Yesterday, I was the recipient of some pretty hateful speech and I want to share it with you because at first, it may seem personal but trust me it is very political and relevant.

My husband posted what seemed an innocuous status on his Facebook page about it being time to find out what I wanted to do for my birthday week…(he has decided to give me a whole week this year cuz I’m awesome)…

His friend responded with “your money“…I was immediately taken aback and insulted but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and took it as an example of just a joke gone awry…as my husband answered, it became clear he was not joking as he then went on to insult my intelligence.

So I said…in Creole, “sorry fi you” which you know in real Creole would be way less English than that…to which he then responded with wth does it mean and I explained “Sorry for you” making me wonder about his intelligence ‘cuz really, how hard was that to decipher?

He then attacked my immigrant status saying he is sorry if I can’t speak the language of the country in which I live…I put it in proper grammatical form so you can read it…anyway I knew what he was saying so I said less than eloquently: “Anyway, f*ck you” because by this time it was obvious he was not joking, he really was going there and he was going to just go on…

He then went on to explore his point even further by asking about what kind of money I bring in and even if I bring in any it’s so little that I don’t pay taxes…blah, blah blah…I removed my previous three comments, hoping he would notice that I no longer wished to communicate and discuss my marriage, employment etc. But he didn’t notice or didn’t care so he went on to say that my husband could do much better and that bc of my social work background, I was holding him back and that all I wanted him was for his money and proof is that I, as an immigrant, couldn’t possibly bring my own food to the table and that democrats like me would miss him when he died because he pays for everything I have…hmmmmmmmm.

SO MANY MESSAGES HERE

So what do I take away from this…besides the jealousy displayed towards my husband, our marriage, me and my beauty (he compared me to Marilyn Monroe and Jim as the Kennedys LOL)? He hates Obama, immigrants, social programs,women, democrats, and goodness knows what else….

He is an example of the worst kind of Republican…believing that everyone is out to get him and that anything with a hint of social interest is someone trying to get something for nothing: zero sum mentality…immigrants want free ish from the government; poor people are poor because they choose to be and don’t work hard enough, women get married so they can use men for their money; Obama is ruining the economy and this country and what it stands for….OMG

So what does this have to do with Belize? Plenty….we look to America for precedents in law, social policies, education…you name it. We want American investors to come to Belize and develop industry. We want Americans to come as tourists and explore our beauty whilst giving us a living. We look to America to send volunteers to help us set up clinics, school programmes, sports scholarships etc.

Is what he thinks what they all  think of people like us? Unfortunately, some of them do and from the fury of the Republicans and the nuts in the Tea Party, this sort of hatred seems to be escalating.  We need to make sure who we let into our country, giving them concessions and leases to our land…selling them everything down to we ass and wi chambah. We better be careful that soon nuff we don’t become second class citizens in our own country because we chasing the almighty dollah.

Not only am I asking us as Belizeans to be careful of who we invite into our garden, I also want us to use my story as a cautionary tale. We must NOT act like this. We have our own immigration issues. We treat them badly. We give them the worst jobs and don’t care how they live. We complain about our tax dollars paying for school for “them”, and medical for “them” and worry about how they sell their votes to get their papers fixed. How ugly is hatred. Let’s try to remember that behind every “issue” are real people. He is someone’s father,brother,son. She is someone’s mother, sister,daughter. While we treat them like dirt, they are someone’s heroes.

So what I am saying is: if someone can think I am a piece of dirt and treat me as such…I, who have never committed a crime; I, who paid my way through school with scholarships and grants by working hard; I, who raise two special needs children with virtually no help; I, who dedicated almost 8 years to social service, first as an intern, then as a therapist; I,who volunteer, make donations to charities, work to raise awareness for cancer, injustice, human rights, you name it….how do you expect someone with no education, no voice, no hope to be treated and more importantly, respond? Do we want to make others feel defeated? desperate? unworthy?

Don’t be a part of that. Raise the bar. Don’t allow anyone to treat you as less than human because they say you are, or think you are so desperate and need their money, or think you are so ignorant that you know no better. And as such don’t treat anyone like that either.

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”

-Unknown