It's Still Not My Fault

Whether it happened in another century or in my lifetime, I never did any of it. I don't believe that I ever picked on anybody in my life, except when we were just mutually kidding around and, even then, I would back off if I thought it was really bothering the guy. Now that I think of it, there was some unpleasantness between my sister and me when I was too young to know any better, and I regret that to this day. I certainly never picked on anybody for racial or ethnic reasons. The only thing I ever did against the gays was to vote against same sex marriage, but I don't think that counts as oppression. All I did there was refuse to give my approval of something that I believed was wrong. Withholding approval is not the same thing as picking on someone. Of course it would be a better world if we all loved one another, but we don't and it's not. I usually try to go the extra mile with people unless they really piss me off and, even then, the most I do is refuse to help them. I'm sure I've told you before that I have had Black friends in my life. I didn't like them because they were Black, or in spite of their being Black, if I liked them, I liked them, and their race had nothing to do with it. Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?

How can you say that "we" have done nothing to house the poor in this country? There are a number of government programs designed to address that issue and, if that doesn't work for you, there are religious organizations like the Salvation Army who will take you in, and try to save your soul in the process at no extra charge. My grand daughter recently told me about an organization called "WOOF", World Organization of Organic Farmers. They will feed you and give you a place to stay if you work 20 hours a week on one of their farms. They don't pay you, but you can use the other 20 hours a week to work a Mc-Job and provide for incidental expenses. And what about all those high rise housing projects they built all over Chicago? I understand that some people don't like them because they don't provide a sense of community, but what do they want for free?

I guess you're right that I have something in common with that Russian hockey player. He didn't become disillusioned with his country, just with the people who were running it. It was the same with me in the blue jean incident. Now that I think of it, that was probably the first time I concluded that an adult authority figure was not on my side. I was always leery of kids who tried to be self appointed authority figures, but I don't remember having any problems with adults until that day. I suppose a lot of guys in that situation would have become disillusioned with American democracy, but I just became disillusioned with people who don't practice what the preach. I don't know why I accepted the preaching and rejected the practicing, maybe because I heard the preaching first.