Dear Ellis: 3 - Hijab on Fire

Dear El,

Dave Martin just announced he'd support pushing our fine country back a few decades or so... Punishing women for having abortions (um, what about the men who knocked the woman up??!? No punishment there, of course...) and allowing business owners to discriminate based on religious values. Ok, so maybe it starts with someone refusing a gay couple a wedding cake, but who's to say, then, that someone else could refuse to serve dark skinned people again claiming it was religious, or refusing to do business with someone who then gets upset by it and refuses to leave the place of business, would they then have the right to shoot said "customer"? I can see people these days using that excuse to just outright shoot someone, I really can, and how sad is THAT?

Life here is getting unreal very quickly... I just saw a video of a group of men who ganged up on a Muslim woman, born in this country (but god forbid she wear a hijab out in public! Celebrities can go out wearing nothing but pasties covering their breasts, but to cover oneself fully? Unacceptable!), and no lie, they poured gasoline on her and LIT HER ON FIRE! I haven't heard if she even survived, but I would feel worse for her if she did, honestly. To suffer burns like that, and wake up scarred both outside and inside, knowing hatred like that could still be so prevalent in this supposedly "civilized" country... To murder someone over a head covering? Really? She did nothing wrong, and yet she was accosted. Who's next, then? The guy wearing a purple shirt, regardless of his true sexual orientation, but assumed to be a "faggot" by some bigot? We argue over transgender bathroom rights, but never consider basic morality and our human commonalities... Do we not share the same DNA, the same bone structures, the same blood and oxygen to breathe? To think a group of people could all simply think of such actions as doing the world a "favor" and "defending the Christian faith" instead of what they truly are, horrific assault and likely the MURDER of an innocent, simply because she calls their common god "Allah" instead of "God" or "Yahweh". And knowing that so many who hold hatred toward Muslims, gays, and anyone different gather weekly in stone temples to worship a savior who preached "love your neighbor as yourself" and "turn the other cheek" and "judge not or you will be judged more harshly".

Too many criticize the Koran for its inequality of women, yet the Bible does the same. Books written during a time period in our history when women had no equality would then be written by men believing those societal norms, and write within that context, regardless of the name of the God who inspired the words. And is it so hard to educate oneself that a "jihad" is a moral battle within oneself between the desires of the flesh, desires for power and greed and instant gratification versus living according to moral values and healthy choices, not a war against "infidels" in first world nations. And that Christianity ran around murdering people for not believing in their god during the Crusades, Nazi's went around murdering millions for their worship of Yahweh - yet we forget those parts, and simply judge the extreme Islamist's for doing it now, as if such things had never been done before ever. And judge every member of their faith for the actions of the few. Especially since most humans would never move toward such violence if they were not pushing back against violence against them, killing their fathers and mothers and children and ability to live in peace, as we have done to so many Muslim people in a covert attempt to steal their land and their oil in our many attacks of the Middle East.

Sorry for my ranting, but I get so upset lately, because this stupid election has opened my eyes to just how many people actually support Martin and Conrad in their anger and blame aimed at anyone "different", as if they conspired to make our lives difficult. Life is simply difficult sometimes, life is simply unfair sometimes, and those battles are what teach us to evolve and grow, to become better. But it is harder to allow change than it is to throw blame, right?

I go online and see people you know are educated, who have daughters they love, families that are imperfect, lives that are decent, who support Martin and his belittling of women in some foolish solidarity with his "business sense" and his "strength" of "character". Don't they see he wants our daughters to think they must be visually perfect to be considered worthy, and only if they keeps their mouth shut, legs open, and their husbands' dinners hot on the table? Can't they see that he wants to bomb children in far away lands who only want what we all want, to live in peace, and whose parents are willing to die to defend their children from his bombs, just like we would be willing to do if it were OUR children? And with every bomb, another terrorist is born, as they watch their family dying in their arms at the dropping of yet another American attack...

Don't they see that the gay man spit upon in the pizza shop could be their son one day, and the mother needing that abortion could be their sister after being raped?

A disgustingly rich man who hasn't paid but pennies compared to his billions in the bank into our country's tax system isn't a "smart guy" who would know how to run the business of our country. He knows how to swindle the system for his own best interest, and those interests of his business partners and friends. He'll swindle all of us if we allow it! But no, our country's financial issues are caused by the pennies we give to single moms who chose to not have those abortions (because pro-life ends at BIRTH here, kids! Better have that baby but don't ask us for help to give it a LIFE no no!), not "successful" business men like Martin, who stash their money here and there, buy failing companies so they can claim "losses" despite earning millions, and do nothing but TAKE from the system and the country. It's those "damn immigrants" who do the jobs no one in this country wants to do any more, like working hard to earn dirt pay, and often do pay taxes, but they're "stealing jobs" away from "hardworking Americans". It's not the businessmen like Martin who hire Chinese kids (at even worse wages) to mass produce their goods to sell in America for huge profits, no no, that has NOTHING to do with our lack of jobs. It has nothing to do with our dissolving work ethic (just give us money, we want to watch reality TV and do nothing to earn it..>) and sense of entitlement, no!!!

Let's just go burn poor helpless Muslim women in the streets and post videos of it... Because that's going to make our country amazing again. For white, middle class Christians, that is. Or is it?

Love always,
your quickly-becoming-jaded sister,
Anna. #AnnaandEllis #DearEllis #HopeVali #politics #newbookidea #murica