Lisa Tortorella, cortlandt manor, NY, .
I have so much to say and my heart is filled with both love for all people and sadness because we’re falling apart. I have a problem with intersectionality and don’t feel represented. I think our differences shouldn’t be about skin color at all — it should be based on the sharing of thoughts and creating relationships across race and ethnicity.
I’m a 56 year old white widow. I grew up in The Bronx in an extremely diverse and poor neighborhood and all the kids were friends. We had “class” in common – it wasn’t about race, it was about money. I was the oldest of three girls, and we lived in a one bedroom apartment with five people. I dropped out of high school and got my GED. In my early 20’s, I enrolled in Lehman College but could only make it through three semesters. I quit college because they were telling me what to think instead of teaching me to consider diversity of thought and how to be a free thinker. I figured that out on my own and continued to educate myself by diversifying my news sources.
Instead of falling in line, I fell out of line – I got a job, worked my butt off and rose in rank and made and still make a good living. A bunch of my friends who are a different color from me did the same.
To this day, I see the middle – I am truly the middle. There are arguments I can speak to from both sides. I think we don’t understand that every action, like a piece of legislation, has unintended consequences and unless we’re willing to listen to each other, we can never have compromise or mutual understanding. We have to start with finding common ground.
I’m a libertarian who leans a little to the right. I’m not special, I’m not represented because I don’t fall into an “oppressed” group. I’m socially liberal and fiscally conservative which makes me an anomaly today. I cried for George Floyd, but also for Officer Dean.
I think I rambled and I’m sorry. Thank you for reading and for providing this forum where people can share without fear of being “cancelled” in this culture. There’s an old band from the 70’s named Yes. They have a song called, Time and a Word. It’s my favorite song because the words ring so true, and it’s what I’ll leave you with…..
“There’s a time, and the time is now and it’s right for me, and the time is now.”
“There’s a word, and the word is love and it’s right for me, and the word is love.”
