Lessons from Martha Stewart - and Sister Carol Gilbert?

No, the lessons are not how to bake the perfect cake or make the perfect flower arrangement - it's about other things - wait for it ...

Now, in case you're wondering how I could even write something so "trivial" and "irrelevant" at a time like this, hang on - it's more relevant than you think.

Plus I already wrote my rant last night, and I meant it - I do not want to be associated with Christianity anymore.  

In fact, I'm considering becoming agnostic, even atheist - because I must've misunderstood who I thought Jesus was versus today's Christians.  Plus most of my prayers have gone unanswered anyway.

I still believe strongly in Christ's message regarding being stewards of others and this earth - at least that's what I took away from Christ's message versus others - but I don't want to be associated with the crap that's being done, and will only get worse, under Trump, blasphemously in Christ's name, like thieves in the temple.

Now, when I'm in the minority opinion, I always doubt myself - it's a very old, conditioned reflex leftover from my family.  It's very hard to be out there on that limb all by myself, and I don't do well at handling the backlash, but my integrity will not allow me to cave to peer pressure on things like this, if I've repeatedly examined what I'm missing, which I have.

So what would be an entirely new approach for me would be to just say: 

"To heck with 'em. I don't care how many there are - they're fake Christians and thieves in the temple!" 

"Because there's no way Jesus would condone this man's vainglory/idolatry, deceit, greed, manipulating people through fear and hatred, and swift and merciless violence as a response to disagreement or to resolve conflict."

"To me, being a Christian is about more than just sex/gender/reproductive issues, but most Christians today apparently don't think so."

But that doesn't come easily to me, at least not at first ... I self-examine a while, to see what I missed first, to an almost OCD degree.  😂

Still got nothing. Haven't decided yet on giving up on faith completely. I'll keep you posted.  😂

ANYWAY, back to my point - and I do have one - Martha Stewart.

I was actually thinking about writing this just before the election, after watching "Martha" on Netflix.

But I think it's especially the right time and important now, after learning that it was black male voters and Latinos who flipped and voted for Trump, with some of them specifically stating they're "not ready" for a woman president.

As a quick aside to the black male and Latino voters who flipped and voted for Trump - y'all have never been safer, the past couple of years since the George Floyd verdict - and remember, Trump ordered even peaceful protestors tear gassed.

Latinos, same for you for a different reason - rolling back Trump's EO that kept children separate from parents in literal cages at detention centers at the border, ripping families apart with deportation of illegal parents versus children born here.

How quickly y'all have forgotten these positive changes were because of Biden and Kamala. You've gotten complacent - but you're about to be reminded!

Just wait until the ICE roundups we saw in 2016-2017 happen again -  children literally in separate cages from their parents' cages at the border again, families ripped apart for deportation, sex-traffickers preying on the young women and children again, while the guards do nothing.

Or people reporting their neighbors, not bothering to find out if they're legally here or not, or even what country they're from, only that Spanish is the first language.

(By the way, ignorant Kentuckians - Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory - which means Puerto Ricans are always legal, no immigration papers required, and they can legally vote for the POTUS, if living on the U.S. mainland).

Or wait until Trump gets together his promised national police force of jackbooted thugs to declare open season on protestors, people of color, Democrats, Muslims, or even his political enemies, out of  the revenge he promised.

And just where do you think the money for all of that comes from, corporations and the wealthiest 1%?

No - it comes from our own taxes - again - because Trump gave corporations and the wealthiest 1% the largest tax shelters in history during his last presidency.

So congratulations! 

Your prize for this win is that YOU will be paying for your own racial-profiling mistreatment and/or deportation of some of your family members through your taxes - again.

But I digress - back to my point 😂

Martha Stewart is (still) an arrogant, uncompromising, unremorseful, verbally-abusive, control-freak, ice-queen bitch -  there's no denying it. 

She became the first female billionaire by pretending to be the perfect homemaker, perfect wife, perfect mother - making the rest of us feel inadequate if we had neither the money nor the time, for entirely too long - and yet you know we all tried to make her recipes and crafts anyway 😂

Then she was found guilty of insider trading - and she was guilty - and went to federal prison in West Virginia for 5 months - and it was, as it turns out, NOT "Camp Cupcake."

