Sometimes it's hard to be a (fill in the blank)

Good evening! I’m not overly political, typically.  I vote.  I read articles. I typically know enough to nod and spout some random cohesive thoughts and ideas with regard to upcoming elections. I know things, guys! I try not to really discuss politics unless I am wasted, though, because I get very passionate about certain topics, like poverty, education, war, human rights, and so forth.  It’s just getting more and more difficult to keep my mouth shut, and here is the end result: I’m blogging angry and sad, with a heavy heart, and an aching back.

Right now (well, for a while now), I am really, really, REALLY disappointed with the laws being passed left and right, and how they affect women.  How they affect men. How they affect children.  How they affect the elderly.  How they affect couples who don’t fit the archaic stereotypes of what a family is “supposed” to look like. How they affect single-parent households.  How they affect single (or relationship-having but not married-) people.  How they affect healthcare. How they affect education, from the beginning of a person’ education and all the way through.

I feel helpless.  I read stories about how people are losing the right to their privacy, being strip searched for little, if any, reason.  I read about how women in some states are being traumatized by having to carry stillborns full-term because of certain laws that are in place. I read about people being treated more harshly every day simply because they’re not your “average” white, Christian-looking American.  I read about kids whose parents know they won’t live through their teens because of street violence.

I feel so helpless.  I don’t like what I’m seeing.  I don’t know what to do about it.  I understand that there need to be laws, but I don’t understand why the laws have to be so regressive and detremental to such a vast array of people.

I’m not a moron, and I know that not everyone is going to be happy no matter what laws are in place…but to make so many people so miserable?  What good does this do?  Who are the law makers and the law passers actually helping?  I’m getting upset just typing this. I am so worried about the future that I couldn’t imagine ever bringing a child into this world, which will, and has, become so restrictive.  We’re moving backwards!  We are moving backwards, as a society, and as a culture, every day.

I don’t expect everyone’s problems to end just because the world is sad as fuck.  I know there are things out there that make our lives worth living.  I see hope in the eyes of people all the time.  But not enough.  Not enough hope, and not enough people holding on to it.

I wish I had some sort of a solution, and that I could say or do something to make things better, open up people’s eyes, show the people who keep coming up with, and passing, these ridiculous laws that these things should NOT be.

I am thankful for the creative outlets that I have, and for the people in my life who are equally, if not more, outraged and incensed by what is going on, with whom I can laugh about our (potentially?) bleak futures, and plot our escape.

I know I am not less of a person because I am a woman, and I wish there weren’t people out there who think I am (not to say that you do. I should hope you don’t think that). I don’t think anyone is less of a person because of their sex, orientation, religion, politics, etc.  But I will judge the shit out of you if you’re a dick.