The Rights of Cattle

Started writing this a while ago, then things settled down a little on this issue. But...they're flaring up again, and I put time into writing it, so here you have it.

This whole Colin Kaepernick thing is bogus. Just one more thing for people to hate each other over (and yes, I realize that this is a theme of my blogs lately...it's all you see anymore is people hating each other, so it's on my mind). So at the risk of being hated, I'm going to address it. Because I don't care how people feel about me. The important people love me either way, and if you don't like me, that's ok :~)

1. Rights
In this whole thing, the complaint has been the "disrespect" Colin has been showing toward the men and women who fought for and died for his right to do what he feels is the right thing.
Well guess what...they fought for that right. As such, he has the right to not stand for the anthem. You can't pick and choose what rights you're fighting for. You can't say, "Well...I believe that we should have the right to carry guns around, but I don't believe that a man has the right to marry another man, so gay marriage is disrespecting me." Those who fight for the rights that we have fight for all of them, whether they like that or not.

2. What's wrong with the country...?
This was the comment on a picture saying that the people who approved of Kaepernick's stance (or lack of standing) are what's wrong with the country (spelling and punctuation have been left as they were when it was posted...):
"Amen brother! Id like to see him not stand up if he was in a room full of Marines!!!!! Good old fashioned high school locker room beat down would cure this punk! And also dont buy anything from company's that sponsor him!!!! just my two cents!!!!"
If marines are going to "beat down" this punk for doing what he believes in, then they are themselves taking away those rights that they've supposedly been fighting for. You don't fight for someone's rights, and then not let them use them while yapping about how you've provided those rights that you won't let them use. Those aren't rights and freedoms. Those are the signs of a dictatorship.

3. Law?
According to Title 36 (section 171) of the United States Code, “During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in (military) uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. Men not in uniform should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should render the military salute at the first note of the anthem and retain this position until the last note. When the flag is not displayed, those present should face toward the music and act in the same manner they would if the flag were displayed there.”
How many people actually follow these exactly? Not very many. If we're going to whine about one person not standing, you should be equally offended by anyone who does not have their hand over their heart, or their hat held just right. Doesn't work so well to take one small part of the code and act like it is the only one that matters. If it matters, all of it has to be followed. If the other things aren't required, then sitting down should be allowed.
Different people show respect differently. Personally, I would prefer someone sit during the anthem to all of the people who hoot and holler during said song. Sitting affects me not at all. Yelling and drowning out the song makes it so that I cannot hear the anthem, and is incredibly distracting. But heck, if they want to yell and act disrespectful, that's their dang right.

4. Moooo...
How many people that you know actually stand, put their hand over their heart, remove their hat, etc, etc, because they feel so passionate about the flag/anthem/country? I would bet that if you are at a sporting event or whatever, and the announcer comes on and says, "Please stand and remove all hats for the national anthem of the United States of America", a large percentage of the people around you are standing simply because it's the thing to do. It's a herd mentality. We do what everyone else is doing, because it's what we're supposed to do. You won't get in trouble if you go along with what all of the others cows are doing. So we accept that we have to stand at this time or that, and sing/say the right things. We submit to having our bags and ourselves searched, and having guns banned in places where they should be legal, because that's what we've been told to do, so it's what we have to do. But most cows wind up in the same place in the end anyway.

I'll end with this quote. I came across it today, and thought it was a good one. And pretty darn accurate.
"If free people have fainting spells every time off-putting rhetoric wafts into their ears, soon enough organizations that work to stifle speech will be dictating what acceptable discourse looks like."

Wait...What Lives Matter?

What camp are you in?
Black lives matter?
Blue lives matter?
Furry lives matter?
Unborn lives matter?
Orc lives matter? (I'm sure it's a thing...)
There was a "Veg Fest" at the SLC library, and I went to it, thinking it sounded interesting. It said that it was "family friendly", so I figured they wouldn't be showing pictures of animals being killed or whatever. Not things that I want to see, and I hate the fact that people think that if you don't eat meat, or you like to rescue animals, that you want to see photos and videos of animals being abused and killed.
I was looking at the t-shirts for sale when I realized that, for all their talk about how life matters, lots of vegans don't actually care that much about life. Only the lives that they deem important enough. A lot of their shirts and whatnot refer to the lives of animals being more important than the lives of humans.

Now, I am very much into the idea of animals being treated better than they are currently. Small farms and the like are supposed to be the humane way to raise animals for meat, but I have seen plenty of people who are just nasty to meat animals because they don't want to admit that the animals are intelligent, sentient beings. Not even necessarily abuse or neglect, but things like pulling the ears of a pig until it squeals so that they can laugh about the stupid reaction of the pig. Which really only shows their own stupidity and inhumanity.
But how can you claim that we need to respect the lives of all of the creatures with whom we share the earth, but then cheer the death of those that disagree with you?
People claim that black lives matter, so cops should be killed.
Animals matter, so hunters and farmers should be killed.
Baby lives matter, so abortion doctors should die.
Now, I'll be honest. This is something that is a big struggle for me. I read about people abusing animals, and I wish they would die. I worked with girls who had been trafficked, and heard the stories about pimps and johns beating and raping them, and I wanted them to die. I found traps in the creek, and had visions of the trappers getting caught in their traps and dying like they intended the animals to die.
It is something that I struggle with, but it also makes me feel like a total hypocrite. Because I know that I can't choose who is worthy of living, and who is not. Each person or creature who is alive has been given life for a reason. I may not understand the reason, but that doesn't mean that they deserve to die.

The "(Insert favourite colour here) lives matter" thing pretty much does nothing but divide us further. Most of the issues that this world has right now stem from too much division. Race, religion, sexual preference, politics. Why can't we understand that we have a lot in common if we simply focus on finding those things instead of looking only at the differences?
I'm a straight white female. I'm a Christian, though I don't really identify with any specific denomination. I'm vegetarian, and have been since I was in my teens or so, though most people don't know that because I don't make a huge deal of it. I don't believe in pre-marital sex. I'm probably closest to Libertarian if I have to choose a political view. I'm too conservative for a lot of people, and too liberal for most of the rest. I love to travel, I'm wildly introverted. I prefer sitting in bed, watching a movie or reading a book while snuggling with my cats to going out and partying (though I do like hanging out with people under the right circumstances.

Most of the people that I met while traveling in Europe this spring were atheist or agnostic. Some were bi or gay, some were into sleeping around. Our political views were quite different, and our backgrounds and reasons for traveling were nothing alike. But I really enjoyed talking to a lot of them despite all of the differences. We found the things that we did have in common. We talked about books and movies. We talked about the places we've traveled. With one girl, I watched kittens from the balcony of the hostel. With all of these people, we talked about the things we had in common, then we talked about the things we didn't agree on. And we didn't argue. We discussed. We each explained our views, and we talked about both sides. Opinions may have been changed in some conversations, and stayed the same in others.
Respect is something that has been lost in the world. Respect of other people's views, and their right to life. We have these checklists of what we stand for, and if someone else doesn't stand for at least a certain percentage of those things, then we have no interest in them.
There will be plenty of people that you simply do not get along with for whatever reason. Sometimes you can agree on everything and your personalities simply clash. But whether you get along with them or not, you can treat them like humans, be respectful, and basically just be kind. I gripe about people, but even I can see that things would be so much nicer if we were all just a little bit kinder.