Dear Conservative White Male:

Dear White Conservative Male,

I understand that you are frightened. You feel threatened and confused. The events which led to your predicament elude you… somehow. Yet they are simple. As familiar as a child’s story book.

When this world’s women asked for rights over their own bodies, you said, “Your freedom is less important than another’s.” When they stood up together, exposing generations of abuse and dismissal, you screamed in indignation, “Not all men!”

When a black mother cried because her son was shot, simply for driving down the wrong street, you claimed, “He must have done something to deserve it.”

When the LGBTQ community pleaded for the same institutions you freely possess, you told them, “Be happy with your civil unions. They’re almost the same thing.”

And when the transgender community asked to be themselves. To be safe. To live. You said, “You’re making it all up. You don’t really exist.”

So many times, we have asked you to champion liberty, to stand with us on the side of freedom, and been denied. Now, your rights are threatened, perhaps. You’ve been told to stay home. You need a haircut, and you want a beer, and your imagination is running wild. (see Kevin James ironically titled short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfGAktuU93s)

You are standing on the hill now, and you are shouting. You hold up your sign, and you quote the constitution. You brandish it like a shield before you. What if this is only the beginning? What if it gets worse? What if they come for more than just this fraction of the extensive rights I’m used to enjoying?

They’ve asked you to sacrifice for others’ safety, and you don’t want to.  Damn it, you have a right not to.

And on your hill, you stand alone. No one rises to shake your hand. No one cries for your lost freedoms. And somehow, you can’t fathom why they’re laughing at you.  But it’s so simple.

You did not till the ground.

You did not plant the seed.

You did not water the seed.

You did not harvest the grain.

No, I will not share this bread with you.