Choice

In America, we pride ourselves on having the gift of choice.  We take it lightly, but choice really is a luxury.  Try moving to another country and see how many choices you get!  America was founded on choice.  Christopher Columbus and crew came over because they wanted to be able to worship who/what, when, how they worshipped IF they wanted to worship.  Everything we do and everything we say is a choice.  Not only do we choose where to live, what school to go to, what car to drive, and other larger decisions, but also we choose to make smaller decisions throughout the day.  We choose how we respond to certain people, how we speak, what we say, how we think, who we’re influenced by, and whom we influence.  Sadly, most Americans think that society decides those things, but the fact of the matter is we all must choose how we function in society.  I CAN’T STAND, ABHOR, DESPISE, LOATHE, DETEST, [any other adjective you think of !] this mentality that people have that makes them feel like they have no choices in life, whatever path they’re on was handed to them, and there’s absolutely NOTHING they can do to change.  WHAT?!  What kind of crap is that???  Unfortunately we see this a lot in poverty-stricken, low-income, urban areas.   Now, yes…I can totally see how someone from this background could think like that.  I mean…come on!  All that stress of just trying to make it, and probably feeling ostracized and misunderstood by society is so weighty.  Life isn’t always fair, but we all still have a choice.  You can choose not to let your situation change you and fight to change your situation!

I don’t like it when people say “I can’t” when they don’t even try!  Folks talkin’ ’bout they can’t speak correct English, can’t dress properly, can’t stay with their families, can’t make things work, CAN’T HELP THEMSELVES!  Whatever you say you can’t do, is someone holding a gun to your head, holding you down, or in someway preventing you from doing whatever it is you say you can’t do?  No?  Well then…you CAN do it! HA!  Why?  Because you have a CHOICE!  Just because everyone else is doing it, or not doing it, doesn’t mean that you have to do it as well.  Are you a robot?  Are you a clone of someone else?  NO!  You are unique and wonderfully made to be an ORIGINAL, so don’t die a copy.  You are free to do/say whatever it is you’d like to do.  You’re free to speak correctly, have a positive outlook on life, change your situation, be different, be better, do great things, vote for whoever you want to vote for and not for whoever “they” say you should vote for, treat everyone with respect, treat YOURSELF with respect…whatever you think  you’re not allowed to do!  JUST DO IT!  We have choices!