Surviving The Fall, 16

I am thinking this morning of my family and upbringing, and how different my life has turned out from the expectations of my family. I told a new language partner on Skype (he lives in Colombia) yesterday that I was the only Christian in my family, that this created major ongoing problems between us and now I am the only surviving member (I didn't mention my older brother, who likely is still alive and whom I have not seen in almost twenty years, but we have been dead to each other for years). Needless to say, there has always been between all of us a huge values clash. Or should I say, I had values, unlike them, who were simply materialistic, hedonistic and upwardly mobile, and yes this created quite the toxic dynamic between us. A former friend told me how sad it is that I don't have a family. But really, what have I to be sad about? I feel secure and safe. I don't live in a big house, but in a small subsidized apartment. I am surrounded by beauty, art, books and colour here. It is usually quiet and it is secure and long term and most of all it is affordable. I am happy, and I cannot think of a time in my life that I have not known such continued and uninterrupted happiness, late in life perhaps given that I am sixty-two, but this is way better than nothing. I feel so much more blessed than the angry and bitter home owners in our wealthy neighbourhoods, some of whom have erected signs the size of doors on their front lawns screaming their opposition to the new expensive homes tax. If the house is valued above three million dollars, a modest tax of 0.2 percent on the amount over three million. If the house is worth over four million it's a 0.4 percent tax above four million. If the house owner is on a modest pension or limited income (hard to imagine, but it does happen) then they can defer paying property taxes until the house is sold, then it will be taken out of the equity. So then, what are these wealthy home owners so upset and angry about. Well, being already wealthy, most of them are going to also be quite selfish and greedy. It's an unavoidable marriage, so to speak. They are going to believe that only their hard work and industry gained them their wealth, whether it has or not, and that anyone not so fortunate as they are somehow deserve it for being lazy and not working hard enough. The real truth is, we are not guaranteed equal outcomes and there are many people, myself included, who have worked hard all our lives and still struggle on low incomes and often in substandard housing, and sometimes at risk of homelessness. But these wealthy burghers screaming like stuck little pigs don't care about people like us. In fact, a lot of them hate us and wish we were dead, but this is an elephant in the room that no one likes to talk about, eh? Poor people are the last category that it is acceptable to hate and discriminate again. Regardless of what the Black Lives Matter folk like to yell and scream about, we have made tremendous strides in combatting and fighting against racism, and yes, we still have a long way to go, but at least it is widely acknowledged that discrimination and bigotry because of race is not acceptable. Likewise for women. Years of feminism and consciousness-raising have moved women forward to full equality with men. We are still not there yet, but women's rights and equality are full on the radar and we have a lot of work to do. Queer, or LGBT rights have been moving forward. Close but no cigar because we still have too many mouth-breathing homophobes in our midst. Now there is much public battle being waged against stigma and discrimination against people living with mental illness. Some people think that it is still considered acceptable to mock and discriminate against people with mental health issues, but they are not aware of the gains that are already being made. Still a long way to go. Now. What about poor people? When is the last time that you, Gentle Reader, called someone out for referring to a homeless beggar as a "bum?" Hm...Didn't thinks so. How about for being a Christian? No? I am not surprised. If you are poor or Christian, or like me, if you happen to be both, you are going to be shamelessly discriminated against and targeted because it is still acceptable to hate people like me and this is simply unacceptable. I went through years of this from my family and from society in general. I am not complaining and I have done well despite the obstacles but our lovely liberal social democracy does not yet seem prepared to really include everybody who is vulnerable under their umbrella of rights and protection, and I believe that poor people and Christians should also be protected from discrimination and bigotry. And so should poor white trash Caucasians. No I am not going to blame our plight on immigrants nor on political correctness, whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. But we are also human beings and we are also marginalized and skin colour, or lack of it, is not a free pass for living without discrimination. It is because this has not been factored in south of the border that helped make possible the presidency of the Great Deplorable in the White House. In a truly just society, no one is going to be left behind. And no, this does not give a pass for poor Christian white trash males, such as myself, to be anti-women, anti-colour, anti-queer or anti-mental illness. And some of us are also, by the way, queer and living with mental health disorders. And some of us, regardless of our colour or lack of it, have not benefited from so-called White Privilege, have had to live with police harassment for being poor and other kinds of discrimination just as I have. We have to stop seeing people as categories and get back to appreciating the humanity that we all are in common. This identity crap is just that. It is crap. We are all persons. I still feel incredibly fortunate. I really want for nothing. I don't know what the future is going to be like, but this doesn't fill me with dread. It fills me with hope!