What is going on?

I honestly have to shake myself out of the deepest funk some days after reading my Facebook and wondering what is this world coming to.  I know what some of you will suggest, just unfriend those people, block them, and believe me I have done that.  Just yesterday I unfriended someone who made their status about there not being Christmas songs played at their child's holiday concert and they remembered the good old days when students that weren't Christian just skipped the concerts so they didn't spoil all the other kids' fun.  That's how my day started.  With a quick unfriend and a sick feeling in my stomach.  If you're wondering why that post would make me sick and cause me to unfriend someone, then you need to stop reading and go back to whatever you were going to do for the next few minutes.

Sadly, there have been other equally frightening posts in the past few weeks by various friends.  While I don't expect all my friends to share my political views, is it too much to ask that we all practice kindness and maybe NOT post things we haven't fact checked? I do expect the people that I call "friends" to have common decency and a love for all human beings.

Like this gem:

Yeah, that showed up in my newsfeed.  Not even true.  Why the hell would the American flag offend other Americans.  What?  What's this you say?  Muslims are Americans?  Oh yes, yes they are.  And they love their country as much as you and I do.  According to Google, there are 3.3 million Muslims living in the United States.  That's a lot of happy, proud American citizens.  Although, with the way they have been slandered, mistreated and vilified, I'm shocked that they still love this country.  Liberals aren't saying that Muslims find the flag offensive.  Radicals are saying that to get you, the ignorant masses, fired up and to fuel hatred towards a minority group.  This is literally the first time that has ever happened in American history.

Oh.


Wait.


There was that time with the Native Americans...
And the German Amercians...
And the Japanese Americans...
And the African Americans...


Yeah, we aren't so good, some of us, at the recognizing and appreciating different cultures, religions and ethnicities - despite being the so called "land of the free and home of the brave".

You think this is the first time people have been judged because of religion?  Did you sleep through world history?  And do you know how history remembers those who judged someone because they had different religious beliefs?  As assholes.  And barbarians.  Cretins.  Imbeciles.  There was a time you Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, etc... would have been persecuted.  Now you hide behind, "I'm a Christian."  Well then, act like it.  Pretty sure, nope -I'm positive, if you've read your bible, Jesus would be disappointed in you.

Oh and another good one showing up on my newsfeed - people who seem to think that it is so unbelievable that all these women were really sexually harassed by celebrities and are just now coming out.  People posting statuses about how these women must be attention seeking, making it up, just trying to get someone in trouble.  What attention would they be seeking?  Is that your derogatory comments they are looking for maybe?  Oh I know, it's where society judges them and thinks they must have been sluts who went looking for it.  Or maybe, maybe they didn't come forward because they were sure everyone would just think they were attention seeking and trying to get someone in trouble for the thrill of that.  Not ones to disappoint, there we are America - doing just that.

Lastly, I'm going to leave with one more thought.  If I hear one more person say "I remember the good old days when we all got along and there wasn't all this talk about racism and gays and stuff."  If by good old days you mean the days when the white male was superior and could say and get away with virtually anything they wanted, then yeah - I remember those days too.  If you mean when you were a hetero Christian male who conformed to society's rules and could get away with mistreating anyone who didn't fit that profile then yeah, I remember those days. 

Quite frankly, I'm still waiting for the "good old days".  The days when people can be who they want to be and feel in their heart.  When we love our neighbors and are kind to them not because they are just like us, but because of the differences that make us all so beautiful and unique.  I'm waiting for the day when instead of bashing other religions and cultures we say, "teach me".  Teach me about your religion so I can make correlations to mine and have an honest discussion with you about how your beliefs were formed.  I'm waiting for the days that Christians live like Christians and remember that Jesus loved us all, not just those who believed in him but even those that didn't. 

Until then, I'm going to unfollow, unfriend and read/share more good news stories.  Let's focus on the good in our world starting today.   A friend shared this good news website -check it out:  Great Big Story