Letter to the editor: It's not the eccentric other. It's us
I grew up in Hunter, Oklahoma. Population of 142 souls. I consider myself to be a “country liberal” which I summarize as “live and let live”. I don't want the government overly involved in my business, and I would rather have my tax dollars going towards good things like schools, decent roads, and mental health care than meddling in foreign affairs or starting wars.
I don’t care what you believe - that’s between you and God. If you run out of sugar, I’ll loan you a cup and if your cows are out I’m going to give you a call regardless of who you voted for. When I came to Bartlesville for work, I immediately fell in love with it here because it felt like that is who we are here culturally.
Now all of a sudden, it feels like everyone is divided − fighting over anything and everything! This drag show business especially seems a little silly to me. Bugs Bunny appeared in drag over 40 times, and it was always funny.
It doesn’t matter if you graduated in 1969 or 2010, we have all attended the pep rally where the football boys dressed up like cheerleaders and put on their best effort of a dance routine. We would hoot and holler at the boys that made pretty girls and were surprisingly good at the moves. And we laughed hysterically at the others that looked like one of the ugly step sisters awkwardly half-heartedly attempting the moves just dying for it to end. It was funny and entertaining. We were all there, laughing and engaged. It didn’t make us change our sexual preferences or degrade us of our morals. It was a good time, and that is what drag is and has always been about since its Shakespearean origins.
I am the mother of two girls, so I share deeply in the fear of what the world is becoming. We all want to protect our babies. This we can all stand united on. But is Rainbow Granny blowing bubbles to Katy Perry songs on the Unity Square stage really the threat we should be concerned about?
Human trafficking has an estimated annual global profit of $150 billion dollars. The pornography industry has an estimated $97 billion dollars profit annually. There are multiple cases globally happening now where there is overwhelming evidence not only of widespread child sexual abuse occurring within multiple denominations of faith and respected youth organizations like the Boy Scouts, but that these organizations covered up these abuses instead of intervening to protect the children for decades. Decades!!
We knew it was happening, did nothing to actually stop it, and covered it up. Why? If we truly want to protect our babies, we need to look within our own shadows. Face our own demons and family secrets. The true measure of our morality lies in what we are doing when no one is looking. It starts with the image you clear from your browsing history, the text message you deleted so your spouse wouldn’t see, the casual brush of a hand, an intrusive stare, the inappropriate comment, or disregard of a clear no.
If you want to make the world a better place, that's the hard work that has to be done. It means acknowledging that sometimes the people who look like us, vote like us, go to church with us, and the ones we trusted are actually the ones to be feared and stopped. It is the wolves in sheep’s clothing that are the true threat. It’s not the eccentric other, it’s us. When will we have the courage to face that together?
Tiffany WadeBartlesville
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Letter to the editor: It's not the eccentric other. It's us
