{"id":776,"date":"2018-02-12T14:33:52","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T19:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/?p=776"},"modified":"2018-02-12T16:49:44","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T21:49:44","slug":"i-will-not-be-your-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/i-will-not-be-your-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"I Will Not Be Your Enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We can choose not to be enemies.
\nWe share history that is the source for all our struggles, self-definitions, failures and successes. For minorities and women much of that history is bad, even despicable. We have been oppressed, terrorized, marginalized, and repressed. But we have also built communities, resisted the dominant paradigm, and survived unimaginable violence to our bodies and psyches.<\/p>\n

So how can we choose to not be enemies? Perhaps more importantly, why should we make that choice?<\/p>\n

Women have the front seat on how for us to critique finding common ground with those who would oppress us. I hate the patriarchy and its systemic power to dehumanize one group of people and elevate another. I hate it for the same reasons I hate racism. And ableism. And heterosexism. I hate them all for the the boundaries of ‘us’ and ‘them’ that \u00a0 form a temple of fear.<\/p>\n

Women love men: we love husbands or fathers or sons or friends or all of the above. We do it while existing in systemic patriarchy that devalues our existence and codifies laws about our bodies. Here’s an example: I love my dad. He supported my every dream and did not reject me in the face of questionable choices. He is the first feminist man I can remember – though he would have cringed to be called that. Loving him did not eliminate the ways I was sexualized by a man as a child, groped as an employee, or give me the right to be in charge of my own reproductive health. My dad was my ally even while he benefited from being a man in ways I can’t even imagine.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to make the mistake of dehumanizing and demonizing ‘the other’ any more than I want to be demonized myself. \u00a0Where will that get us? How will we make meaningful change if we repeat the same patterns? \u00a0The\u00a0real<\/em> ‘demons’ are systems that oppress.<\/p>\n

What if, instead, we worked to find value in our differences rather than fear them? What if to give to one didn’t mean to take from another? What if we embraced the idea and the fact that we are all in this together? That to survive we must reach across the divide?\u00a0If we are to survive as a nation we must find our way back to one another.\u00a0We will always have things to disagree about so let’s treat this like a momentous disaster and rally around so that all survive.<\/p>\n

Our goal can’t be that we are lock-stepped in agreement about our beliefs. Instead, let’s find ways to see the humanity in one another, to listen to the concerns we have, and to work together\u00a0<\/em>for solutions to this nation’s problems that require compromise not only by the oppressed.\u00a0\u00a0Believe it or not, we used to do something like it. The opposing party was referred to as ‘the loyal opposition’. The idea was (and is) to take the best of both sides and find a solution of compromise that meets the needs of both. More compromise may be required by those who have traditionally held power but we can do this if we find our will.<\/p>\n

The depth of our polarization deafens us to one another’s needs and will defeat us if we are not careful. For me, it starts here.
\nI will not be your enemy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We can choose not to be enemies. We share history that is the source for all our struggles, self-definitions, failures and successes. For minorities and women much of that history is bad, even despicable. We have been oppressed, terrorized, marginalized, and repressed. But we have also built communities, resisted the dominant paradigm, and survived unimaginable … Continue reading I Will Not Be Your Enemy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,13,24,8,21,23,25,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":783,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}