Censored By My “Peers” Of The Writing World

Hypocrite: One who assumes a false appearance; one who feigns to be what he is not, or to feel or believe what he does not actually feel or believe; especially, a false pretender to virtue or piety.

This word has been what I have discovered in the group, Her View From Home Team, that I once was part of to be. It was all rainbows and puppy dogs until you have a matter of difference in opinion or a voice that does not align with the rhetoric. I suppose had I put hearts as a comment vs facts I would still be part of the group. One of the owners even commented that the group “Was a place for inclusion on all levels, there are people with a variety of viewpoints.” “Because His whispers tell me to create a place where everyone is different-not the same”, which is apparently not the case as you will see below.

A post was made about the tragic events of the shooting of a 13 year old boy asking how the “Latinx” community was doing. The post went on to say “Just in case you didn’t know the Latinx community is the second most discriminated community by the police and suffer police brutality”.

I read the post at night and stewed on this all night long! Why you ask? 1. Any time a child is killed regardless of the situation it is heart breaking 2. The details where not laid out and again this seemed like a one sided post attempting to shine a negative light on the police. This was not the posters personal page but a community of bloggers. (Prefacing this as I did not go to her page to comment but kept it on the bloggers group page)

So me being who I am of course responded as follows:

This is such a tragic event and I can’t even imagine the officers and how they feel right now. It is a tough time to be on the force with the landscape of our country. The child did have a gun however and I am sure even though it was a tough decision it was one that had to be made quickly. The news eliminated the gun from the video because, well that doesn’t make for good news. There have been so many police shootings this week it is mind blowing and you couldn’t pay me enough to do that job. One officer was shot to death by a man of Mexican decent during a routine traffic stop. To make sure he wasn’t getting back up the man put one at point blank in the back of his head. He was a father of three with one on the way.

Another incident was a high speed chase which ended with the criminal unloading an AK-47 and hitting several officers. So as you can imagine if someone has a gun your instinct will be to shoot first.

I also posted a photo from statista.com that shows the breakdown of race and police shootings. Not fatal shootings but police shootings. These were all facts and statistics and nothing posted was based on emotion. I was not rude and did not attack anyone with my narrative.

The response that I received back was as follows:

Oh No, we aren’t doing this! You are wrong and you need to delete your comment before you hurt someone’s feelings!

Went on to tell me if I couldn’t be supportive then I should keep scrolling and make no comment at all. I attempted to comment back but assumed the post was deleted or I was blocked via the poster when my comment failed to post. I did message this individual that it was sad that we couldn’t have adult conversation about the incident and I was disappointed that she removed my comment/ blocked etc. I also said if we want to check on a community let’s try with the Native American community that no one speaks of. (I was a bit perturbed)

There was no response and I left it alone and went about my weekend until I tried Monday to post on our daily share thread which is a perk of the HVFHT page. I realized I had been removed from the group and it honestly took me a minute to figure out as to why.

I was being Censored and because I had a voice of a different opinion I was removed. I was told that I was hostile and made the environment “unsafe”. In reality I was telling a full story rather than omitting very important facts to the narrative. The constant perpetuation that all police officers are bad is something this individual does often and this time I spoke up.

When did not having the same opinion or not assimilating to what the media is spewing make you the bad person in this life? Is critical thinking so far gone? Are the only allowable thoughts or beliefs emotion based only, and what you see/ hear on social media/ news is biblical? Are we teaching the next generation to think for themselves, research and come up with a response that is fact based? Or are we so wrapped up in social media that we really believe everything “seen” regardless if the whole picture is not shown.

Do you really think that they (social media/ news outlets) have your best interest at heart? No, they want ratings and views nothing more. They could care less if you took a long walk off a short bridge, other than it would be one less viewer.

It is really sad that this is what the world has become and if speaking the truth is offensive and hurts feelings we are in trouble. I learned a lot from the experience. I have had several writers message me that they appreciated my bravery in speaking up. That they agreed with my comments and I gave them the strength to stand up and speak up. I also had a few message me that wish they could speak up but they were afraid. My comment back to that is if you are afraid to speak your truth, you should find another outlet and or group. If this group is so intimidating that you are fearful of what happened to me, will happen to you, do yourself a favor and leave. Find where you belong.

I will end with this; We are all different. We will never all be the same. We can’t live in this perfect inclusive world that some so desire. We all think different. We all feel different. We all view things differently and to take that right away from any individual is wrong. To Censor someone because it makes you uncomfortable or doesn’t align with your narrative, is wrong. Hard conversations have to happen. That is the only way we grow and learn….