01-22-2005, 11:55 AM
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Everybody Stretch!
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Pa. USA
Posts: 11,637
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by osuche
I live in the gay capital of the MidWest (LOL -- I know -- that's still not much of a recommendation for Columbus). Growing up, many of my close male friends were gay -- likely because they honestly *listened* to me, and didn't expend all of their energy trying to get into my pants.  There is nothing more painful than watching someone you love come to the realization that they are gay, and have to explain it to their friends and family....I had one friend commit suicide because of his family's response.
As you get older, people become less overt about their prejudice....we were taught we can't outright wear white robes with cowls. I managed a couple of gay employees at my last company....one of whom was desperately deserving of promotion...who didn't have a snowball's chance in hell because *someone* had learned he was gay. He was NOT overt about it. But after 2 years of beating my head against the wall trying to get him promoted, he finally told me to give up. <sigh> I wrote him a really good recommendation when he finally left the company.
If we can find a way to teach little kids to accept others, and how painful it can be to be "different" than others...we can nip this damned intolerance in the bud. Then all we have to do is wait 40 years until the properly educated children grow up and take over the world....LOL...assuming they won't be brainwashed in the meantime.
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In relating to jseal's response...I must say that "sheep are sheep...and they have little lambs". I cannot for the life of me figure a way to teach people tolerance and acceptance if it is ingrained in them from a wee age. It's nearly impossible to change one's thinking if it goes against what they were taught by those less progressive and open. I think fear is at the base of all of this ignorance...and how does one battle ingrained fear? I highly doubt that those affected even realize it is a fear instilled in them.
Oh...if only my mother could have shown the ignorant what she showed me! She opened my eyes to differance...and proved to me that we are what we are, and that being different isn't necessarily a bad thing...just different! In this method I learned not to fear other's, but to learn from them and to accept that I don't have to believe what they believe in order to fit in and go unnoticed. It is my difference that makes a mark on the time I spend in this world...and it is [their] difference that does the same and makes it all interesting and worth while.
Makes me wonder...if everyone was of the same mind, what would [they] have to judge, fear or complain about?
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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.
~Thomas Dewar~
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