Nerdfighters Gazette

This is just a small piece I wrote during a literature meeting and I wanted any one who felt like it to do their own version of this prompt:  Write about Fear.

Have you ever had those nights when you’re walking up the stairs and you hear something creaking behind you? When you turn around to check what was there you find yourself staring at empty darkness.  You sigh, turn back around, and hurry back to your bed. But as you lie there, you notice things such as the closet door being open, when you remember closing it.  The small hand your mother gave you for placing your rings seems to be making a shadow on the wall – it looks like the devils head.
It starts to rain and you can hear the wind howling through the trees.  The broken gutters clanging on the side of house right below your windows…sounds like someone wants to come in.
Then the images slowly form in your mind.  A one armed mutilated zombie demon bent on your destruction; the girl from the ring walking towards you through the wall; Freddy Krueger hiding behind your closet.   You find yourself burying yourself under your blanket – breathing heavily, muttering words of insanity.  One small squeak causes your stomach to churn.  You hear voices and the next thing you know is that you’re screaming into your father’s face trying to punch him.

My first post comes on a very strong, well not strong, but a critical matter in this world.  You see, this morning I commented on Facebook that I was jealous of my friends ‘gingerness’ and her response was, “You really have no idea what that entails do you?”  I pretended I did, but the reality of the situation was that I did not. Yes, I had noticed some increase in the way people poked fun at red heads with the obnoxious name calling and the funny Facebook groups.   I suppose it’s all in good fun to go, “HAH! You carrot top YOU HAVE NO SOUL!” But where is that fine line between joking and bullying?

It may surprise you that in England, gingers are actually bullied a lot (and to think one of the greatest British families is full of redheads, and yes I mean the Weasleys) and why? Well it all goes back to some old wives’ tale that gingers are all descendents of the devil. Okay, so they may have some type of temper, but that’s just poppycock.  Aren’t we all big enough now to know how stupid that is?  We’re taking something that people believed with out any form of evidence and turning it into a joke, and we don’t even think about for a second how it’s affecting the group. I mean what if I started to make jokes about blondes?  Oh wait, we already do that… I mean jokes about people with dark hair or people who write with their left hands (another thing that people thought related you to evil).  I personally don’t understand the commotion around this little ‘phase’ humans are going through, if it is a phase. Throughout my life, I’ve been in awe of gingers.  My first friend in England was ginger and I still think she’s one of the prettiest doll-like girls I know.  My first friend in Nerdfighteria was ginger, too, and I just love her and her attitude.  My favorite elementary school was ginger and I thought she was a goddess.

Why do we make fun of gingers? Is it because everyone else does?  Is it because we just have to choose one group every decade to make fun of?  I’m kind of sick and tired of the whole ginger-hating.  You can’t judge a person by their hair color, you really can’t.  And telling me that all gingers get mad easily is well true, but if you’re poking fun at them over and over again, I don’t blame them for getting mad.

So ends this whole gingerness rant of mine. I believe in gingers and their souls.

What are your thoughts on all this?