Cutting Ties?

I come from a very conservative family....not like super-duper-have-their-own-tv show conservative or make our own matching dress/bonnet conservative but very you get the point...... I am the only "left" winger...and live my life VERY on that side of the fence.   Most of the time this is not really an issue

(besides the fact that I have a family only email so I can never see their anti-Obama forwards and such)....

yet there are moments that I find myself asking how deep blood goes...

I am fine with individuals having different ideals than me, different value systems.  What I am not okay with is people who you cannot talk to, those people who hear it once and with no research on their own think it must be.  (Thanks Fox News for 99% of my families' ideas) And those that spew hate/racism.

I am lucky to have parents who might not always agree with me, or my lifestyle BUT whom I can converse with, have dialogue with.  And honestly at the end of the day we might never meet in the middle but we respect & love one another.  We both come from open places and with the goal to learn.    The rest of my family sadly does not have the same attitude.  

I am not one to "bite my tongue" yet when it is 12 against 1 and I already know the outcome (me leaving) sometimes the fight seems not worth it....yet there are days like today where I realize that it is.

The longer I allow bigotry and hate to be "okay" with me the longer it will survive.  I have too many friends who are muslim, gay, whatever to EVER allow such jokes/comments slide.  It is not going to be an easy road and honestly I am slightly afraid of what the other side of this journey will look like.

I believe hate only breeds hate so instead of shouting and yelling I am going to show love.  I am going to not allow racist/derogatory/homophobic comments or people to invade my life yet I am going to model for those people.  No longer will I make excuses for my family or leave another gathering angry & hurt....not from their words/ideas but from my own cowardly actions.  I realize that some people won't get it....and will probably have to be removed from my life...though the sacrifice is worth it to me.  I don't want a world like that for my kids.  I don't want to have to explain to my son what a "dirty muslim" is...or why we don't talk to a certain 2nd cousin because she looks like a boy.....I know its unrealistic but damn-it I can control my actions and those who I surround myself with.

At the end of the day I know who I love and blood will not mean family to me.....family=love in my book and that is gonna be the 1st criteria.

Lacy