She was strip-searched and put in solitary confinement for lightly touching a guard and denied food and water for a day.

Though a few things have changed after prison - including being forced to learn to be okay with not being in control, relating to different types of people - she's still mostly an unapologetic ice queen.

If anything, she's got more of a bitter edge about her when it comes to the wealthy, particularly powerful white men who either helped come after her, abandoned her, or betrayed her during that mess - and I can't say I blame her - she's just a tad bit softer than she was before with people who have less money and have had less opportunity.

In short, Martha behaved like a man in business - not unlike Trump - and was punished for it.

Men engage in insider trading, every day - but everyone targeted Martha Stewart and delighted in taking her down, her falling from grace - why?

Because she's a woman -  as well as the perception that she was too out-of-touch rich and perfect - OR - because she's a legitimate ruthless bitch - or both. 

Again, I don't think that anyone should be behaving this way, male OR female, but men behave like Martha every day - cough, cough, Trump - and they don't go to federal prison, or any prison, for it - in fact, they're rewarded for it, even elected president - TWICE!

So if the state of this country - or the world - isn't what you have in mind?

Well, who's been running it for centuries?

Why, men, of course.

And yet you keep voting for them anyway, based solely on the fact that you're "not ready" for a female president?

Okay - then you have no one to blame but yourselves if this country and the world isn't what you'd like.

When do you think you will "be ready" to at least try a woman leader?

Not Martha Stewart, of course - God, no.  Who wants a female Trump?

Literally, no one.

Kamala Harris was NOT Martha Stewart - in the best of ways -  but your passed on her. 

Don't get me wrong, there are some great men out there, I'm married to one - but they don't want to be president, either.

And I also know some shitty, Martha-Stewart-type women, too.

It really depends on the person, regardless of gender.

But it's a shame that those most deserving of the golden ring, don't want it, isn't it?

Additionally, a side story that came up during the documentary was that of Martha's fellow inmate, Sister Carol Gilbert - who I think deserves her own Netflix documentary.

The above link is her Wikipedia page, this is her own webpage, through the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids.

Sister Carol Gilbert of Grand Rapids, MI (middle) -  and two of her Dominican nun sisters -  were convicted of felonies, after sneaking into weapon silos, where nuclear weapons were held,  praying in protest, banging on the silo walls, and annointing the weapons with their own blood in a cross.

They were  branded "terrorists" for doing so 🥲

So let me get this straight - January 6th people, comprised mostly of men,  violently storm the Capitol Building on January 6th, injuring 140 Capitol police and security guards, hanging a noose outside for Pence, and they're called "patriots"....

But these 3 nuns snuck into nuclear weapons silos and prayed, and at most, banged on the silos and annointed the weapons with a cross of their own blood, but THEY  are instead called "terrorists?"

There's something very wrong with a society that views things like this.

Sister Carol was an inmate at the same time as Martha Stewart in West Virginia, and the two became friends and are still close friends today. 

Though she makes some cool, creative stuff, I can't say I'd ever want to be like Martha Stewart, but Sister Carol?

Now, what she did is not something I'd ever do, but there's someone for me to think about, as I ponder abandoning Christianity.

Because she continued to stand on what she believed in, operating on the courage of her own Christian conviction, despite what others thought - including other Christians - and knowing the consequences.

Hmmm, something for me to think about,

I don't know, though - it feels like I've crossed a threshold I don't know if I can return from or if I want to.

I think it would really take a miracle for me to believe again, something that could only be attributed to God and not coincidence, and something big to make up for what feels like wasted faith in my life - like vindication, truth revealed and restoration on a grand scale, both in my personal life and politically.

If you're a Christian, feel  free to pray for that - unless you're a Trump voter, too, then don't bother - because we apparently believe(d) in two very different Gods/Jesuses anyway. 

If there is a God and Jesus, and he's your version instead of mine - this arrogant, merciless, greed-loving, deceit-loving, gun/violence-loving, vengeful, false-accusing, white supremacist douchebag, who thinks sex is the only sin, as well as that women are good for nothing but sex and babies (despite being given minds and voices), and demands only the evangelical version of Christianity everywhere (which even evangelicals themselves cannot agree on) -  then no thank you, I'm good.