Some things should be able to go without saying.

But apparantly, they can’t.

I saw a sign up in the University library that read: “All members of our community have the right to fair and respectful treatment”.

Well.  Um.  Yes.

And yet, obviously someone needs the reminder, or the sign wouldn’t be there.

It was the sermon for the midweek service yesterday, too. “Nobody is beneath our attention, our kindness, our compassion”.

Honestly, how is it possible that adults anywhere need to be reminded of some very simple, basic truths?  You can disagree with others. You can dislike them. You can think just about anything you want. You don’t get to treat anybody like crap.  AND- when systems exist that end up treating some people like crap, they have to be changed.

I’m really, really happy to have found my way into FA. Mostly because I’m tired of treating myself like crap.  Also, I’m tired of accepting being treated like crap because, “after all, they have a point, I do take up more than my fair share of space”. And I’m tired of hearing other women treat themselves, and each other, like crap.    

But- I’m also increasingly aware that there are all kinds of other people being treated like crap all around me, and (if I’m brutally honest with myself) by me.  At the very least by systems that benefit me, and when I am complacent about that, I am complicit. My mother and friend are treated like crap because their medical problems involve brain chemistry. Another friend is treated like crap because she’s in a wheelchair. A colleague is treated like crap because he seems too young to be so competent.

The Church of which I have been a lifelong member, and that I love, has a long and shameful history of treating people like crap. And some members still view that as an acceptable way forward into the future. It isn’t. Because Jesus said so, because or baptismal covenant says so, because basic human fucking decency says so.

So, I’ll say it here, one more time.
And I’ll say it to the Sunday School.
And I’ll say it again in bible studies, and in services, and in conversations.
I’ll say it a LOT to my daughter(s).
And I’ll say it again and again and again and again to myself.

If you’re reading this, it’s quite likely that in your own more eloquent words and from your own soapbox, you’re saying it too.  Please keep on.

And, maybe, when enough of us are saying it, and trying to live by it, we’ll slowly, oh-so-slowly, far too slowly, get to a point where it really can go without saying.

You don’t get to treat anybody like crap.
You can disagree with others. You can dislike them. You can think just about anything you want. You don’t get to treat anybody like crap.