Things That Piss Me Off Tuesday - the national parks, racial slurs and mental health edition

I'm going to try and dig deep for this one today, you guys.

I'm sad.

I'm distracted.

I'm having a hard time focusing on anything for more than a few seconds.

I'll try my best to get riled up and angry for you all though, because that's what you're here for...and let's be honest, Tuesday wouldn't be Tuesday without a good rant.

Off we go.

Can We Stop With The Bullshit About The National Parks Already???
I would ask whether the politicians posturing in front of cameras beside signs to closed national parks and monuments actually believe that their constituents will buy the lie that they aren't themselves responsible for the closing, but sadly some of those constituents actually seem to be falling for it.


Congress is the reason the parks and monuments are closed. Not the President.

Congress refused to pass spending bills to fund the federal government. Not the President.

Congress alone has the ability to stop the shutdown. Not the President.

Congress has to approve all spending. Not the President.

Whether they want to try and pass legislation to alter the structure or funding of the Affordable Care Act is one thing, (which they have done repeatedly and failed for lack of votes), but the shutdown itself is a consequence of a Congressional failure to pass the spending bills. Instead of respecting how the legislature is supposed to work, instead of accepting defeat and moving on to the next issue, the powers that be in the House decided to make a point, and were willing to shut the government down to do it. Now we edge toward default as well.

The NIH is closed. The CDC is closed in parts. The NOAA site is down. WIC is out of money in several states. In the overall scheme of things, these closures are impacting lives, but those agencies don't have anything impressive to stand in front of for a photo op, so instead the very leaders who shut the government down are staging themselves at the gates of closed monuments to make a glaring point of hypocrisy.

Lay the responsibility at the feet of those who did this and don't believe the last thing you saw on television.

If You Say "It's Not Racist", It Probably Is...
It's time for the people of this great nation to pull their heads out of their asses. We don't have professional sports franchises named The Queers, The Fatties, The N*ggers, The W*tbacks, The Crackers, The Pussies or The Ch*nks, do we?  Why not???

BECAUSE IT WOULD BE OFFENSIVE.

The name of the NFL team based in D.C., the Redskins, is offensive. It has always been offensive. The word alone is offensive.  It was offensive when the very racist owner of the team chose it. It is offensive now.

This isn't a new discussion.

This isn't a new problem.

I don't care how long the team has been named this. I don't care how much money is invested in the logos and marketing. I don't care if people believe that it's somehow not demeaning. I don't care.

It's wrong.

We live in a country full of historical revisionists, those who like to tell and believe only the stories that show our past in the most positive light. The truth is vastly different than the version most of us were taught in school. Just yesterday, we were told to "celebrate" Columbus Day. I refuse to celebrate a man like him, regardless of what the history books tell me to believe, just like I refuse to refer to a group of grown men playing a game by a racial slur.

If we are to believe in notions like equality and freedom, we need to also believe that racial stereotypes and the negative connotations they carry are wrong.

We need to stop believing that because we've always done it this way is good enough reason to keep doing anything.

We need to be better than this.

Mental Illness Can Suck It
No, seriously. I'm really freaking tired of this crap.

When you look at my family tree, then take a teeny tiny step back, what you'll see is this gigantic forest of dysfunction.

It's up there in the branches above me. It's dangling from the ones below me. It weaves in and out of the leaves like a vine of poison.

It has hurt me. It has hurt those I love. It hurts many of them still. It hurts me still.

It comes in so many forms, from so many places.

Sometimes it can be managed.

Sometimes the disease itself is what prevents the management of it.

Sometimes we can see it coming.

Sometimes we can't.

Sometimes we push it away, we refuse to admit it.

Sometimes because of that denial, we make everything worse.

Sometimes in that process we create new mental illnesses for ourselves and others.

Sometimes we just want a break.

Sometimes we just want medium.

Sometimes we just want stable.

Sometimes we just want happy.

Sometimes we just want it all to go away.

Today is one of those days.