Freedom Rally

I went to one last night.

Yesterday started with the normal humdrum of life; fighting with kids to do their chores..standing over children for 3 hours until floors were swept, bathrooms actually were scrubbed, and the dust bunnies under my couches were dispatched.  I hated every minute of it because the sun was out and I wanted to be doing my things in the garden and watching the kids make mud soup in the pool.  Not grouching at someone or being pulled away every twenty minutes.  Finally they all finished and I let them off to go do their things and play and I happily went off to putter a bit.  They had finished with their responsibilities....their role as a member of the family and farm had been completed and good humor was restored.  And no one harbored grudges about their work because it's what we all have signed up for.  That the choice to have a boisterous house of kids and farm and animals means a shit ton of work to be done.

And what does this have to do with a freedom rally you ask?

I went to a freedom rally, where people spouted off such intolerant asshattery I wanted to vomit.  Talking about how are freedoms are being taken away from various other groups and in the same breath talking about taking the rights away from others.  Spouting vitriol about how some people's way of life is wrong and immoral to them.  Vehemently assuring the audience that when they get back into office they will make sure that these 'wrongs' are stopped.

Fine. Great.  Feel free to do what you want in your own home.  But tell me that you are going to decide for me when I didn't choose it?  I don't think so.  That you want to dismiss whole groups of people from rights that they have...simply because they disagree with how they think and worship and love?  I don't think so.  Tell me you are going to bring back the Christian God into schools and the minds of the public because it's what the founding fathers would have wanted?  I don't fucking think so.

I have absolutely no problem with people deciding what rules they want to follow for themselves, as long as they are not harming anyone.  I do have a problem with anyone...either Republican or Democrat...telling me I need to do anything because they said so.

In my home I am supreme benevolent dictator(snickers...I share that role with the rest of the adults and also take in input from minions...but I like the title).  But it works because we have all chosen this life here.  Everyone was told what has to be done, and why, that sometimes decisions are made without consult because there is not time...that that is what happens on a farm.  But I would never decide that another family had to do things my way....or punish them financially or socially because that family decided on a different path.  And that is what our political parties are doing.  And it's disgusting.

I want my world to be full of various opinions, of different ideologies, wants, lifestyles, beliefs.  Because I want the kids to experience as much as possible.  It truly scared me yesterday to see first hand that there are groups out there actively trying to stop my kids from experiencing large swaths of that.