Ferguson

A young man died.  A kid really, an 18-year-old boy.  Unarmed, but maybe charging the policeman.  Killed for jaywalking.  Would this have happened to a white boy?  Would this have happened in a less segregated suburb?  Would this have happened if Zimmerman hadn't walked away without a charge?

There was a hashtag, #PrayforFerguson.  And it's not the right time to pray.  It is the time to be angry, for the white majority in this country to look at our privilege and be angry that it makes criminals out of people for being black.  That it makes riot gear available to hold off protestors who are peaceful.  That it allows for us to walk into our houses at night and be safe and if we forget the key, our neighbors invite us in for coffee or lemonade, but if we were black, the cops would be called on us(look at Henry Louis Gates).  That when the police stop us, we get a ticket or a warning and we drive off.  We live.  We, who were born with white skin, have benefits from that and it is time that we help change the system.  That we end racial profiling.  There is no more black on black crime than there is white on white crime.  These are lies.

White people have shorter sentences, more likely to receive parole, less likely to be in prison. 

This is not American.  We, the people, does not grant rights by the color of your skin or your gender or who you love.  It's time we stop letting the laws divide us.  It's time we stop praying for something that happened in a community far away and time we start changing laws, changing rules, helping us and helping others.  Because what happened to Michael Brown is not an isolated incident, it is a racial divide that sometimes is deep and is very rarely shallow.

RIP Robin Williams

One of my strongest memories of my cousins and I was watching Mrs. Doubtfire for the umpteenth time at my grandparents' farm.  We watched it over and over again, probably 10 times in three years, or at least it felt that way.  It was one movie we could all agree on, every time.  Because it made us laugh.  All of us, and any adult that was watching with us laughed as well.  It was funny and moving and meaningful, even in the hilarity.

And that's who Robin Williams was to me.  Someone who made me laugh.  I never even came close to meeting him, but today, I am sad.  I am sad because he was there to make me laugh and to move me.  And now, he's gone.  And he probably committed suicide.  This man, who made the world laugh, and sometimes, yes, sometimes, he made us cry with his work, is today making us all cry, because he is gone.

And the thing of it is, depression sucks.  And I know it sucks, but I hear people say that you just have to push through it.  And here, here is the best example I can think of that proves depression is not something to just push through or that is something that is easy to deal with.  Here's a man who made millions of dollars, he had a family, he had a successful career.  He has four movies coming out, he had a contract for a sequel to Mrs. Doubtfire.  And he couldn't push through it.  What chance does a person who doesn't have that good stuff, but instead only has bad stuff, like a lost job, lost custody of kids, friends who don't want to hang out anymore, people who insist that they are a drain on society, what chance does a person like that have? 

This is what depression is.  It is not just in the lonely, it is not just in the unloved, it is in the well-known, the hidden and the open. 

I read a post on twitter that we should have said all these good things before.  And maybe we should've.  Maybe we should've told Robin Williams every day that we love him.  But, I'm guessing, his family did that.  So instead of regretting not letting Robin Williams know how much we care, we need to tell our friends and our family that we do care.  That they are important, that they make our lives better.  That they do not drain us, but fill us.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Summer's Almost Done

And while we have done some awesome things(Paul McCartney Concert way up there), we just haven't done much.  And it will be gone soon and the husband will be back at school and I will start up a new job(an Americorps position), so just for the year.

This job-hunting stuff sucks.