Meaning

I've spent the last few days outside in the sun with my family and friends. Spring is finally here and I am relishing the sun and a bit of freedom from the computer world...the real world in some ways. After reading the comments from this article, I had to step away. No I shouldn't read the comments but sometimes it's like watching a car wreck...you know you should look away but you just can't. I learned that a lot of people think Jude shouldn't exist.

It kind of bummed out because you know I think she's pretty damn awesome, and I think the majority of people who have meet her think she's pretty awesome as well. In fact, I was thinking about all those who people who felt I had an obligation to abort my sweet girl because I knew beforehand she had Down syndrome, as I chatted up some people waiting in line with us on Friday. So I told them matter of factedly that Jude has Down syndrome and that's she's pretty damn awesome. They asked me some nice questions, and we got to talk about Down syndrome. And I told them about Ethan Saylor too. I am not sure how I feel about Jude being the face of DS for these people but I realized that if I don't say something people just won't KNOW and that's become really damn important to me.

It happened again at a friend's brunch on Saturday morning.   A woman I were talking to had no idea who Ethan Saylor was. Luckily she was pretty outraged but still she didn't know. I guess it's not surprising when I read comments like I read following that article. When people don't seem to think people with DS should even be alive, when the New York Times doesn't even think hate speech towards people with DS should be erased (unlike other kinds of hate speech), then why is it shocking that we can't get any coverage on Ethan Saylor's death? 

Sometimes I have to just step away because it makes me really fucking sick. Excuse me but I think some strong language is warranted because it seems to me that some people on my Facebook feed are more concerned about a cop murdering a dog than about them murdering a young man named Ethan Saylor. I'm not advocating for the abuse of animals but there is something wrong with a world where a story about a cop murdering a dog gets more shares than a story about a young man being suffocated to death in a movie theater. 

I try to be positive. I have five good reasons to see the world as a beautiful place but sometimes I wish I could lock them away so that they don't have to see the ugliness of humanity. Which kid would you pick to be worthy to live?