CORE VALUES
Cindy Maddera
See this Instagram photo by @elephant_soap * 4 likes
Last week, as I was scrolling through facebook, I noticed that someone had posted an article from FOX News about this video that has been put together by Humanity for Progress. I'm going to give you a minute to watch it because I believe that you should actually watch the video before you make comments or assumptions about what the video is about instead of what ever the 'news' tagline says.
I've only seen one other person share this video as a positive message. The others who have posted it have posted it with negative comments such as how the people in the video are just whiney babies. One comment that has stuck in my toe like a thorn was someone who said "who are they to tell us what our core values are?!?"
Who are they to tell us what our core values are?
For years I have been listening to the alt-right loudly try to dictate their core values onto me. I have watched as they have lobbied for having their bible taught in public schools, dictated what I can and can't do with my body and declared who should and should not have basic civil rights. Really, honestly, what that person's comment about this video not representing his core values tells me is that he thinks racism is A-okay and doesn't need attention. He thinks that it's quite alright to slap a woman on the ass and call her 'doll' and that her place is in the kitchen making his sandwich. He thinks that homosexuals should stay in their closets and that religions other than his own should be banned. His core values sound pretty disgusting. Those people like him have also done their fair share of whining. Those people are the forty six percent of this country who voted for Trump. As a member of the forty eight percent who did not vote for this man, here is something I think you, as a forty sixer, needs to know.
We are scared and our fear holds value. A man who campaigned on a platform of racism, misogyny, homophobia, exclusion and hate is now our president elect. He has chosen a VP who thinks homosexuality is a disease that can be 'cured' by aversion therapy, a therapy that includes shock treatments and other tortures. Trump has appointed two well known racists to his cabinet. His choice for Secretary of Labor is a guy who opposes raising the minimum wage and is also against paying for overtime. (Way to vote against your best interests there, forty six percenters.) The guy he picked to head up the Environmental Protection Agency doesn't even really think we should have an EPA. And before you think we don't need an EPA, I want you to consider the water that comes out of your taps and the air you breathe into your lungs. The EPA's mission is 'to protect human health and the environment'. You really think we should get rid of an agency that wants to protect you from lead poisoning and smog?
You may believe you voted for Trump because you believe him to be a good businessman and you think that's what this country needs, but that is not the platform he campaigned on. Maybe you even fell for that whole 'Make America Great Again' slogan, but did you even stop and consider the 'again' part of that slogan? What do you mean by making America great again and to what great part of the American timeline do you want us all to go back to? Segregation? Before women had the right to vote? Slavery? That time we stole all the land from the Native Americans? You see, that's part of the thing that scares us. We don't know how far back you want to take us.
But what you also fail to see is that the people in that video are not whining. They are giving you a warning. We are not going to stand for racism, misogyny, homophobia, exclusion and hate. We are going to hold those who do allow for those things accountable. We will not be silenced. We will not back down.