A friend of mine on Facebook recently made a post that I just found excellent.  Instead of parroting her directly on Facebook, I wanted to make a few slight changes to her post (with her permission) to reflect my own personality.  Nothing I changed diminishes the effect of her original words.  Here’s my modified wording;

Warning…I am on my soapbox for a minute!
Conservatives, Liberals, straight, gay, black, white, Christian, atheists…Do you know what that is? It is people who represent my "friend’s list" on FB. If you are on my list, I like or love you. Many speak their minds on here and their views are way different than mine…I never deleted you! I may have debated with some, but have never disrespected anyone because of their belief.

I have never looked up where someone gives their money before I decide to go to their place of business. I have never given a background check on sexual preference, beliefs, or race before I could be your friend. I try my best not to judge anyone…as I am far from perfect.

I own a few guns.  They are safely stored in my attic.  I am NOT a killer. I have always liked Chick-Fil-A.  The food tastes delicious, even though it may not be the healthiest thing I eat in a week.  I also like them because they close on Sundays and allow their employees a day to go to church and be with family or friends.  That does NOT mean I hate anyone.

I do not like Obama.  And to clarify, that means I do not like him as our President because I happen to strongly disagree with the policies of his political party.  I don’t know Mr. Obama.  I’ve never met him.  So I can’t say if I like him or not.  However, NONE OF THAT means I am racist. If you are my friend, you know how I feel about you, regardless of our differences. Friends love each other even with their differences.

In MY opinion, I do not see why anyone would ever want to smoke.  I will still be your friend, although your money goes toward cigarettes. My point is, I know who I am and what I stand for and guess what, it is probably different than a lot of you. I may pray for people, but I won’t judge them. It is not my place to decide who goes to Heaven and who does not. So since titles are so important to some people, here it is…I am a gun loving, white, straight, Christian, Conservative (possibly a Libertarian). So please do me a favor, don’t call me a racist, gay bashing killer who wants poor people to die…that I am NOT!!! I am so sick of people screaming tolerance, but will only tolerate those who believe what they believe. I respect that you may have greatly differing opinions than me.  You’re allowed!!  That’s what makes us…INDIVIDUALS!!!  If we all thought the same, believed the same, felt the same…..well, this world would be VERY boring and monotonous.

So now you all know who I am…if you don’t like me because of it, that is your choice. I won’t be molded into someone you think I should be. I have only deleted 1 person from my FB friends list over privacy reasons.  Otherwise, I have never deleted people from my Facebook friends list, although there are some that I should; some for being mean, some because I have never had one conversation on here with them, some because they were too vulgar for me, but NEVER because we don’t believe the same way. If you are on my friend’s list, I have chosen to keep you on it. I hope you choose to keep me on yours, but that will be your choice. OK…end of rant! 🙂

Thank you, Crystal Baugh Miller for the base format of this.  Anyone who wants to read her original wording, click here