Rebel.
Repent; the day is far too spent.
Wake up and rebel.
We must destroy in order to rebuild.
Why don't you rebel? - Lauryn Hill

The following post is the precise reason I do not have comments on this blog, although you may feel free to email me...

I was sitting in my American Literature class yesterday, expressing my opinion about Henry James' Daisy Miller. Unlike the vast majority of the class, I did not think the story's heroine was a manipulative stupid whose only goal in the story was to torture its hero. I, in fact, believed just the opposite. I'd go into a brief summary here, but it would be biased, and it is best for you to form your own opinion by giving it a read for yourself.
Here's the thing: I made the mistake of thinking that I was allowed to have an opinion, however unpopular, unless I shouted 'fire' in a building that was not burning. However, my highly opinionated lit class did not agree that I should voice my opinion - my wrong opinion, because it was different from theirs. Did I mention it was wrong?

I've never liked Emily Dickinson, but I decided to throw away my previous biases when I had to read her work for this same class last week. And, again, she disappointed me. Again, this was the wrong opinion for me to have. According to my class's majority, Emily (or Auntie Em) was so real that it moved them; they really related to her poetry. Is there anything wrong with this? No. However, I should not be pounced upon by the pro-Emily majority because of my respectfully dissenting opinion. One classmate's comment when I dared voice my thoughts (that dear Auntie, in fact, did not move my heart), "Dude, she didn't ask you to read her poetry!"
Dude?
DUDE?
She did not ask any of us to read her poetry. If memory serves, all these her diary entries were published posthumously. And even if she had consented to her publication, why should she care if the entire world did not embrace her dark thoughts on life and how many doubts she had? I am so SICK of being made to feel like my opinion is better kept to myself if it is not in agreement with the group's.

Lemme share something with you that I will probably regret later, when my inbox is flooded with angry emails:
I sleep well at night knowing that our country is being headed by a godly leader. However, por lo general, I get a sinking feeling when I think of combining church and state. Here is why: because of people like those in my lit class. What happens is people confuse absolute truth with their strong convictions of the way things should be based on those truths, proclaim that all should be free (so that they can express their beliefs which are not necessarily absolute truth), and then censor those who disagree with them once the majority has ruled that its strong convictions are absolute truth. Did I lose you in all those words? Sorry, but I felt like if I left it at: "Christian" government will eventually lead to violent oppression of peaceable dissenters, I would be misunderstood I don't mean to say that Christians should never have governmental power, only that I hate studying history because of the mistakes 'the church' has made in the past, and understand why so many are wary of trusting it.

There, I've vented.

Please count to ten and breathe deeply before you angrily flood my inbox.