The Labelmaker

This was my Daddy's.

I can remember him meticulously typing out the labels with one of those old labelmakers.  It was a device with a flat disc on the top with all the letters and some characters.  You had to line up the letters, squeeze the trigger mechanism, and the tape would stamp your letter and then advance to the next spot.  You had to be careful with it because if you misaligned a letter and made a mistake, you had to start over.  You didn't want to hit the "s" instead of "r" at the end of screwdriver, that's for sure.  

I don't think it is any accident that miscellaneous was abbreviated "misc", in other words.  Why take a chance?

Today's labelmakers are all electronic and if you make a mistake you simply hit the backspace button, correct it, and move on.  No wasted tape, time or effort.  Technology has made labeling things quite easy.  No white-out necessary.

The purpose, of course, of a labelmaker is to help you organize; to group and categorize and quickly identify certain like objects; to be able to name and later spot what you are looking for easily and efficiently.   I have metal bins that I bought from Martha Stewart that say Cake Decorating and Cookie Decorating and inside are gel food colorings, colored sugars, pastry bags, nonpareils, all sorts of things you need to make cookies and cakes "pretty".  At work we label files, office supplies, phone extensions, and the like.  All so we can easily grab what we need to get a job done.

Naturally, the first think you need to do is to identify what you are trying to label.  What am I working with?  How do I need to group it?  What belongs together and what can be "miscellaneous"?  How do I see common themes in things to be able to label them?  Daddy had to think about what he had, and what he wanted, and organize the two.

What I find today, in our society, though, are different types of labelmakers.  We, the people, have become those who label.

During the last presidential campaign those that didn't back Hillary Clinton were labeled "deplorables" and those that followed Donald Trump were "sexist" and "misogynists".

The people in North Carolina and others that oppose the removal of historic statues are labeled "racists".

 I've even heard the folks in Las Vegas that were killed by a gun-wielding madman labeled as "rednecks" simply because they liked country music.

Oppose gender-neutral bathrooms or same sex marriages?  You are "homophobic".

Seems as if we can no longer have an honest discussion with differing opinions before the labelmakers come out.

Why is that?  Why can I not just say I don't want my beautiful 19 year old niece having to walk into a restroom that a man older than her father can also walk into, and use, just because he feels like a female?  Why does that make me a bad person?  How is it that I can say history should be preserved for all to see - the triumphs and the failures alike (remember, the South lost that war so maybe the statues should be seen as a reminder of what happens if you go against the Union; or the Native Americans lost those battles but died for a cause they believed in, and so on) and suddenly be viewed as if I had grown an extra head.

Those that forget (or erase) their history are doomed to repeat it.

Here's the other part that makes me so sad about this.   In the 1860s a war was fought to remove a label - slave.  In the 1960s people took a stand so that anyone could sit anywhere on a bus or in a theatre or wherever they wanted and remove a label - colored.  In the 1920s and again in the 1970s women stood together to remove their gender as a label and earned the right to vote, to equal pay, for gender neutrality in the workforce.

And here we go, adding new labels.

Judging by the media and social media you would think that everyone that voted for Donald Trump on a Tuesday in November woke the following day a "racist".  Did some racists wake up on that Wednesday?  Sure, the ones that went to bed that way the night before, and the night before that, and the night before that one.

And not all of them voted for Donald Trump.

I know people of differing genders, sexual preferences, races, and religions.  I know both Democrats and Republicans.  I see people every day in various economic statuses.  I know those that love opera or classic rock.  I know lovers of Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, Rembrandt, Da Vinci and paint by numbers.

You know what I call them? All of them?

Friend.

Not "deviant" or "pervert" or "snob" or use a racial slur or "redneck" or "racist", or anything else.

Just friend.

They are my family, neighbors, coworkers, clients, mentors, and inspirations.

They are simply my friends.

Even though I fall into several categories above, I don't feel like any of those labels are befitting, although redneck may be kind of close...  I hope that if there is ever the need to label me it will be something like loving, loyal, faithful, funny, Christian, helpful, trusted.

And friend.