So I got attacked yesterday based on my photo apparently as being a "poor person who doesn't pay for insurance under the ACA." I had simply defended against an idiot who said they wanted the ACA repealed because they didn't want to pay for poor people. They were called out for being a fundamentalist troll by someone prior. I simply said they weren't accurate and how the ACA allows me to not be the person who has to be stuck in an ER-charity care rut but that I do pay FULL PRICE for the policy I have. That's when they launched their attack on me based on my looks. Well, so I woke up this morning to find, guess what? I cannot post, like, comment, or do anything for 24 hours because apparently my calling the bully out for attacking a disabled person who benefits from the ACA protections was deemed inappropriate. Yes, my whole PROFILE is on lockdown because I defended myself against a bully on Facebook. And get this. The bully? Nothing happened to them. Facebook did NOTHING against the bully. The victim gets their entire profile on lockdown while the bully goes free. What kind of message does this send? In a day and age where cyberbullying is on the rise, what kind of message does locking the profile of the victim send? Well, I will be contacting the ACLU about this to make sure it does not happen again. In the meantime, there are some things I am supposed to be doing (social media blasts, sending my address back to some friends for Christmas cards, helping other disabled individuals and their families) that I can not do because the main source for doing these things has been disabled all because I called out a bully for being a bully. It's actually a gross situation too when you think about it. People get away with hate speech against the disabled on Facebook, reports about it go ignored, and the bullies still spread the hate speech. Yet when it's spam, scam, fake news, bullying a person of a different race, etc., they act and they act promptly. The double standard that is prevalent with this is appalling. Oh, and welcome to Trump's world. A place where the victims of cyberbullying are punished for defending themselves and for being disabled. A place where those who defend the rights of the poor, the disabled, the elderly, the veterans get attacked and called all kinds of things that are simply not true or right. A place where the ability to think freely and express one's opinion is no longer allowed without being the target of a bully and where you cannot stand up against the bully. A place where bitterness and hate and anger is now prevalent and love and peace and gentleness is no longer the norm. A place where the least of these among us are living in terror because they may lose the safety net they need to survive in this unjust country. A place where we have to pray for one last miracle to keep Trump and all those hateful people he is appointing out of DC. A place where the least of these among us cry in anguish wondering if they will still have insurance coverage the next day or if they will get the dreaded letter that says they are being denied or dropped. A place where the least of these among us wonder if they will still have a roof over their heads or food on their tables the next day. A place where the least of these is starting to pray that Jesus comes today because they don't want to suffer nor should they have to suffer. A place where even evangelical churches and their leaders showed their ugly side by standing up in support of the idiot elect knowing full well that the message he was sending was one of hate, not love. This world has become an ugly and terrifying place for the least of these.
I leave these words from Jesus: "Whatsoever you did to the least of these, you did to me. Whatsoever you didn't to the least of these, you didn't to me." Jesus, it looks like You're going to have to remain naked, homeless, thirsty, hungry, sick, poor, and imprisoned. The Trump supporters have made their decision. They don't care about You or Your needs. They don't care about the least of these. And they are using Your name as their reason. "You shall know them by their fruit." That is some NASTY fruit.
I have seen many vulnerable Christians who comprise the least of these among us essentially threaten to disassociate from other "Christians" since the election. They have decided that enough is enough and they no longer want to be associated with those who would support Trump and his party of hate. I disassociated myself from the party in 2010 when a group calling themselves the tea party infiltrated the party with hate for the sitting president over his skin color and his desire to help ALL of America as opposed to the 1%. I distanced myself from the party entirely after a sermon called SWOOP by a pastor in Birmingham in 2012 before that election. I listened to him as he shared how the 47% comment made by Romney was just wrong in principle. How it was judgmental. And then I listened to him explain how sometimes the woman gets an abortion because there's a law that says that if she needs help feeding her children that she cannot have another baby unless she can prove she was attacked or assaulted or she will lose the help she needs to feed her already living children. I listened to him as he said how it is wrong to judge that woman who got the abortion without knowing her story and how it is our duty as Christians to love that woman and to share God's grace with her.
