#Me2 - II

What if...we all decided to come out of the closet with our own dirty little secrets? We all have them. They might not be as disgusting or revolting as those accused in the #MeToo movement or maybe they are worse.

I’m all for the discussion of this and #Black Lives Matter or any other that elevates the human condition but I’m not sure wearing a white flower to the Grammys or silk screening a t-shirt is going to change culture.

The clock can’t be turned back but our opinions can change. Look how long it is taking for people to not light up on television or to have ‘no smoking’ in restaurants. Tobacco is still sold but many are avoiding what was a right-of-passage.

Perhaps these movements are more horrifying due to the age of the victims, but Sandy Hook didn’t seem to change anything. Perhaps these movements feel guilty for complicity in predatory behavior?

Kids endure lots of emotional and physicals trauma before becoming ‘legal age’. Bullying, peer pressure, divorces, moving, losing friends, growth spurts and more are all part of growing up without any recourse except to cry.

The culture I grew up in was the white-male-dominance of government, business, and lifestyles. In many years passing, some have changed and many remain. Culture change isn’t as quick as hairstyles or music trends. When high heels disappear and football cheerleaders stop looking like fly girls our culture might becoming aware.

Yet, as we view one-by-one fall, brings the thought that they’re maybe many more than just the sleazy power brokers over extending their self-empowerment fueled by an accepting society.

Which brings me back to our own little dirty secrets. Whether we slipped on the moral code or just went along with the crowd, one can remember the first drink of alcohol? The slow dance where hands were measuring more than the beat? The forbidden glance in a magazine to view a naked person?

What of the people in our lives that we had no idea what they did or did not do because it wasn’t talked about. Does your teacher go home and drink while making lesson plans and grading papers? Does your basketball coach hang around the showers? Does the policeman wear rubber underwear? Does the preacher have a little honey on the side?

We are a fairly liberal society and the old Puritan standards have long since passed but when does our salacious curiosity go beyond the tabloids to a lynch mob?

I recently asked my brother is he thought our dad had a mistress? What about mom? Now, I know, just the thought is icky but people-are-people and whether ‘it’ happened or didn’t happen and whether the son’s were aware of ‘it’ or ‘it’ was swept under the carpet (like politics, civil rights and liquor) will be left to speculation. 

So I considered my heroes and influences growing up and started to wonder about them. Was Captain Kangaroo a junkie? Did the Lone Ranger like to wear dresses? Why was Penny staying with her uncle on Sky King? Walt Disney sure hung around a lot of kids on the Mickey Mouse club?

There was a lot of hugging and kissing back in the black and white days of television. And when the hero kissed the femme fatale it was a forceful smooch instead of a peck on the cheek. Single guys would cat call and whistle at girls and they flirted right back blowing kisses. Women were portrayed as barmaids or mothers with few lines and the only people of color were Tonto and Amos and Andy stereotypes. Those are the lessons we learned to emulate. When Jim gave ‘his princess’ a kiss; she wasn’t really family.

These conversations might continue and grow, until the next movement starts, fade back to the way things were? You decide.

We all have our dirty little secrets or is it just gossip or rumors?