"...wE mUst bE thE chAnGe wE wiSh tO sEE iN thE wOrld..." K.G.

4/23/2009

an addendum to the prior post:

i must tell you that as i was growing up, i was a name caller- i told jokes about blacks, Jews, polish people, gays, and handicapped people. i learned this in my family of origin. my parents always used the "N" word to refer to blacks and used derogatory names in reference to people who were different
nationalities. we had a gay cousin whom i loved dearly,
he was ridiculed and called names throughout our family,
for all of his life. i followed by example, in the jokes i passed along....
it took me many years to realize what i was doing. it haunts me. STILL. i am ashamed for what i have done.... i was a different person then. but once i realized, my heart changed. and i wept for things i had said in jest. i still wonder to this day if any of my words encouraged or promoted another person to hurt someone else. however, in my worst form, i never HATED, i said such things for laughs, and in jest.... as i saw my parents do.
and i always felt like i was doing something wrong everytime i
used those words. ALWAYS. maybe it was my inner
voice trying to tell me this was wrong. but i didn't recognise it...
[i put much effort in raising my own kids to not judge]
if anyone out there has felt the same, you have my understanding.
i hope you may one day come to realize what you are saying.
i am not trying to be pious or superior, because i surely am not.
i am only trying to be honest.

"what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

crp

3 comments:

Busy Bee Suz said...

I think the past generations did not give much thought to what harm words can mean. My Father was like this. My Mom's Dad. We know better now. We are more open to people. We are more open to the world. Hopefully this will continue until there is no hate left one day.

Mike said...

Sometimes you use words for the sound of the word or the emotion at the time that you say it. I say Oh God all the time, even though I am an atheist. It is possible to tell an ethnic joke without really feeling bad feelings toward that group. Only words that are said in true hatred, are really hateful words!

Technodoll said...

It's awful the off-color jokes and racial slurs that go on in my fambly, specially during drunken gatherings... however some of those are redirected back at us so really, it's just part of the soup.

In real life, we're all very tolerant :-)