I hope I can trust you, this isn’t easy. I have been living with a secret for some many years that I finally feel the need to get it off my chest. I can’t stop this feeling that sharing will finally allow me to be who I want to be but I am so afraid. Afraid that the community will shun me, that I will be hunted down and forced to atone for my sins or worse be sent away to the hills of Marin county for reprogramming but I have waited too long, I must set myself free. I really hope you can keep this a secret… I… am … a … WORG. No, I am not a demonic were wolf spawned from the depths of hades to wreak havoc on those denizens of WOW. It is so much worse.
Living in the bay area it has come to my attention that many things just aren’t tolerated. Being mean to people, not doing yoga, eating anything that isn’t free range, grass feed, organically grown with 90% of the proceeds going to invest in the next great startup but as I have moved amongst all of those people I have been alone in the the great mass. I feel like I hide most of my Worgness pretty well, sometimes I slip and the ugly truth of my secret is nearly revealed, but I have gotten good at deflection. You ask, but if you aren’t a demonic werewolf, let lose on the Bay Area to wreak havoc what is your secret?
White
There is nothing quite as worse than being white in the Bay Area. You are judged the moment someone sets eyes on you. You are privilaged, grew up in Malibu and have never had to work a day in your life. I remember the day I found out I was white. I was walking into a gas station and from the time I walked from my car, the twenty feet to the door, I was asked three times for money. I don’t remember being born white, I don’t know if I should blame my parents for bestowing such an utterly despicable curse upon or if I should join the hermits that live under bridges in the mythical lands afar but I never knew that I was such a horribly person. I grew up in the midwest, I was never a slave owner, nor my parents, nor my grandparents, nor my great great grand parents. My lineage can be traced on both side to families that worked on the underground railroad and fought in a Civil War to end slavery, but also non of that matters because, well I am white.
OLD
What is worse then being white in the Bay Area, being old. I was born in a great year, had lots of fun, learned lots of things but everywhere I work in the Bay Area I am the oldest person in a square mile. My experience, worthless, my opinions well they are tainted. Even though I am a Full Stack hack, even though I have been around the world helping women improve their lives, even though I am an avid reader of technology and what is on the horizon. I am old. I dyed my hair for a while to try and fit in and not be called out, but the oldness shows through. I have seen things that work, and things that don’t work. I am willing to try things that I know will fail just to see if they might succeed but it never fails they don’t work and saving the failing step seems smarter but in the Bay Area, unless I fail trying it you don’t know what you are talking about.
Republican
What can be worse than being old and white, through my political allegiance in the mix. A republican, how can it be. You are for no rights, torture, no abortion or gay marriage. Aghast, well I am a republican because I believe in small government and states rights. Yup, that’s what I believe in. I believe that the government’s job is to maintain our security and make treaties in times of war and to stay out of what individuals do. The Republican’s today aren’t Republican’s. The President today is not a Republican. They wrap themselves up in the flag and use whatever flaming issue they can sink their teeth into to cause division, because you can’t be a good person without a bad one to place the blame on. Everyone in this country is following Campbell’s hero’s journey individually to find out who they need to kill to finally get their powers but don’t understand that the journey of the hero is to find allies along the way and sometimes the ally might not be the one that agrees with your quest but teaches you the most along the way.
Guy
Geez, you seemed to have the trifecta going on here, are you sure you wouldn’t rather be a demonic werewolf set lose from the depths of hades to wreck havoc? It is hard to admit but alas, the last of my secret is I am a guy. Yeah, I have a penis, I was born with it. It is totally my dad’s fault from my understanding of reproduction. He willing wanted a boy, damn him. Why, why did he have to make me just like 50.4% of the population. When I think about the great disservice done to me by my parents. I can only shake my head in disgrace. I try my best to hide it. I wear baggy clothes, keep my hair long, take care of my skin, donate my time to helping women live a better life but the looks of hate I get when my maleness seeps through or a use the wrong pronoun forces me to run and hide away to make sure that as few people as possible learn my maleness.
Oh it feels so much better for this to be off my chest. It has been years of living in fear, the years of me not being able to truly express myself. The years of lurking in shadows out of shame of being outed for who I am. I feel vaguely connected to another movement that has been started recently. Once that feels unheard, and unrepresented. A group that wants to change to policies back to what it was two years ago even though the election is over. Maybe instead of building up a group of people that think like you do and more importantly hate like you do. Maybe just maybe you should find a WORG and have a talk with them to see why the do what they do instead of casting them into the murky pit of what it takes to win a presidential election in this day and age. And maybe, if you ask some questions and learn something about the other side you might just find that there are plenty of WORGS out their that don’t like the direction this country is going but doesn’t agree with a large government needing to do. Maybe if you put down the sign, opened your ears and listened for a change maybe we could MAKE A CHANGE TOGETHER.
As the great Cory Booker said recently, “I see you, and I love you”. If people in the Bay Area would start to remember that even the people living in the trailer park in the middle of Wisconsin are people that might not agree with you but still are people and at the end of the day if we can’t be humane to our fellow human then we are all the worse off. If we can’t be ourselves then we can’t be free.