"Don't Say a Word"

I am a philanthropist, a humanitarian, a lover of humanity who just hasn't done anything big yet.

I believe that human kindness and understanding opens the door to a better world. Life is time that never stops moving until we cease to live, then someone else will live on after us who will take the place that we once took, maybe they will take the next stand following our example not just our words.

I think of history and all the people before me who stood for greatness, equality, and I strive to make that stand.

I believe in equality and respecting people, while I do not believe in tolerance of corruption, spreading hate or negativity or the demeaning of people. I believe in freedom of speech of opinion and I believe in mutual respect among all people. I don't believe in name-calling or pointing blame, which is why all people included in my stories are anonymous.

I am a college student, a writer, a political activist writing about the issues that make people feel something. We live in a time where people know how to feel, and at this time many of them feel angry. People feel angry over things that aren't their right to feel angry about, they feel betrayed by our leadership and they defy injustice while some make near impossible the liberty of speech.

Since our current election, many people have become angry at me because of my opinions. This to me says something about where our country has gone, and where we as a society have not evolved into a mature, understanding, respectful place to live.

I have to say that I have resolved a few friendships that were nearly broken over misunderstandings, however in this time I have realized the true and false friendships along the way. I don't say that I blame people for being angry, as people often become as they lose control over circumstances that threaten their well-being: such as health care, access to birth control, and insurance which covers all of the above. I, in many ways, feel their frustrations as I have had my journey with my significant other and his health.

"I believe in the freedom of speech and opinions in a way that it does not offend anyone" has, unfortunately, become what people define as this freedom of speech. Opinions should not be an offensive thing, while opinions counted "as facts" should be sensibly argued, or corrected; however, no one understands this concept.

Nobody, of course, (me included) wants to be wrong, but no one (except me, or so it seems) wants to listen to anyone else's perspective. In the course of a couple of months, I have tried to distance myself from social media because of political and social drama that has caused tension among many people in the small community that I live in.

I recently was ridiculed for my opinion that I approved of a new technology to keep children at literal arm's length from the parent, in the form of a bracelet connecting a child to parents.

I expressed that I preferred it to the leash backpack, though I did not express any disapproval of the backpack leash that parents use for children so they do not run off.

I understand both inventions; I just felt there was something more about the bracelet that I preferred and I thought it was clever (being my opinion, therefore, no one else's right to criticize), though a couple people took it upon themselves to argue with me over it. Also, these are people I rarely have any interaction with; my number one qualm with social media is too much input from strangers.

After this debate, and a couple rude comments, I had commented that I was going to delete those comments and not respond to them (not feeding into the drama and negativity which they obviously wanted). They then, responded with childish comments such as "LMAO" or "wow," to illicit more responses, which I also did not respond to.

At this point, I did not see the point in keeping communication with this person, since we were obviously not friends if they could not politely express themselves to me with their difference of opinion. I honestly was upset and disappointed in this individual. She had taken it upon herself to delete me as a "friend" (social media passive-aggressiveness), and it could have definitely been resolved if communicated differently.

Considering this subject was very simple; not a matter of right or wrong but just mere opinion on preference, I didn't find the belligerent comments necessary.

My point in bringing this up is that I'm not perfect, I'm sure I could have handled things differently. However, my response to these situations is always disappointment. I'm disappointed that, if a person can jump to a conclusion, they will. An expression of opinion becomes a personal attack, and I do not feel that this is right. I feel that we are given freedoms and we should have them without the fear of criticism. I look forward to the day where we can have those freedoms again.

One might wonder why I write things that are controversial and subjects that will most likely make people upset with me. The answer is this:

"In a world where most people want to be loved, I want to be honest. I want that honesty to be eye opening and to awaken someone to do something great, maybe one day."

On an ending note, I respect all people and desire that we can all learn to grow and put aside our differences to work together. I wish that rather than criticize and hurt each other, we'd find the ways in which we can put their feelings to positive action.