Let's dissect that message some more. How can you, as a "Christian" support someone who wants to throw people off of insurance that they need in order to stay out of the ER? If I lost both BCBS and Medicaid access today, I would lose access to three medicines that keep out of the ER, one medicine that is maintenance medicine so I don't get anymore sluggish than I already am, and I would certainly not be able to get IVIG for my immune deficiency. We would not be able to establish whether I have mast cell activation disorder or mastocytosis or what kind of mastocytosis I have. All of these conditions are manageable with the help of insurance coverage for prescriptions. And as my body adjusts to them, I have the potential to return to the workforce. But until then, I cannot work at all, hence the disability aspect of my life. I am among many that face this risk now. And some of them only have Medicaid because they literally cannot afford BCBS.
Let's continue to dissect that message. How many disabled and elderly are on SNAP (aka food stamps)? Let's make that simple, if they are able-bodied, they are working under the re-implemented work requirements. So if they are not working and are on SNAP, they fall in one of less than a handful of categories which include disabled and elderly. At what point did Jesus say, here take this bread and this fish and feed everyone but don't feed them until they pee in this cup? At what point in His message about the least of these did He ever mention drug testing? Never? Then why do the "Christians" insist on doing this? Why do they keep cutting food benefits?
Dissect it some more with regard to SS for the retired, SSI for the low income disabled who are still young, SSDI for the older disabled, Medicare for the elderly and some disabled and even veterans. We could on all day.
Ask yourself dear "Christians" how you can support a party that wants to bring harm to the least of these that Jesus talked about and likened to Himself? Ask yourself how you can support an idiot elect who spread so many messages of hate and even encouraged his supporters to attack the opposition for spreading love? Ask yourself how you can have such a double standard? If Mr. Obama had done half of what Trump has been doing since the election, he would have been impeached or recalled before even being allowed to step into DC. Yet the same people have turned a blind eye to Trump essentially giving him the thumbs up. A man who spoke openly in the past about wanting to sleep with his daughter and grabbing women without their consent. A man who bashed the disabled, people of color, people of different ethnic backgrounds and different religions. A man who thinks being given $1 million by his daddy is a "small loan." A man who has bankrupted many times, stiffed his employees, makes them all sign non-disclosure agreements, attacks the very amendment that lets him show his stupidity, attacks the press for doing its job to report on his hot headedness and ignorance as well as his hypocrisy, a man who has been influenced by Russia and set to country on a sure path to WWIII.... If you support this, then not only do I call you out for not really being a true Christian, but I have no sympathy and no empathy for when you find everything that was predicted about Trump causes you to suffer.
We have one last hope for a miracle from God in this matter and that is the antiquated Electoral College who is constitutionally charged to put forth faithless votes when a candidate proves to be a clear and present danger to this country. It is their constitutional duty to bar from office any person who proves to be grossly unqualified for such a position of power in this country. And it is actually illegal for any state to fine the electoral college members from fulfilling their constitutional duty. And of in the off chance any members of the electoral college happen to be reading this, I hereby charge you to uphold your duty to bar Trump from the office of president. He has done too many things that prove how unfit he is for the position and this country has literally flipped an ugly corner since the election.
This got long, and this went into some things that are not necessarily directly related to my main title, but this is the first time I have truly been able to focus my thoughts enough to write about it. I have been hurt by Trump supporters. And I have many friends who have also been hurt by Trump supporters. And the worst part of it all is that the victims get punished while the bullies do not. Facebook sent a horrible message with their actions today. A horrible message. Update, I reported the bully and of course, as usual, Facebook did nothing about it. They allowed the bully to remain unpunished. And I am still under punishment. For being a victim that had the nerve to stand up for herself.
