I Talk About The Hard Stuff Because I Think It’s Important

I literally and figuratively have a big mouth. Sometimes I know I should shut the hell up, but — boy howdy — it’s so hard for me to repress my feelings. When I must keep quiet and make nice at work, for example, my body reacts by grimacing and shuddering. A piece of me dies a little. From a very young age, I was politically conscious and I find it almost physically impossible not to speak up when someone says something ignorant. I also care deeply about what happens in the world, so international and domestic affairs are always a topic of conversation for me.

Yes, I will discuss the conflict in the Middle East during a dinner party, ¿y qué?

The problem with calling out nonsense is that you will likely make people uncomfortable. God forbid you question the government, or our culture in general, because people will think you’re some crazy conspiracy theorist.

How dare you call out corporate greed, you communist monster! Those poor CEOs need more $87,000 rugs! More, I say! Oh, there she goes again talking about the rapes and murders of innocent women and children. What a terrible feminist shrew! Feminists are the worst! Racism? What racism? It must all be in your head, little Mexican! Illegal immigrants are human beings? Yeah, as human as sock puppets! Children have the right to a decent education? Why don’t you just move to Cuba with all those education-loving communists? Pro choice? You are worse than Satan, for a fetus is a grown person! Stop using Styrofoam? Shut up, you tree-hugging lesbian!

It’s hard to live in a culture in which I disagree with so many things. I have been an iconoclast from a very tender age and I frequently feel like a pariah. I’m not going to talk about war crimes at a baby shower or anything. I’m not that unreasonable, but I do feel that news should be a part of our daily discourse. What’s frustrating is that so many people refuse to acknowledge what’s happening in the world and will think you’re a soft-headed ninny if you question anything!

Sometimes, I wish I could just block everything out and watch “Dancing With the D-List Celebrities” and drink Skinny Girl Chocolate Choo Choo without a care in the world. (My writing would likely be about cupcakes and doodads…. maybe I would be more successful.)

If we didn’t question or challenge anything in this country, we would still have problems like segregation. Women would be relegated to the kitchen, or worse. We we would still have child labor. We wouldn’t have a 40-hour work week. Miscegenation would still be illegal. I can go on and on.

The Occupy Movement reassures me because people are clearly unwilling to accept the status quo. At the Occupy Chicago protest I attended a few weeks ago, I felt comforted being surrounded by others who are similarly frustrated and passionate about change. We need to discuss these problems until we’re nauseous. We need to act. If history has taught us anything, it’s that complacency and silence are deadly.