There's a bit of unfinished business I have to get out of my system. Am I in fact a bleeding-heart liberal? You're damned straight I am: loud and proud and run up the flagpole for the world to see bleeding-heart liberal! I am angry at how that has been thrown at me like an insult, long before the current administration fine-tuned name-calling. I've had that "insult" thrown in my face both personally and as part of a group. I'm angry because I felt the sting of the insult and figured I was giving someone the wrong impression of who I really was. Thus I tried to explain myself. It never worked. Before that, it was something like this: "Awwww. My heart bleeds for you." That was a mockery of whatever sensitive feelings I had about a situation affecting either me or something I cared about.

According to Roget's New Millennium Thesaurus, "bleeding heart" shows up twelve times. As a noun, the first definition is sympathetic person; and, as a synonym for altruistic, benevolent, compassionate, heavy heart, humanitarian, kind, merciful, progressive, soft touch, sympathetic, tender.

There's a subgroup of progressive liberals that discusses how the conservatives have named and framed us, and how we need to rename and reframe. Not me. Bleeding-heart liberal works quite well and identifies me with the original Bleeding-heart liberal who got nailed to a cross for being benevolent, compassionate, merciful, et al. See list above.

It's not about the words they use to ridicule. It's about feelings and emotions. Change the label and you're not changing anything of substance. It's the fact that the words are delivered with a sneer, and it's the sneer that hurts, not the words. Change the labels and they'll still sneer. So we need to get over that.

I've been insulted when the word "blonde" has been thrown at me with a sneer. I'm not changing my hair color. I've been insulted when "female" was thrown at me with a sneer. I'm not having a sex change operation. Intellectual? Artsy-fartsy? Dreamer? I can probably come up with a lot of words that have been thrown at me with a sneer at some time or other during my life. So what! Rather than run from the words, I now take them and own them, thankyouverymuch!

You know what would be the best antidote to the sneer campaign against perfectly decent definitions? Laughter. Take a look at the whole dynamic of sneering. Where does that come from? Who sneers? Why? We don't sneer when our hearts of full of life and love and joy, do we? We sneer because they're not. Think about that.

So lets start laughing! Now, understand nobody likes to be laughed at. It just makes them madder, and they're going to sneer harder. Let them! Our identification with the dignity of all people, accompanied by the sheer joy of being alive, can be a magnet that draws in many, many more than can a bunch of words. We might even laugh at ourselves on occasion! What power does a sneer have in that environment? A fart in a hurricane would have more strength.

Who will join me? The next time someone sneers at us with the term "bleeding-heart liberal," let's be glad and celebrate! They actually get it! They named us correctly! High fives all around! Our laughter becomes the mirror by which they see who and what they really are. Joyfulness isn't easy, people are still going to get hurt and die and we have to be strong and protective and wrathful as well as joyful. There are a lot of conservatives who haven't dealt with the difficulties of life and have run for cover and protection - sometimes in the church, sometimes in special interest hate groups, sometimes in their own greed pits. They need to hear our welcoming laughter.

So, for those of us who are bleeding-heart liberals because we're alive enough to know it's the only compassionate and intelligent response to life, let's not only fight for liberty and justice, let's get the party going! Our laughter is joyful and inclusive. The doors are open. Figure out how to remove the sneers from your words, your face, and your heart, and come on in.

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Pat Denino is a fiber artist from Ohio who detests coloring inside the lines. Her journey of discovery is based on the reality that not only does the emperor not wear any clothes but, in fact, there was never an emperor in the first place!

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http://www.mytown.ca/denino/
Previous columns:
As the crows fly
thine eye has seen the rocket's red glare...
are our hearts breaking or growing...
feeling the sound of siolence...
Can we get over our precious little selves...
Stealing the scream
Do you fly a flag?
...a gay bomb???
No lullabies for their sorry asses...