Welcome, all!

What an appropriate time to have this hop! I’m taking advantage of our current craziness to have a small rant this year as I typically avoid politics.

Between bathroom police, religious protection laws, and the most divided—not to mention, divisive—presidential primary in decades, it certainly appears that no one’s umbrella is big enough! All we seem to hear are variations of “Us” versus “Them,” and lots of Us are on the Them side of whomever is speaking.

While progress gets made in one area—say, marriage equality—we move backwards on others—read, for example, transgender bathroom rights. I mean where did this national emergency come from? Not a single instance of any transgender person ever bothering anybody anywhere. But we need to protect our children!! Never mind that Dennis Hastert coached children for years. Now, what’s really comic about these wardens of poo-poo privacy is that they would scream bloody murder about the invasion of privacy if someone were to question their “genital genuineness.”

Yet, these people are the first to claim infringement of their right to religious freedom when called out on their prejudiced actions. We are referred to as “perverted,” abnormal,” and lots of even more colorful things by trolls galore, yet to object to being name-called is to be “biased.” Pointing out their bigotry is being “intolerant of their opinions.” So, to protect their ability to discriminate they resort to religious freedom laws. Never mind that our infrastructure is crumbling, schools are failing, and government is at a standstill, we must save backwards, narrow-minded thought patterns from being influenced by progress.

And don’t even get me started on how thin-skinned people have become! Every minimally inconvenienced, slightly put-out nebbish is suddenly outraged about all the minor non-events that bother him! Whatever happened to suck it up and walk it off? The major problems we have—climate change, economic inequality—require serious discussion, yet people get riled by stupid stuff they blame on “Them”!

So who’s “Them”? White, black, brown, yellow; christian (Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, Unitarian, etc.), Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Shinto, atheist; 1%ers, middle class, takers; straight, gay, queer, bi, questioning; male, female, trans, cis; and on and on and on. We’re each part of an Us and part of someone else’s Them—but we’re all people.

So, the next time someone starts spouting off about Them find something about Them that makes Them human. After all, humans are all of Us.

This is a hop, so continue on and visit everybody else…

Each of the participants is hosting a giveaway, so don’t miss out. I’m offering one winner a copy of my latest release, Those Grandville Guys, as well as one winner’s choice of two stories from my back list. To get entered, check out below:

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