I am a
black, disabled, blind in one eye, homeschooling mother of 6 sons.....
Where is My AWARD!!!?????
Where is yours? You are brave and courageous and living against the odds and making the tough decisions and living on a shoe string budget and disabled and short and the the minority!
When do you get your Award for Bravery?
I will start by saying I do not have anything against Caitlyn Jenner nor do I judge her decision to become a woman. I trust God in issues like this. But I am concerned with the amount of accolades and awards she is receiving. As Bruce Jenner he was a wonderful athlete and worked hard for his medals and trophies. Caitlynn seems to be winning the world over because she finally decided to step into a dress and out of her track shoes.
There are so many amazing people doing amazing things in this world everyday/ Yet she continues to win awards for bravery and being fascinating. So many of our children are bullied and ridiculed because they are struggling with their sexuality. I do not see how Jenner's fame and fortune could be helping these kids. It is all glimpse and glam and of course she receives backlash and rude remarks but there is a HUGE difference than a 14 year old boy coming to terms with his feeling like he is a woman. We are so covered in labels in the United States. Your race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, economic status and values will have you beaten, shunned, murdered, ridiculed and bullied every day,. No bodyguards. No comfort from the media that you are supported and no bank account to look like you feel.
If we are going to allow our children to witness and live amongst people with so many differences, we must be honest about the prejudice, hatred and ridicule that goes along with our choices and our birth rights. I would never ask my sons to apologize for being black but I do alert them to the fact that everyone is not going to welcome them no matter how educated or well spoken. We are so very uncomfortable with what we do not understand. I can't walk in the store with my cane or ride in the motorized scooter without stares. Because we want to know what is wrong but quite often we do not care. If you are overweight you are insecure in a variety of situations and you also get the stares and giggling. Our autistic and asperger's children are looked at as so very different from the other kids when they really are not. But the label helps us to deal with what we cannot understand.
I will say that it was bold for Caitlyn to step out and feel the sun on her face but what are we teaching our young people about courage and making a difference? What do they see as a good life, when any and everything is possible nowadays. They get teased for their clothes and their hair. Bullied because they speak different or walk different. And they get up and go to school every single day,...courageous! I have six boys that have looked to me and Dad to provide the answers to the contradictory things we witness. Being gay will get you beat up, A Muslin man gets the most hateful stares. Black people are still getting followed in the mall. Hispanics are teased for cutting grass and working for the minimum. Women are still not considered as equal to men but a man can become a woman and receive an award!? White kids in the wrong zip code can be bullied and teased and social media is like a bully that lives with you. And our kids fall prey to it over and over again.
My kids know I am handicapped, They know that I am blind in one eye and they know that I could wake up any day and be paralyzed. But they also know that NONE of that makes me better than a mom who is single and working two jobs and has 4 kids. The level of courageousness that some of us show each and everyday without trophies or applause or pats on the back is unimaginable. Dealing with 6 disease at a time and still holding down a family, a household, and living through it all. That is bravery!
I don't want us to sit back and allow the Bruce Jenner story to confuse our kids. You do not have to do that much to be recognized as brave or interesting. And you deserve to be acknowledged and appreciated for what you do as well as anyone else. I get it...he is an icon. But at the end of the day, some of us regular people are beating the odds against us over and over again. We cannot lose sight of what matters in our country. And a personal decision to change who you are should be respected, But not any more or less than a child who is not allowed to make a decision for fear of retribution.
Labels,.....we all wear them. Whether we like them or not. They cover us like boy scout badges. And we live everyday in spite of the labels, the odds, the audience and the fall out. Caitlyn Jenner is a groundbreaker and I am sure we have not begun to see how appreciated and admired she is in a world where those same people will spit on Muslims and throw rocks at gays, The same people that use words like fag and nigga. the same people that want Hispanics to "go back to Mexico" They will stand and applaud the bravery they see in Caitlyn and never acknowledge the coward within themselves, Our role models have drastically changed wince I was a child, Which is why we have to be the ones our kids look up too. Especially when they are not sure what they are looking at.
God bless us all. And I pray that those brave, strong, vigilant, and resilient young people will one day be acknowledge for all they do that influences our country regardless to what their last name is.
Blessings
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