My husband and I were engaged in a very interesting discussion about the history of immigration in America. As a recent immigrant from Scotland, this is a very hot and frequent topic around the house.
He could not believe that initial Irish immigrants were treated so poorly and that laws were even enacted to curtail the flood of European immigration at the turn of the last century. In my ego-driven nerd hysteria to not only prove my point but flood the discussion with reputable facts, I discovered an article on the Bible Riots of 1844.
I had surprised even myself. Having spent half of my impressionable childhood growing up in Philadelphia, were these violent and religiously fueled riots took place, I was amazed at my lack of knowledge. History was a gigantic part of public education in the city of brotherly love and my teachers NEVER told us about the Bible riots of 1844. These bloody riots burned down churches and all started over the argument of using the King James version of the bible in public school.
I knew that the history of America has always been a violent one but this really took the cake. Much of the discussion around immigration today still revolves around these same talking points and truthfully the same false idea. The idea that we can own land. Native American people would laugh at the whole thing and call it crazy. How could we, mere humans, say that we can own our mother? We are all guests and bad ones at that fighting over our seat at the table. When truthfully none of us fighting even deserves to sit down. Food for thought, but when it comes to fighting over immigration maybe none of us is right?
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/nativist-riots-of-1844/
Monday, July 22, 2019
Saying Goodbye to Social Media
There comes a time in life when all things must change. This is the time in my life when I have decided to say goodbye to Facebook, Twitter, and I never even tried SnapChat but it sounded fun. Recent revelations from the news regarding Facebook's willing participation in the disruption of elections here in America is just unconscionable to me. I refuse to continue to willingly participate in the slow erosion of my own democracy. I also do not want to freely give away my rights to privacy and contribute to the growing power of these malicious monopolies.
If the founding father's thought monopolies were good then they would not have made them illegal. I have decided to take back control of my own voice by creating my blog right here on my own website. At least I can still control my own domain....well somewhat.....for now...hopefully.
It is hard for me to close that door, a tear falls and I can hear Boys To Men softly playing in my mental soundtrack. I will miss seeing my friend's amazing art, and watching kids in my circle growing up. But I will not miss the hate speech that I am helping to fund by participating in the site or the private information that I am giving freely to Google, Amazon and God knows who else. As facial recognition software is developed and I see a bad episode of the Twilight Zone unfolding before my very eyes I have to step off the crazy train. I cannot help but see into the future and where this is leading and it's not pretty.
I don't want to live in a world where we value people only for their accomplishments or how good they look. I don't want to hang out with people that I only communicate with in 180 characters or less. I am sure done with being a part of a commercial monster that eats people and spits out profit margins. I am done helping to do my small part in funding the 1%.
My goal is to use this little corner of the world wide web to share my wild thoughts and ideas in one strange place. As an artist, people often try to pigeon hole me into just one box but my mind is so much more than just pretty colors and compositions. I have often held back my views and opinions for fear of retribution but I can no longer hold my tongue. I hope that you enjoy and even if you don't please share your opinions. The art of conversation should not be lost.
If the founding father's thought monopolies were good then they would not have made them illegal. I have decided to take back control of my own voice by creating my blog right here on my own website. At least I can still control my own domain....well somewhat.....for now...hopefully.
It is hard for me to close that door, a tear falls and I can hear Boys To Men softly playing in my mental soundtrack. I will miss seeing my friend's amazing art, and watching kids in my circle growing up. But I will not miss the hate speech that I am helping to fund by participating in the site or the private information that I am giving freely to Google, Amazon and God knows who else. As facial recognition software is developed and I see a bad episode of the Twilight Zone unfolding before my very eyes I have to step off the crazy train. I cannot help but see into the future and where this is leading and it's not pretty.
I don't want to live in a world where we value people only for their accomplishments or how good they look. I don't want to hang out with people that I only communicate with in 180 characters or less. I am sure done with being a part of a commercial monster that eats people and spits out profit margins. I am done helping to do my small part in funding the 1%.
My goal is to use this little corner of the world wide web to share my wild thoughts and ideas in one strange place. As an artist, people often try to pigeon hole me into just one box but my mind is so much more than just pretty colors and compositions. I have often held back my views and opinions for fear of retribution but I can no longer hold my tongue. I hope that you enjoy and even if you don't please share your opinions. The art of conversation should not be lost.
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