Internet Malaise **decidedly political(I yam what I yam)**

Oh friends,

I had the day off today and I spent too much time with the internet. It made me sad. Because what I read and saw was all about unkindness. I read about the AFA (American Family Association)sending men into Target's women's bathrooms to prove a point(what point, I'm not sure) and how 1.5 million people had signed onto a boycott all because Target said people can use the bathroom where they feel most comfortable. Target didn't say people are welcome to commit crimes in bathrooms. They said "be who you are" to people who haven't always had that luxury. And I can't understand why someone would want to make life harder for someone who has suffered to become who they feel they need to become(please don't start telling me about people who marry goats or plastic dolls, those are sensationalist stories told to distract), but clearly many do.

Next, I watched a video that shows a woman berating a man who is buying food for his family at a Wal-mart with food stamps. She tells him that she is paying for his food with her tax money and she doesn't want to--while his toddler sits in the shopping cart in front of him. On the video, it doesn't show any bystanders telling her to knock it off or interrupting her, just this obnoxious woman and the man doing what it takes to feed his kid, trying to defend himself. I wondered why someone didn't ask her if she knew that often soldiers' families have to use food stamps to make ends meet?  Or ask what happened to her empathy? Or at least ask her "WWJD?"*

Stupidly, I read the comments on articles talking about Malia Obama's admission to Harvard. So many of them implied that she would never have gotten into Harvard were it not for her race, and that somehow it was easier for her to get in. Some merely talked about her race in the most base and vulgar terms.  And many questioned whether she would have gotten in if Barack Obama hadn't won the Presidency in 2008. Who knows? Why would her ability be questioned? Her parents are Harvard grads, she's gone to the best schools, and she has had a unique experience as a participant in big history headlines. What school wouldn't want her? These hateful comments prove once again what so many of us have thought since 2008--that we had been pretending that we were a postracial society--when racism is still alive and well and seething with rage. And as many times as I remind myself that

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”--MLK

I wonder if we are going to last until the arc arcs? Our society's unkindness seems to know no bounds. We offer no empathy to those who suffer misfortune, whether it's at the hands of others or their own. We hide the sick and the slow, we cut off the needy and the infirm, we scorn those who are mentally ill or drug-addicted. And we celebrate Donald Trump, who promises to give power to people who feel powerless, but it's the falsest promise of all time. Donald Trump didn't become Donald Trump by sharing the power, but Barack Obama did.  That's what really scares people. And scared people have a hard time with empathy. They are thinking about fight or flight or they are paralyzed and they can't think at all. So what do we do, to start recognizing our shared humanity? How do you feel compassion for a father using food stamps or a girl going to college or people who just want to use the bathroom without a fight? How do I learn compassion for those that pick fights with the downtrodden or denigrate good people? I think it takes kindness--just a smile and a gentle reminder to walk in each others' shoes for a ways. It's going to take a long time, like MLK said, but maybe, someday, we'll meet each other at the bend.

Be sweet, y'all. 

Love,  

Corks

*Hey 90's, I missed you.