Hiding in plain site

Hello again, it’s been far too long since I have written anything. I could say that I have been working, or that my wife has been using the computer a lot and these would have been true. But the most honest answer I can give is that I have been LAZY. I should try and post at least once a week just to keep the crazy thoughts in my head from becoming a chorus that I cannot deny. (Just to be clear, everyone has an inner voice. It is when a person thinks that the inner voice is coming from somewhere other than his own mind, ie. God, Satan, secret friend, the dead, the neighbor's dog, etc., is when they are ready for that in depth mental evaluation. ) I also cannot blame my absence on not having anything to write about as I have had several revelation type thoughts covering everything from religion to politics to really good ideas for Monty Python skits. With that in mind I want to talk about how we hide every day.
This isn't hiding in the closet because we are scared or under the covers because of what might be under the bed, or is it? I keep certain truths from my friends and my family because they wouldn't accept or understand it. I cannot be around my wife's grandparents as myself because if they found out that I was a democrat and did not follow the teaching of Glenn Beck's doctrines I believe they would demand that I leave their house. This would be OK with me but if they found out that their granddaughter was a democrat too they would either disown her or try to have her grabbed in order to have an intervention and get her away from my evil influence.
I would probably have the intervention from my family if they knew that though I grew up Christian and hold many of those beliefs near and dear, but I also have many pagan beliefs and several friends who are fully steeped in the pagan religion. Rather than learn about what I believe and try to understand, they would think that I have become corrupted by a cult and that the devil had taken control of my thoughts. I wouldn't mind all of the prayers that would come my way but the visits from their ministers would make me glad that I have the right to kick anyone out of my house. They think that I am the joker already but in reality I am the honest one. If someone asks my opinion, they get it. I don't sugar coat my answers and since they are blunt, they think that I am joking.
I am also a Freemason. I joined the same lodge that my father has been in for over 40 years. I am even an officer there but it really is a system made up mostly of good-ole-boys who are just a small step away from being KKK members. I keep the knowledge that I am a democrat and voted for President Obama from them. I have to constantly bite my tongue and hide my true expressions from them when I hear phrases like "that Washington nigger" or jokes about hanging him from a Christmas tree. I truly believed the beliefs of Freemasons like Benjamin Franklin who felt that politics and religion had no place for discussion in a Lodge. These were places for progressive minded men to come together for the sharing of ideas and beliefs to make the world better, not just gripe and complain about the way things are and who to blame it on.
I once told a brother mason that it made more sense that our current economic problems were caused by several years of mismanagement by a republican controlled government and not just because a black democrat had been elected to the office of President. He said that he would pray for me in church on Sunday. I would leave it and find a lodge that more closely followed my way of thinking but instead I am trying to make things better rather than turn my back on them. I just have to hide in order to do so.
So we hide. I hide even though it galls me to no end when I do so. It is one of the main reasons that I prefer to closely associate with a very small group of friends. These are people that I can be myself around. I am 42 years old and I doubt that I will live long enough to see my society and country grow up enough to let us all be ourselves openly. If you don't think that people don't hide in plain sight, just listen to the "Don't ask, don't tell" discussions. If we didn't hide in public this wouldn't even be a topic for discussion.