you would anyone else. It is that simple. Also Don't talk to the top of the head of someone in a wheel chair. They have eyes too. Look at them like you would anyone else. People need to open there eyes and realize just because someone does not think or act like you do does not make them less of a person. If you have any kind of prejudice, open your mind, get a life, and worry about things that actually matter.
