Damn it, Mike Huckabee, for Raining Hate on my Birthday!

Well, damn! I've been trying to compose my thoughts on the Chick Fil A ordeal- reading some articles, etc. Now I've got a million thoughts in my head and you get to read them.


Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has called for a 

"National Chick Fil A Appreciation Day" 

 on MY birthday, August 1st. 

Can I demand this be canceled? All I was hoping for was to peacefully enjoy some cake, watch The Vow for the millionth time, and relax. 

You know, I have an inner struggle with the right to free speech. On a personal level, and a level that comes from my heart, I don't like it when people speak against my beliefs, or those that greatly impact a large group of society. However, I know I am being hypocritical. If I am allowed to speak my mind, I have to contemplate if it is or is not fair to prohibit the speech of others.

I've come to my conclusion- only I and like-minded individuals should speak freely. I'm just "kidding", but here are the problems:

(Note I am going to primarily use the topic of marriage in this argument, but it certainly applies to a great deal of issues.)

• By my support of gay marriage, I am not simultaneously opposing heterosexual marriage.
• The people "defending" heterosexual marriage are no more defending anything than a painter defending himself against a football player. Each of them does his own thing, and neither's actions are going to affect the other's. The cheerleaders aren't going to leave the football stadium to go to the art studio.That may seem like a silly comparison, but just about any "completely opposite" person or group of people is just as ridiculous. If you prefer, a waiter isn't a threat to the chef, a housewife isn't a threat to a "working woman",  "Plain Jane" isn't a threat to "Fashionista Jaime" (ha-ha). Surely you catch my drift. 
• Though I believe gay marriage should be allowed to occur on a federal level, I am not asking any church or minister to be forced to perform such ceremonies. By all means, this CAN be a religious debate internally- it is such religion's right. As I have said before, my God loves and supports me whether the State of Arkansas or the United States does or not, and no one can take that way. 
• If an individual opposes part of her tax dollars to be allotted to such marriage equality, we should be allowed to refuse to pay taxes on any marriage we do not approve of. In other words, someone not wanting Ellen to have married Portia is as ridiculous as Channing Tatum (had to work him in) not wanting Matthew McConaughey to marry his now-wife because he has been a bachelor for so long. They are both married to pretty girls, and each couple's marriage is not affected by the other.
• Neither President Obama or Dan Cathy has to come to my wedding to make it count. And... I doubt VERY SERIOUSLY if President Obama and Michelle or Mr. & Mrs. Cathy will divorce over my marrying Shana. If my actions cause you to divorce your spouse, you have much deeper issues than I can imagine.

My final thought is stolen from an anonymous writer, but it is oh-so-true:

Voting with your dollar is the 

only real vote that still matters.

So, by all means, Dan Cathy, say what you want, and stalk your employees to make sure they are living pure and "Christian" lives. Millions of gay people and their allies, worth billions of dollars, will no longer provide you with their hard-earned money (or inherited money...whatever) to purchase your supplies, pay your employees, and pay your tithes on Sunday. 

Even the mayors of Boston and Chicago have pledged to keep Chick Fil A away from their cities. Boston has around 630,000 residents, and Chicago has a staggering 2,707,000! So, essentially, approximately 3,357,000 American citizens will possibly not have a local Chick Fil A to patronize. I'd say I bet they didn't see that coming, but come on now, the President of the United States has declared his support of same sex marriage. Do they honestly not realize things are changing?

No, Chick Fil A probably isn't headed for bankruptcy, but they aren't going to have quite the allotted money to contribute to their hate-filled organizations. 

And to those critical of Nabisco's proposed Rainbow cookie as a publicity stunt, and not for their actual social concern, who cares? I highly doubt millions of Oreo lovers are going to stop buying them because they are extra colorful. Now if the packages are changed to say, "By Buying this Package of Yummy Cookies, I Agree to Stand up for Gay Rights" and featuring two men kissing, maybe they'll lose some of their customers. Besides, isn't it thought that God created rainbows? I'm just saying...

And as horrible as this sounds, and as much as I don't actually support the idea, it's the truth- how stupid is it to publicly admit something that will keep opposing individuals from supporting the very cause they don't really support? Back to Chicago and Boston, if every citizen of those two cities spends $10 a month on food there, that would be a loss of $402,840,000 a year! Granted, not every individual will even go to Chick Fil A, but even half of them would cause a loss of over $200 million dollars!

Some of you will hate me for saying this, but it reminds me of how I felt about gays not being allowed to serve in the military. One would think ignorant, hateful members of the military would push those very members to the front line to lower the gay population. But hey, I was all for the gay people of the world living long and healthy, war participation-free lives, regardless of the ignorance of the military group and policy.

All of this boils down to one thing- People speak before they think, and they often don't think at all.

Oh my God! She's Crazy!

(The following is a serious issue to start my blog with, but I have to start somewhere. I'm not quite sure how short or long a good blog post is, so bear with me on this starter.)

It is becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence that I hear, in the general public as well as from family and friends, "Well, he (she) must be bipolar. He (she) is CRAZY!"

There are many problems with this declaration. To start, people need to do research on the topic before making such a dramatic remark.  Being bipolar does not, in fact, mean a person is crazy. What does it mean? It means a person has a mood disorder. That's all.

For a brief summary, there are now three types of bipolar disorder. I am not a doctor, so I won't go into great detail, but the three types are: Bipolar I, Bipolar II, and Bipolar NOS.

Bipolar I is the most "severe" of the the three. Individuals in this class have extreme bouts of mania (aka exreme happiness and energy) and depression (sadness, crying, lack of energy, etc.).

Bipolar II is similar to Bipolar I in that there are separate episodes of mania and depression, but they are milder and the periods of one mood or the other may be shorter in length.

Bipolar NOS (not otherwise specified) is the most recent classification, and is considered the mildest of the three. Individuals in this category experience continual changes of "mania" and "depression" (one day is "good", the next is "bad").

Guess what?! Yours truly has been diagnosed with Bipolar NOS.

Some of you are probably surprised, and others of you are probably thinking, "Oh... It all makes sense now! I see why she's either putting up sweet pictures of Jayden or going off on a tangent on Facebook!" And that's okay, but consider these questions: "Have you had a great day where everything is going your way, and you want to share the news?" "Have you had a crappy day that you just wish would start over?"

If you haven't had both of these days, I'm a little concerned. Does having both mean you're bipolar? Well, most likely no, but maybe you will think twice before saying you're "normal" and someone with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder is "crazy".

Just like you probably wouldn't call your happy-go-lucky sister or your down-in-the dumps friend "crazy", don't throw that label on someone who has a little of both.

I'll eventually examine different topics related to my final thought, but here it is for now-

When you say something in a mixed group, it is so important to realize that not everyone in the group has the same view as you may on a particular topic.

More than likely, at least one individual in the group either has a personal experience related to the topic, or has a loved one that does.

I am amazed at the number of people who make racist, homophobic, religious, or similar remarks because they automatically assume that every single person they come into contact with believes interacial relationships are wrong, gay people are disgusting and solely cause AIDS, Hispanic(Latino) people are Mexicans, and bipolar people should be locked up.

Now, I advise you to take this information to heart before this married-to-a-girl, Mommy-of-a-Latino (Venezuelan), bipolar girl goes CRAZY on you!

Finally!

Hi, friends! I did it! I finally have a blog! I promise to start writing about something interesting very soon (like in just a few moments), but I wanted to give you the link so you can follow me! I'm so excited!