you know reallyMe,
I find this message board to be a really humorous place, in that, no matter what I say, it's going to be perceived totally wrongly, since, again, none of you really even know me at all.
I've felt those feelings before, I can empathize with that statement. You just have to keep plugging away at it until you find who (or what) reallyYou are.
As for this statement,
Now, I hear Tiff saying "we're different, we are higher-class..."
Would that be so terrible for me? reallyMe, to want to be of a "higher class" than these chair-throwing, baby-beating people you so dispicably describe? Would it be so "uppity" of me to want to be thought of as a decent, civil human being, worthy of positive regard? Or am I being ridiculous for wanting to raise myself and my family from such squallor and be thought of and referred to in a respectable manner? Should not the American dream be applicable to me, or would you rather I give up my quest for culture (and water-safety,

), accept your jaded views of me, pick up a chair, and toss it out a window in frustration? Aw C'mon, that's not fair is it?
I would LOVE to find a black family that didn't act like that...just haven't seen any as of yet. I live in Illinois and have lived in Buffalo, NY before that, where chairs would be thrown through windows on the street I grew up in, by black angry men. Stereotyping? Possibly, so show me otherwise please...show me another black person/family, who did not live that way in their family, with their children. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.
~ReallyME, Laura
but
I am not a racist, I have friends whose skin is black and are decent people,
So it's all okay, then reallyMe. We TOTALLY understand one another
To my support buddies, thanks for all the awesome encouragement. I feel so good today, no GI problems for about 24 hours. I can feel your prayers, even of those of you reading and not writing. I'm glad I come here, despite the RANDOM outliers.

I guess there's always tension on the board and there's a lot of psychological "work" that has to happen before you can come to a good, even place with yourself. It's funny how at one point early in my visiting here, I did vow to leave and never come back, but truly, where else can I go where I have all these sisters and brothers that can relate to my plight in life? It's the most difficult thing in the world to explain to the "average" non-N influenced individual, how all these sublte slights and inconsistencies add up to a maddening life with this inconsiderate, unaccountable , jerk you find yourself entagled with. When I come here, "I hit the ground running" and you guys know just what I'm dealing with. Ya'll's advice and support is invaluable to me.
later, Tiff