While having a conversation with a friend of mine on Facebook, I thought of a line I believed I had used in a blog post some years ago. Turns out I did, back in 2012, when I talked about taking a stand for fairness. As I read that post I have to admit that I felt a sense of pride that I had followed my convictions at that time, handling things the right way, to address an injustice, not intentional, and help bring changes I felt were necessary.

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My friend and I were talking about a lot of things, and most of them I had to admit that I just don't keep up with them, and some of them I didn't know anything about.

I'm not normally overly political, not counting certain people, and I obviously have a point of view. I don't know a lot about many things, and there's a bunch of names I've just recently gotten to know.

I don't know much about Monsanto. I don't support PETA, though I don't want animals hurt on purpose. I know what I know about religion and have my point of view, but I can't say that I've dug deep into all of them or know what's going on in the world on those subjects at the present time.

When the conversation came to health care policy... suddenly there was a subject I knew pretty well. As my friend tried coming up with arguments I was able to refute all of them because I'm in the industry and she's not. She had belief; I had knowledge. A couple of points she made were correct, and I not only told her that but gave her more detail than she probably wanted to explain why things were like that; it helps being a consultant in health care finance. 🙂

At some point the subject came up about what I did stand up for. After all, there's nothing to stand up for in health care; it is what it is. She didn't ask me this directly; it was kind of implied, or at least I felt it was implied.

I said that I stand up for personal rights of those who someone else is trying to stop. I'm not standing up for the smokers who believe they should be allowed to smoke anywhere they please; that affects other people negatively and I could never support that, but I do say that tobacco is legal so let people smoke if they choose.

I also believe people should be able to start smoking at age 18 because we send 18 year olds to other countries to fight battles and die for our freedoms, and we allow 18 year olds to vote and do a lot of other adult things. How can one be old enough to die for our country and not old enough to decide whether to smoke or not? I don't support smoking; personally I think it's disgusting, and probably helped lead my dad to developing lung cancer. What I support is the right to smoke as long as it's legal.

I stand up to the isms and phobias and discriminators that hurt groups of people. Racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, discrimination against the disabled... I can't think of them all but we know them when we see them. An obvious trigger for me is the racism black people suffer every day in America and dealing with the concept of white privilege and white superiority. I'm tired of the Karen's and Ken's who pop up every day somewhere in the country.

At this time in the world I believe people shouldn't be stupid selfish and not wear masks out in public. You want to talk about your personal freedoms to not wear masks while flouting your right to open carry guns and rifles, then you should be allowed to be thrown in jail for intentionally or unintentionally killing someone because you gave them a killer virus because you decided your rights were more valuable than the rights of others. There's precedent for it, since there used to be people who had aids would have sex with others without protecting themselves first.

I don't believe in equality; I believe in fairness. One can't believe in equality in a world that's not close to being equal. For reality's sake there are jobs that take special skills and education. There are businesses that rely on the deportment of particular employees that fit the model and theme of a business. Not everyone should hire everyone "just because"... But if anyone can be trained to do a job then it should be open for everyone from every background.

There shouldn't be laws that back discrimination or any of the other things. That's where I've given my time and energy when an opinion needs to be given, or a stand taken. I'll call out things like that, whether they're subtle or blatant, and my responses will be subtle or blatant. After all, if I always give the same response I'd look, well, either pretty radical or like I didn't care. We should all learn how to address issues in the manner that's called for at the time.

My question to you is whether you're brave enough to ever take a stand on something, or are you always worried about how others will perceive you? If you feel you want to take a stand on something, do you research it "from reputable sources" first before you go on a rampage (I'm talking to you folk who decided to break into the US Capitol)?

I can understand how some of you might not want to be as out front with a belief as I am sometimes; I know circumstances sometimes precede feelings. You don't have to tell me here what you stand for if you don't wish to; I'm just asking if there's something, anything, that compels you into action because it's the right thing to do.

I hope so, because if you don't stand for something... (paraphrased from Alexander Hamilton) 🙂