Target has been under fire. Why? They had put up some Pride displays in their stores that’s why. My god you would think that the sky is falling and that the world is coming to an end. People have called for a boycott of Target because of it. Whenever any business tries to reach out for tolerance they seem to wind up being the target for hate. Transgender people have always existed. Gay people have always existed. Saying that is not indoctrination it is stating a fact. I know that people always will say that this is a liberal thing and that liberal people are trying to indoctrinate our children. I am here to tell you that this is not a liberal thing or a conservative thing. This is a Freedom thing. That is right. This is all about freedom and who gets to be free. Yup that thing that so many have died protecting.

Who gets to be free? That is a great question that I am pretty sure most conservatives will not want to answer. They just scream freedom without really caring about what real freedom can be. Can a person that suppresses others define freedom? I don’t thinks so. You look at many of the organizations that yell freedom, like the Proud Boys or the Oath Keeps, are not organizations of freedom at all. The biggest offender is the church. The church is not built on any of the true principles of freedom; they never have been and never will be. You can say I am nuts but history is actually on my side. During Henry VIIIs rule he had a disagreement with the Catholic Church because he was not free to have his marriage annulled. So what did he do?  He just got rid of the Catholic Church in England and started his own church, the “Church of England” placing himself as the head of the church. People did not have a choice. People that did not go along with the King were eliminated. Does this sound like freedom to you? It sounds like oppression to me. There were groups of people that fled Europe because of the lack of freedom that both the Catholic Church and the Church of England denied them. I believe our Founders believed that a Government sponsored church like the “Church of England” and the “Catholic Church” would only, in the end, deny the very freedoms that they fought for. That is why they wanted the separation of Church and State so our Government would never be answerable to the head of any Church. I don’t mean to bash the Church, but the Church is not about personal freedom. It is about taking personal freedom away and replacing it with the teachings of the church. You can say that you have every right to have the personal freedom to belong to the church and you would be correct. The thing is the person next to you has every right to have the same personal freedom to not belong to any church and to not have that ideology forced upon them. Unless both sides have the same personal freedom there can be no freedom at all, just one side oppressing the other.

In Florida we have a lot of things that we can’t do and that list is growing every day. You can’t say Gay. That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. It is also one of the most hateful things that I have ever heard. The first thing it does is it takes away our freedom of speech in an educational setting. Children are not exposed to a gay lifestyle in our schools; they are exposed to it because it has been around them every day. It is not a new lifestyle. It has been around about as long as humans have walked this planet. Is it a bigger problem now? No! The only thing is in this digital age on information systems it is just harder to hide. That is what “Don’t Sat Gay” is about. It is continuation of trying to hide something that has been there all along because it offends a certain group. The second thing is does is it spreads hate and phobia that spreads violence. You have a group of people whose lifestyle really does not harm you one bit. By claiming our schools are indoctrinating our children is ruining our educational system and replacing it with ignorance and hate which in reality is the real indoctrination happening in our schools. The third thing it does is it helps put a bull’s eye on the back of the gay community.  

In Florida they have outlawed Black education. Our freedom to learn the truth of our history is not there in our once great State. From Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King, from the Rosewood massacre to slavery, these historical subjects and many more will not be properly taught in the Florida Schools System because of racism. Our Governor even said that “Black Studies” had no educational value. When I hear that to me it sounds like he is saying the Black people have no real value. When Florida became a State 49 percent of the people in Florida were Black. Don’t even try to tell me that Black History is not Florida History because that would be a lie.  The Florida Governor and the legislature has attacked all education that does not fit the White narrative. Freedom cannot exist without the truth and our Children are not being taught the truth. Art, History, and Literature are all under attack in Florida.

In Florida they have banned all Diversity Training in our educational settings. In fact that is what the Governor’s feud with Disney is really about is the Diversity that Disney preaches and that includes supporting the Gay Community but also supports many communities. In my opinion the opposite of Diversity is Segregation and I really think that our Governor wishes to bring that era back. It was hatred that brought about Segregation and it is hatred that is bringing it back. Segregation is not Freedom. Segregation is oppression. It was the very thing that in the past tore our nation apart. It is one of the very things that is tearing our country apart now. It is the very thing that Martin Luther King marched against. I have written this before and I am sure I will be writing it again “Freedom is only a word that has no meaning if it is used to suppress your neighbor”.

I am posting this on Memorial Day, a day that I take very serious. It is a day that we remember the sacrifices that people have made to form this once great nation of ours. It is a day we should remember the original Freedom Fighters that rebelled against a system that offered us no representation, representation that many are being denied. We remember the brave people that fought to preserve our Union when there were people that wanted it to divide and fail so they could still enslave people of color. We remember the Greatest Generation that helped end one of the most murderous governments in the history of the world, the Nazi’s. We honor those that answered the call even when that cause was not popular like our Vietnam Veterans. It should also be a day that we honor those that fought for the freedoms that many of us enjoy today that weren’t won by war but by demonstrations, perseverance and sacrifice. We should honor the Women that marched for Women’s Suffrage and the ones that are still fighting for equality for women. We should honor the many that protested to make us all free like Rosa Parks and John Lewis. We should be honoring all those that have made it their goal that we know and learn about those sacrifices that are still trying to be suppressed today.