I just don’t care! !!! House Bill 2

http://http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/north-carolina-gender-bathrooms-bill/

This bill is creating so much mayhem that it’s ridiculous, but I just don’t care.  Before this bill, before this conversation started I just didn’t care.  I’m almost positive that you didn’t care either.  Now, don’t misunderstand me!  I’m totally for the LGBT communities having equal rights, just as I am with everyone else, but I’m tired of being told I’m homophobic because I don’t share in the compassion.
There are so many pressing issues happening in America, why are we even discussing what bathroom a transgender chooses to use.  To be frank, who cares? Not one of us really paid any attention to what bathroom “she/he” chose for themselves.  In fact,  my previous supervisor was a transgender woman.  I’m not certain what stage of the transition she was in either.  Some did speculate on what bathroom she chose, but it never caused an uproar because we didn’t care that much.  Now, because we are given the option to choose  (because it was forced upon us), it’s a conversation and many are against it. Prior to the LGBT community making us aware of the issue, we did not care.  You could have walked in the bathroom of your choosing and we’d have not said a word.
What really bothers me about this issue, outside of being called homophobic, because now I don’t want to share (when before I didn’t pay enough attention to care), is the fact that people’s ability to stimulate income is being affected.  Now,  PayPal has decided not to bring over 400 jobs to the state of North Carolina behind this mess.  I only wonder when the LGBT community decides to push it’s issues on the rest of us do they consider the impact it will have on all of us, them included.  Now, they are stunting their ability to earn income.
I do want equal rights for the LGBT, just as much as I want rights for black America. We should all be able to share in the liberties.  Unfortunately, the way the world is set up today there will never be 100% equality for anyone as long as there are labels. Women will lack, blacks will lack, Hispanics will lack, Muslims will lack, so of course LGBT communities will also lack.
I truly believe the LGBT community will prosper as long as they stop trying to force the rest of us to agree about the life they choose to live.  And I don’t say choose like they weren’t born this way,  I say choose in the same way that I choose to be a heterosexual. (I even hate that I had to give that disclaimer because the community is so sensitive with word choice.) I’m so over it.  Live the life you choose.  Be who you want to be.  Stop trying to make me care, because I just don’t.

Slavery in the 21st century? Say what?!

There are so many complex social issues happening right now in the United States, and the world, from sex trafficking to gay rights and even human rights. The one social issue that seems to go unnoticed is slavery in the 21^st century (in the United States of America.)

Many tend to believe that slavery was abolished with the 13^th amendment when in fact, slavery did not end; slavery merely took on a new face. According to the 13^th amendment (Section 1), “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, EXCEPT AS PUNISHMENT FOR A CRIME, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Slavery did not end with the 13^th amendment; the 13^th amendment only gave slavery a new form.  The new face of slavery in the 21^st century is the Prison Industrial Complex.

There is no one discipline, or two, who could adequately address this issue of modern day slavery, but the two who could make the most sense of it would be the educators of our children and economist.

Educators see children falling through the cracks of the educational system daily, being funneled directly into the prison system. Prisons are going up faster than universities nationwide, because they are being built based on the reading level of 3^rd graders. It is a known fact that if you can’t read then you can’t write, and if you can’t write you are thereby unemployable. The educators of our children must be held personally responsible for undereducated children. They must be held to a higher standard to ensure that no child is left behind, and their pay should depend on it.

Economist understand supply and demand when it comes to our economy and what makes it prosperous. Economist would provide a great back drop into how the funding going into the Prison Industrial Complex, and the profits being made by these big corporations who own these privatized prisons, plays a major part in keeping modern day slavery alive. Everything, in fact, is about the dollar bill.

There are many who have much to gain by modern day slavery, many whom without the Prison Industrial Complex would lose a lot of money. There are many law makers, politicians and corporations who have a stake in the Prison Industrial Complex. They make big profits on the free labor. Prisoners take on a lot of roles and duties that make life much easier for us on the outside. They make the tags on our vehicles, the machinery used by the military, and are customer service representatives for your wireless telephone company. The wretched part is that when they are released from prison, the companies who once employed them while imprisoned will not look twice to hire them when they are free.

Everyone is a stakeholder! There is not one who doesn’t benefit from the Prison Industrial Complex in some way, but there is also not one who doesn’t suffer from it in some way. Families are being torn apart by modern day slavery and we all, at some point, have to come in contact with those people impacted. Our communities are, and will always be, at risk of unbalanced homes and displaced children if we don’t soon get this under control.

The only solution to this issue is to make slavery totally illegal under all pretenses. This would include the mandatory closing of all privatized prisons, especially those in contract with the state to have mandatory occupancy of 80-100%. Citizens must also wake up and become conscious of what is happening around them and realize the impact the Prison Industrial Complex is having on men, women and even children. The issue must stop getting swept under the rug as a “black issue,” and as a community of people we must comprehend that slavery is real and alive in the 21^st century, in the United States.