Okay, I'm a 21-year old college student that goes to a University that's located in the middle of Pennsylvania. Not the "MIDDLE" but when me and my fellow cross country teammates run away from the college we come across "Keystone Confederates". Ya know, the type that still flag the Rebel Flag like it's 1860.
But geographical location aside, I actually smiled today. I do that enough anyway, but logging onto Facebook today actually made me not regret it.
Facebook for me is where I talk to my girlfriend if her phone is out, it's where I promote every blog post I write and its where I celebrate if the Phillies win. As I've grown older, I've come to roll my eyes at every stereotype my generation exemplifies.
I've seen it all. I've seen the Ron Paul supporters, who are all so close to me in age, share memes that are as uninformed as they are extravagant.
I've seen Sandy Hook and 9/11 Truther videos shared with too much regularity.
I've seen the ugly sides of the Trayvon Martin case, the Joe Paterno firing, the sharing of pictures that demonize anyone who is on welfare, the "NOBAMA" posts that get far too many likes and the general apathy people have over politics.
I care about politics but few of my friends do. That's fine and apparently typical of the American public, not my generation. Our generation, rightly as many times as wrongly, gets looked down upon not because of any real hatred but that's what everyone does to the generation previous, right?
My generation has been blasted at times for "slacktivism" in which people think sharing the "STOP KONY" video or changing their profile picture for a minute changes the world. Maybe it doesn't, maybe it does.
Then I saw when I woke up this morning the flood of "red equal sign" profile pictures that the Daily Kos used.
To me, it was amazing. I saw kids I grew up with who just as of two years ago, easily used the "f-word" in conversations. I saw the kids who often said "no homo" after any comment that was complimentary to another member of the same sex. I saw straight people who went from being silent to openly expressing their alliance with the gay community.
I saw people who are conservative share the picture with eagerness, I saw church-goers espouse the need for marriage equality and I've seen numerous statuses about the "time being now".
Sure its just a status, sure its just a picture and no it likely won't swing the Supreme Court or certain states either way.
But to me it meant something, to me it showed that people do care. To me it showed that if you DIDN'T share that picture; you were on the wrong side.
I thought I would say "we are progressing" but to say that sounds weird to me. It sounds like we are moving forward with new ideas. Homosexuality and the push for marriage equality isn't "new".
To me I think we are getting near the place we should have been at all along.