There was a post this past week going around the internet.  An offended mother on Facebook re posted it from a “religious” blog.  It was a photo of a women’s abdomen with a C-Section scar…and a caption saying something to the effect of, “if you didn’t give birth naturally you can’t really call yourself a real mother.  Have some respect for the real women who truly gave birth.”  This is, obviously, ridiculous.  It said more insane things, but you get the idea.  The level of ignorance displayed by this “godly” group is astounding….yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I am a woman who had an emergency c-section.  I wear my scar proudly.  It reminds me everyday of the gift I have been given.  I have no shame in having had to give birth that way.  I remember in one of the many classes I took before giving birth, the nurse kept referring to a c-section as an insult to the mother.  I just didn’t see it that way.  Without modern medicine, my delivery would have been fraught with complications, trauma to the baby, or God forbid, worse.  I wanted my beautiful boy.  How he was helped to enter this world, did not matter to me.  Why should it to anyone else? It was our private, intimate moment.  No one else’s.  Why would ANYONE else care?

This leads me to thinking about the troubled times we have ahead in our society.  About the kind of world I have brought my beautiful son into.  The intolerance and fear of ignorant people seems to be spreading.  I can’t even wrap my head around what is going on in Indiana.  It’s like we are stepping backwards in time.  This intolerance, this lack of understanding, this hatred…is all in the name of religion.  I won’t say it’s in the name of God, because God isn’t making these ridiculous, hateful laws.  Men are.  The God I love and pray to would not hate so, nor would he throw me into the furnace of hell for having a c-section. It’s all the same handful of haters chastising women and persecuting the gays. (If only it was just a handful.)   So who are the people supporting this hateful propaganda? What makes these people so fearful?

I can only imagine their hate comes from fear and lack of knowledge.  We are afraid of what we don’t understand.  Is that true? We are afraid of something or someone different.  Maybe when I was 8.  So I think it comes down to education.  Or rather the lack of it.  Education promotes free thinking which, in turn,  creates thoughtful evolved people.  Lack of education leaves room for someone else to come in and tell you how you should think.  And as for the educated suits in Washington…well, in my opinion, power has corrupted their sense of right and wrong.  Oye, this is all so political and that was not my intention when I started writing this post.  But how are these problems solved if not thought through?

I am just one woman.  One scarred, educated, free thinking woman.  Everyday I CAN make a difference.  Everyday I have the ability to mold the next generation.  I may have only one boy, but that’s a start.  I can teach him to respect and embrace the differences in people, to love his neighbor and seek the answers for things he doesn’t understand.   How do I teach this?  By example.  By loving the people in my life…by respecting everyone’s life choices whether they are my choices or not.  This parenting thing is powerful.  More powerful than many may realize.   Yes, the internet is a pretty powerful tool for crazy radicals who want to tear a mother down.  But the antidote to that is just don’t re post the offensive item.  Don’t share it.  Don’t comment on it. It’s truly not worth it..and it only promotes the traffic on their silly site, which is probably why they posted it in the first place.

The irony of all this ignorance is that those involved feel they are justified in their hatred because they feel it is their religious right.  Well, hate is hate is hate…is hate.  No matter how you spin it, you wind up with hate.  It’s sad really.  I do believe in the end,  LOVE will always win.  It is a far more powerful emotion than hate. And easier to pass on.  One day at a time.  One child at a time.

Until next time..keep on keeping on.  And try not to let things others post get you down.  We are all just doing the very best we can….each and every day.  Thanks for reading.