Brad Smith (jesus_h_biscuit) wrote,
Brad Smith
jesus_h_biscuit

The future of this blog's public posts, activism, and not taking shit from anyone, ever.

I think in many ways my purpose in life is and has always been to try and help people, nurture them, inspire them, and be a voice for anyone too afraid to speak their own truth. Goddamned right I'm tooting my own horn, I'm trying to fulfill a purpose that benefits others, I think that deserves a congratulatory self-pat-on-the-back/atta-boy. If there is really anything I regret in life, it's having not made different choices so that I could be a lawyer by now - working for the underdog and campaigning for state government. I think I'd have been outstanding as the first openly gay elected official in Georgia state government, and I really hope that my good friend Allen (who, coincidentally, is running for a seat in the Georgia General Assembly) fills that position for the history books because he'll be phenominal in that capacity. In the past I've used this blog as a vehicle for promoting activism and documenting my own beliefs and the things I've done in the name of trying to make my own community, state, and country a better place for all of us. I'm one of those rare eccentrics that still holds fast to the notion that one person really does make a difference, if only in themselves, and that difference can lead others to create a consciousness movement. Once you make a declaration and go toe to toe with people on an issue that affects the lot of us or just a certain sect of society, you have the opportunity to exercise your right - your duty as an American and as a humanist - to speak in favor of fairness and equality, it is the problem of us all that people are apathetic and complacent to injustice and wrongdoing and prefer to not get involved. I've even put myself at odds with my own family because I wouldn't back down and pretend to go along with something I thought was wrong, I'm not about to expect less of myself or lower my standards and compromise my principles for the sake of something as trivial as avoiding argument. I cannot live that way, frankly I'd rather die. I piss my neoconservative father off on a regular basis by countering his Right-wing rhetoric with logic and reason, two powerful forces that make that kind of bullshit fall apart like a virus under ultraviolet light. You'd think by now he'd know better but it's hard to teach a neocon anything so I consider it acceptable collateral damage. Plus, I really do get a kick out of pissing off Right-wingers with sound arguments and factual evidence, it is great fun. Even when it is fruitless, the bitchslapping alone is worth it sometimes. You have NO idea how much I overlook so for the sake of balance I have to fire an occaisional torpedo now and then. Take your perks where you can get them! I'm not listening to anyone trying to tell me who I am, that's MY job and mine alone.

One of the great things about blogging and specifically about LiveJournal is that you can infinitely customize your post setings and make your blog whatever you want it to be. Let's be honest, if we don't post privately then we're hoping that someone somewhere is paying enough attention to read what we write. I have no problem with that, particularly when I have something I think is valid that I want to share. Anything that is not for public consumption I post privately for myself only. Rather than post memes and trivialities like that in public posts, I post news and politics and my artwork. I post music and humor, and things that are designed to provoke and inspire dialogue because I don't see enough of it. I post the majority of my private life to separate filters, a good percentage of which is only viewable by myself. My public posting is usually relevant to what is going on externally but there are a chosen few who have access to my filtered posts. I get a lot of email in feedback about my posts in addition to comments from other users, most from people who don't want to contribute comments to my posts for fear of getting flamed by others. I also get a god bit of opposition to my political posts, most of it from a small but tenacious handful of people who cannot agree to disagree on most anything, because unless you're a blind follower of the Bush Administration and/or the American Taliban Religious Reich, you're open to being labelled a traitor and such and believe me, I've been called everything in the book. At times I've posted the more humorous anecdotes from these altercations, the gems that are just too good to not share. Sometimes it's just fun to engage them for sport, particularly when I'm feeling fed up with being arbitrarily targeted for having balls, and I rather enjoy rubbing their faces in their own shitty stupidity. To be honest, most of the time it's just too easy and that doesn't hold a lot of interest for me, but there are other times where I cannot help myself and I have to bite back.

I'm going to spend some time very soon overhauling my layouts to add a section of yet MORE links to things I think are important, everything from scrutinizing our elected officials to sexism, racism, homophobia, public education, poverty, hunger, and a slew of other subjects that I don't think enough people are truly aware of. If you're reading this and have an idea for a subject you'd like me to address, by all means comment and let it be known. I'm also going to add a copyable HTML link (behind a cut so as to prevent the borking of your own layout) to certain posts, most likely news and politics, that allow other users to more easily link to my posts by copying a single line of code and posting it to their own LJ's in an effort to hopefully get people interested in current events and issues that really do affect us all. It is my hope that people will take advantage of this and link to my posts more in the future. For those of you who do this already I offer my gratitude. I have a lot of peeople who have added me to their friends lists as a result of this, and I appreciate everyone that takes the time to read - even those of you who only read me so you can try and jerk my chain. Being challenged is a great thing however it happens, it either helps you to reevaluate what you think you believe and change your mind on how you feel about something, or it serves to reaffirm your existing beliefs and reground your original position - regardless, both things are valuable. Case in point, the user that faithfully emails me when I make a post on religious matters, complaining of being grossly offended by my immoral lifestyle, my faithlessness, and my dislike of the church as an institution. For the record, let me make one thing clear once and for all. If you're a believer, and your faith is solid, nothing I say about God or the Pope or contradictions and hypocrisies in dogmatic law should affect you. There are worse things than being offended by something I say, don't mke me fucking hunt you down and bitchslap you with a bible mygoddamned self for using words like "Christian" and "Persecution" with respect to one another in the same sentence. Get the fuck over yourselves, not everyone has to share your everchanging worldview on Jesus. Beat me with one more bible and I'll make you eat the fucking thing. I have several friends in real life as well as on LJ who are devout believers, some even studying for and/or working in the clergy, and even THEY 'get it'.
Tags: activism, blogging, shameless faggot, writing
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