Ok you may wonder what got me on my soapbox this time...such a small thing..but that is the issue. It is a small thing, one of many small things, adding up to a major thing. I will explain...
Yesterday I went to the Dr.s office. I rarely need to go so I haven't been since the system was changed to computer only, the thousands of paper files are gone and the receptionist sits in front of empty shelves. She is not the nicest person, a bitchy person, just the type to get my dander up. She snippily says,"I need your picture i d." Not asking, just telling. I of course decided to leave that in the car since they supposedly have all the info on me they need over the past 20+ years of going to this office. But she insists and I go get it. She scans it!!!! Are you kidding me?
Now this seems a small thing, surely I can trust the Dr.s office help and wait..what the hell do they need that info for? We can't see the Dr. til we pay our co-pay, our health insurance is up to date..the privacy laws she says and I comply..all the while telling myself to calm down, don't make an issue, go to my zen place... then the nurse assistant in the exam room turns on the computer and asks if I have ever had any surgeries! What happened to the now missing files? Not transferred obviously..are they in a dumpster? I have no zen place when it comes to privacy laws and censorship and freedoms lost.
As I have said many times before..each freedom taken away, each nosy busy body who wants something they don't need, each artwork censored is like dying a death of a thousand cuts. Not so bad each time until you wake up one day and wonder where all your blood went!!!!
In the past few years..these are some of the cuts I and my family and friends have endured..
the art show with the sign outside the door, big enough for anyone to see, "explicit content". The viewer who went inside anyway to be offended, looking for the tiny faint pencil drawing that offended and complaining to the art office bimbo who freaked out on the head of the gallery, who in turn sought out the advisor to the student artist, who took down the offensive drawing, without contacting the artist, without discussion, without a thought that this might be a sorry thing to do...
the oil company that demands a blood alcohol test and a hair follicle test of its employees for a poorly paid cashier at a convenience store job, with a young man as a manager who does not understand human rights or have a decent social bone in his body, making employees cry is his MO.
the insurance company that does a credit check of a good customer who pays every month with an auto withdrawal so there is never a late payment.
The god complex supervisor who tells the employee you can't leave your station to go to the bathroom because no one on your team showed up to work that day.
The job applicants who get weeded out for their age and credit histories because any HR can use the google device and get info on you before you even get an interview..which you never get, or a sorry you don't qualify email..
the Wendy's employee that works a whole year because they are told they will be eligible for a weeks paid vacation only to have it taken away 2 days before the end of the year because Corporate decides to amend the policy.
The UTA company officials who decide not to honor the union vote and force employees to abide by their new contract or not have health insurance.
The 87 year old grandma treated like a criminal with a bomb in her hip..a hip replacement kept her from making her flight. No apologies..
the Dr.s office that calls with my husbands lab results and won't give them to me...his wife of 31 years because of privacy laws, the many businesses, banks, credit card companies that insist I have no right to call and talk about my husband's accounts, even though he has faxed the ok.
The artist whose painting of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse is removed from a bookstore wall because the faint biblical reference might offend someone.
The years of harassment at the hands of customers at a tiny convenience store in Utah County who felt it was ok to deride me because I am a Democrat. To infer I was a terrorist lover because of my political leanings.
The Senior BFA show at a gallery who agreed not to censor the show but did so anyway.
Do you understand why I am fighting mad? Do you know my father fought as a marine in the first wave on Iwo Jima in WWII not because he wanted the experience, but because he fought for his and my freedoms, and yours too. The centuries of women who fought to be able to vote only to have the now generation decide their vote doesn't count and refuse to show up at the polls. The years of war and repression through out this world for the right to worship freely to have people today say those who believed enough to fight for their beliefs were sheep with no thoughts of their own.
The fact that girls today dream of having breast augmentation because it will make them feel powerful and dress provocatively as children, when their power was truly within them all the time, the power over their bodies (Roe vs. Wade), the freedom to vote, to have equal pay for equal work,the right to play sports, the right to an education, the right to a no-fault divorce, the right to marry for love. And yes the right to shun all the rights that many fought for them to have..
So we have the right to ignore our rights but I am not sure that is a wise decision, ignorance is not bliss. Giving up freedoms to feel safe is not safety. Censorship of the arts is not right and should not be tolerated no matter how small the offense seems. because no censorship is small. Allowing one person to exercise power over an employee, client, customer, patient, to demean, to make cry, feel small, to bully is wrong. Where is our zero tolerance for such injustices? Do we exercise zero tolerance in our schools for children being children yet refuse to demand the same of our bosses, CEOs and others in the positions to be corrupt? They claim zero tolerance on us..
When do we realize that the Government will not keep us safe? That the passengers on the planes caught the underpants bomber, not TSA.
When do we take our own safety and our freedoms upon ourselves and say "NO MORE" to the bigots and bullies in our lives?
Where is your blood level? How many cuts have you endured because you figured it wasn't a fight worth fighting? Are you afraid of being labeled a malcontent? Are you fearful for your job? Are you afraid that your friends and family will make fun of your outrage?
Let's all do artwork that could be edgy, let's all say no to the busybodies who make policy that takes what they don't need. Let's have a little anarchy here and now and at least say we don't like that or agree with that...let's make our own policies..be our own CEOs....brush off your soapbox and don't leave me standing here all alone in my fury, dripping blood from my many cuts.
