No Repost = Heartless? Yeah, right.

Dear Santa This year for Christmas I'd like to wait ... Forget that. Get in your sleigh, go to Afghanistan, get our soldiers and bring them home. They deserve to be with their family's on Christmas. Post this as your status to show respect for the soldiers who wont be coming home for Christmas

If you don't repost, I understand. You cant spend 6 seconds of your life to support soldiers..

My name is Chris, I am three, My eyes are swollen.. I cannot see. I must be stupid, I must be bad, What else could have made, My daddy so mad? I wish I were better, I wish I weren't ugly, Then maybe my mommy, Would still want to hug me. I can't do wrong, I can't speak at all, Or else I'm locked up, All day long. When I'm awake, I'm all alone, The house is dark. My folks aren't home. When my mommy .........does come home, I'll try and be nice, So maybe I'll just get, One less whipping tonight. I just heard a car, My daddy is back, From Charlie's bar I hear him curse, My name is called ,I press myself, Against the wall. I try to hide, From his evil eyes, I'm so afraid now, I'm starting to cry. He finds me weeping, Calls me ugly words, He says its my fault, He suffers at work. He slaps and hits me, And yells at me more, I finally get free, And run to the door. He's already locked it, And I start to bawl, He takes me and throws me, Against the hard wall. I fall to the floor, With my bones nearly broken, And my daddy continues, With more bad words spoken.'I'm sorry!', I scream, But it's now much to late, His face has been twisted, Into a unimaginable shape. The hurt and the pain, Again and again, Oh please God, have mercy! Oh please let it end! And he finally stops, And heads for the door, While I lay there motionless ,Sprawled on the floor. My name is Chris, I am three, Tonight my daddy, Murdered me. And you can help, Sickens me to the soul, If you read this, And don't re-post it. I pray for your forgiveness, You would have to be, One heartless person, Not to be affected, By this Poem. and because you ARE affected, Do something about it! So all I ask you to do, Is re-post this on! If you don't.. Then you obviously don't care about child abuse

Those are just two examples of posts that I have seen around facebook that have caused me to write this blog. These kidns of posts drive me up the wall, especially the second one, because it seems like such a ncie post, and then it tries to guilt trip me into reposting it. "If you don't repost, you have no heart!" That's the kind of things these posts say, and that's exactly the kind of thing that makes me not repost the damned things. I may care about what the post is saying, but if the post seems to be made only because it's trying to guilt trip people, then I question the sincerity of the post and refuse to post it. There are a few cases where I will repost, and remove that part that blatantly questions the integrity of the people who repost, but for the most part, I ignore it.

Why can't we just post things we care about and trust that people will repost if they want to? No, instead we have to say, "You're a heartless bitch if you don't repost this." Give me a freaking break. If I care about something, I don't need a line tagged on the end about how I must not give a shit if I don't post. I question whether half the people who do repost actually do care anyway, or if they're just trying to make face.

The sarcasm of the first one particularly grinds my gears. What kind of supercilious twit came up with that? Really, you think you're so much better because you made a post to a--spoiler alert!--fictional character about bringing soldiers home? Wow. You think Santa is going to answer your letter just because you obviously care since you took "6 seconds of your life to support soldiers"? Sorry to break it to you, honey, but nope. Santa isn't going to come flying along in his magical sleigh with a bunch of soldiers stuck in the back. Without that comeplete b.s. tagged on the end there, I might have thought it was an endearing post, but when you throw in your sarcasm, then you completely change the tone and intention of the post.

What I'm getting at is if you're going to post something to show your support, or because you want awareness brought to it, or just because you care, don't be a supercilious twit and say that people who don't repost are heartless. It demeans the message of the post and makes me question the intentions of those who repost. Do you actually care, or are you just trying to feel better about yourself because you don't want to be heartless? Besides, maybe not everyone shares your views about something, so saying they're heartless just makes you look like a closed-minded human being. Just because you don't agree with someone else's views, doesn't mean they're a horrible person, it just means that they don't see things as you do.

So next time you make or repost one of those, leave out the guilt trip. Otherwise...

Congratulations, you've effectively ruined your post.

The never change mantra.

Recently I had a debate with someone over facebook about something that is trivial to the point of this post. More what I want to talk about is the person's reaction. She indicated that our views were just differeing, so our debate was getting nowhere, which was very true. She indicated also that her view would never change, and this is where I jumped again. I told her, "Views change all the time, even when we're not aware of it right away," which I believe to be exceptionally true, especially considering my experiences with changing. Her rebuttle was, "Sorry mine won't, that's just how I feel and always have." Now, I highly doubt that, but I knew that she was going to be adament in this statement, just as others are adament in this sort of statement.

I've noticed too that a lot of people, in particular youth, are shouting the cry of "I'm not going to change, accept me as I am, I'm not changing for anyone!" Blahdy, blahdy, blah. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude (really, I don't), these sorts of statements just irritate me, even though I was once one of those people shouting it at the top of my lungs (perhaps especially because I was one of those people). I'd write lyrics about not changing for anyone (including "never gonna change me / I will always be the same / I am never gonna change." Jeez, I'm glad I've changed, if only because those lyrics are terrible, haha), and how I would always be the same forever. Nowadays, all I can say is that is complete and utter nonsense. No matter what we think, we change, and more importantly, we change because of people. The change isn't necessarily intentional or conscious, but it happens. Really, if you had never changed from when you were a child, you wouldn't be where you are today. Simple as that.

I also get the impression that these people feel that change is the most terrible thing in the world. I understand the "accept me as I am" part; I think that we should accept each other for what we are, not who we want each other to be. Who are you to tell me who I should be? Changing because someone wants you to is one thing, and not something that I necessarily agree with. Changing because it happens is another, and it's not terrible. People change positively influence who you are and where you head in life. I for instance have so many people to thank for who I am today that it's ridiculous (thanks, all!). I changed because of their influencing my life. It's not a bad thing. I'm not some terrible person now because of it; in fact, I think that I'm probably happier because of it, but that's another story all together. Essentially, it boils down to this: Opinions change. People change. That's how life works. It's wonderful and condusive to functioning in society.

Mostly what I'm getting at is hearing people say that they're never going to change drives me up the wall. Seriously, it's not that big a deal. At the risk of sounding like a complete bitch, get over it. The more and louder you shout that you're never going to change, the more I want to tell you to stop being an idiot, which is perhaps really unfair, because I'm sure there were people who wanted to say that to me when I was shouting the never change mantra. I should be sympathetic, not irritated. I do understand where you're coming from, but being so narrow minded in that sense makes me want to beat some sense into you.

You will change. You just don't realize it yet. :)