I am a slave

[backtoblue]

I have found myself in this chaotic whirlwind of back and forth between news stations and commentators and have forgotten that we as the people hold the only opinions that matter.
We should be standing up against corporate greed,
Standing up against political liars,
Standing up against the hate among us that is THE GREATEST PLAGUE.

As a woman I should be standing up for other women and raise awareness that March is National Women's History Month.

As a mother I should be standing up for better education and health care for the child I would give my own life for.

I don't give a shit how the basic necessities of life are met and given, but WHEN and We the People are the ones who should be flooding news stations and radio shows, letting OUR voices to be heard - not just those who get paid to do it.
I am but a slave to the media, for my own voice has been silenced in reverence to the "educational" political spectrum I subject myself to. I have become a coward, afraid to be publicly subjected to ridicule among my friends and neighbors.

I am a slave to my own insecurities, worsened by the snickers and sneers of those with differing opinion and higher educations.
I am a slave to my pride, not wanting to expose myself as a rebel, extremist, or sympathetic to taboo causes. I do not want a stigma that will hang over my children.

I want to scream out "Help! Help these homeless children NOW, for they are starving"
I want to scream out "Help! Help these women who cannot help themselves against violence"

But I am a coward, a slave, and afraid.

[JVS]

1. Have you considered buying a gun?

[backtoblue]

2. Why?

[JVS]

3. Because slaves should be armed for the sake of their liberation.

[backtoblue]

5. I think it would be more dangerous

for me to try to use a gun than to succumb to my slavery. ;-)

[leftstreet]

4. We're Human Resources

At least slaves were commodities

[cali]

6. you really insult the memory of those who actually were slaves

and the tragic reality of those who still are.

[leftstreet]

7. waaaaaah

[cali]

9. nah, no waaah from me, just noting your grotesque hyperbole.

[stray cat]

11. my take as well - but people are masters of delusion thinking they have it rough

[cali]

12. next: we're worse off than gas chamber victims!

[LanternWaste]

14. We over dramatize our insignificance

"you really insult the memory of those who actually were slaves"
Yup. No argument from me. I had the wonderfully good fortune to date a girl while I was in high school whose mother was a Treblinka survivor. I doubt most in this country understands what actual slavery consists of, or what a subsistence level existence truly is.

We dramatize our insignificance as though it were bad, middle school poetry (complete with the "i's" dotted with hearts)-- whether in a positive or negative way, merely to impart more meaning to our particular existences, because we're beginning to learn that there's just not enough booze or pot to do that for us. Melodrama in black and white is non-addictive and cheap.

Edit sp

[cali]

15. well said.

it's becoming not uncommon to see that comment or something close to it.

[backtoblue]

23. Well then...

insults come in many forms. Next time I will add hearts.

[backtoblue]

8. Expendable, like any other natural resource

"The world is a vampire..."

[stray cat]

10. You can choose how you act - therefore you are not a slave but making a choice to be passive

Slavery means you have no rights and are nothing more than an inanimate object to be ordered, used or sold.

[MedleyMisty]

13. Lots of people have told me that people can't actually make any choices on their own

and that apparently thinking that they make a mental choice to be slaves makes me responsible for their mental slavery. Although now that I think about it - how do people who argue that have a leg to stand on in criticizing me, because if no one is capable of making their own mental choices then I did not choose to think that people choose to be mental slaves and I cannot choose to not think that.

[backtoblue]

17. slavery of myself

I was referring to the "locking" up of my own feelings because of what the outside world would perceive me as, hence I am a coward.

[backtoblue]

19. maybe

I should have called it "I am a coward". I am a slave to my own pride and insecurities.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. Bob Marley lyrics. The last he wrote:

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds.


Now Bob wrote that line in Redemption Song, which also addresses our history of chattle slavery. So he saw that word as useful for both types of subjegation, that from outside and that from within. Good old Bob.

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs.

[renie408]

16. Maybe you could just start by developing a less intellectually masturbatory style of writing.

That whole thing smacks of mental jacking off.

[backtoblue]

18. wow

I just wanted to share something that I'd written, no perverse intentions. Thanks for reading it, though.

[Bluenorthwest]

20. You spoke honestly about difficult and personal feelings

and that is the essence of good writing. Such writing will often be criticized by those too craven to write in such a manner, people who will speak of style and form as if those elements mattered next to content. DU is often in love with form, and upset by content, and particularly by any attempt to share personal feelings as opposed to speaking only about the wrongs of others.
The very notion that you are aware of fear preventing you from speaking your mind, and that you are willing to write that down in public makes you a far better writer than most of what I read here. The truth can make you free. Cleaver style can not do so.
The main objective of most writing on DU is to gain personal praise for writers who do not seem to have outlets other than DU, and because of that, style is valued as a medium of popularity exchange, and honesty, particularly about personal fears and shortcomings, is feared above all things.
Your posting is getting knocks because you challenge others to say truths about themselves, when what they really want to do is post criticisms of other people.
My entire life has been paid for by my ability to read and write, and select that which is true and worthy. Just saying.

[backtoblue]

22. Thank you

for your kind words - they have become few and far between nowadays.

[Hannah Bell]

25. yes. you wrote something true of most people - they'd never cop to it, though, &

will kick those who would.

don't let them bring you down.

[Bluerthanblue]

27. and your speaking out has

brought out other voices that have valuable things to add-

Kudos on this thread-

I really appreciate reading this.

:grouphug:

[Odin2005]

24. K&R

[Bluerthanblue]

26. you are not alone, and we need to speak up -

even when everyone tries to silence us.

Because, we betray ourselves when we remain silent, or when we go along to get along.

Thank you

:hug:

you hit home.

[backtoblue]

28. Silence is sometimes easier

when it comes to strong opinion, even if the opinion is about yourself. I openly call myself a coward and, yet even that seems to have opened the door for scorn. How ironic it is to speak the truth and try to stand up for something, only to be stomped down by the very forum who claims to be sympathetic to those very ethics.

It is nice to know I am not alone. Thank you :hug: