Words, Words, Words, Words

On Facebook there is a poll about the whole "Obama making a speech to the nation's children" and whether or not one agrees with this. Currently the majority votes 'no' on the speech, and I don't understand why.

I looked up the suggested questions/activities and they are all very innocuous. Well, here's an exerpt from the 7-12 age group:

Conduct a “quick write” or “think/pair/share” activity with students. (In the latter activity, students spend a few minutes thinking and writing about the question. Next, each student is paired with another student to discuss. Finally, the students share their ideas with the class as a whole). Teachers may choose to ask the following questions:
What ideas do we associate with the words “responsibility,” “persistence,” and “goals?”
How would we define each term?

How is this turning our kids into mindless socialists? How does this make him like Hitler? (Several of the comments on Facebook Godwin'd the whole thing. Hitler Youth was mentioned.)

Look, I'm not politically savvy at all, but isn't some of the stuff the 'Homeland Security' did much higher up on the 'arugh' scale then the President wanting to address to students the importance of a good education? It's okay to have a President who advocates torture, but not one who wants kids to learn about responsibility?

Some people on the Facebook poll comments (and really, don't read if you don't want to lose your faith in humanity) say 'politics have no place in the classroom'. Fine. So we'll not be having kids recite the Pledge of Allegiance anymore then?

What is this I don't even...

Sarah Palin reminds me of this girl in high school that I couldn't stand. She constantly had this smug, superiour look on her face and, yes, she was smart and, if I remember correctly, fairly talented, but she just always made sure everyone knew how talented and smart she was, and that she was so much better than the rest of us.

Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama are both, more or less, my contemporaries in age, so I am sure if I were in high school with Sarah Palin (she'd have been a senior when I was a freshman) I'd have disliked her enormously.

Michelle Obama actually skipped a grade, so I'd have missed her even if we were in school together, and she is way smarter than me, so I'm not sure we would have moved in the same circles, but I like to think we'd at least say 'hi' if we passed in the hallway.

Not that I'm reducing my political choices to whether or not I'd have liked someone in high school, mind, I'm just sayin...

I was going to post about my play, but there is also this really cool meme that chavvah posted that is made of awesome, so I was going to post that, but then, as I was checking my email I saw something that made me go 'huh?'*

You know how, as part of Google's world domination, on gmail it will give you these links to things it knows you are intersted in, and today there was a link that led to this.

Why Mommy is a Democrat brings to life the core values of the Democratic party
in ways that young children will easily understand and thoroughly enjoy. Using
plain and non-judgmental language, along with warm and whimsical
illustrations, this colorful 28-page paperback depicts the Democratic principles
of fairness, tolerance, peace, and concern for the well-being of others. It's a great
way for parents to gently communicate their commitment to these principles and
explain their support for the party.

I'm pretty much a liberal person, as you all well know, with Strong Views about our current administration. *points to icon* and I will raise my hand to saying many nasty things about our current president and sometimes passing the less vitrolic thoughts along to my son, but even I have to draw the line at something like this.

I mean, I'm all for teaching children fairness, tolerance, peace, and concern for the well-being of others, I balk at believing so totally that it is a Democratic POV only. And what does that have to do with political views anyway?

I think my real issue with this is that I'm so tired of this 'them vs. us' thing. After 9/11 there was this rallying cry of 'we are all Americans now!' but since then we've degenerated into this severely divided country with this pathetic 'if you are not for us then you are against us' attitude.

I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said "A house divided against itself cannot stand", and yet over the last 8 years we've done nothing but divide, and it is only a matter of time before we fall.




*I will do both eventually

I have a question for you all.

Back when I was in the 8th grade my English teacher, who was also my homeroom teacher* told us he didn't believe in standing up for the 'Pledge' every morning. He gave us the option, of course, but he didn't make us do it. While I don't remember his exact arguments against it, I remember being influenced by it. Probably had something to do with Vietnam or something. He was a Baby Boomer.

Then, not long after that, I read A Children's Story by James Clavell, and that really influenced me. It's a very short story about Russia** taking over America, and this teacher managing to convert an entire classroom of Kindergartners in 25 minutes because, while they teach us how to do the pledge, they never explain what it means or why we do it.

It's true. For years I said 'Pledge The Legience', because I had no idea what I was saying. And how many kids know what 'indivisible' means? And why are we offering our allegiance to a flag, anyway? What's allegiance?

And now at all of Charlie's baseball games there is that moment where the National Anthem is played, and everyone stands up with their hands on their hearts, and I stand there every time and wonder why we do this. It strikes me as a bit fascist, really. According to Eddie Izzard (shut up, I think he's brilliant) Americans and the Ancient Romans were the only ones to do that.

I mean, I like my country. I grew up here. I like that I can complain about the president without worrying that someone is going to break down my door.*** But I feel uncomfortable pledging my allegiance to it, because currently I'm not all that crazy about the direction the country is headed.

So, my questions.

To Americans: What do you think of pledging to the flag and putting your hand over your heart and all that?

To non-Americans: Is your national anthem played at all sports things? Do you have some sort of flag ceremony in school?

I'm really curious about this.
____________________________________________
*He was totally awesome, actually; a rotund, brilliant man who did magic at children's parties.

**You see kids, back in the day the Soviets were our Sworn Enemies, not the Middle East.

***For now

I'm really beginning to detest the phrase 'the victims and their families'. We're hearing it way, way too much these days.

I also am not fond of the fact that this is the 'worst massacre' in American history. The fact this is something America keeps breaking its record on is not a happy thought to dwell upon.

Here's my idea to try to stop this gun violence. I know we can't outlaw guns simply because the main job requirement for any criminal is to not obey the law, and making guns illegal won't keep them out of the hands of people who'd use them illegally anyway.

This is what we do. We control the production and sale of bullets. Depending on the gage, or whatever its called, a person would only be allowed a certain amount of rounds at a time. Like, if you have a hunting gun, you could get, say 10 bullets. You can come back and get more, but you will have to bring back the shell casings of the bullets you used to prove they've been used and you are not storing them up.

Each bullet could have a code on it too, so it can be traced back to the original sale.

For handguns, you can have one bullet only. If you think having a gun in the house will protect your family, then you have one bullet in which to do it. This way if someone breaks into the house, they won't walk away with free bullets. It will also keep people from randomly shooting at sounds and killing their curfew-breaking teenager, because if you only have one bullet, you're going to be selective about when you use it.

And they shouldn't be easy to buy. The sale of bullets should be in the hands of the police, not Wal-Mart. This would also help bring in income for them, so they can hire more people to protect the towns in which they work, etc.

What do you guys think?

Here's a link to the State of the Union Drinking Game.

Some examples:

Every time he says....

“The state of our union is strong…” (or some version of this) drink 1 (+1 if he breaks down in tears)

"the American people" drink 1

"troops" small 1

"Iraq" 1

"Baghdad" 1

"Iran" 1

"terror" (however it’s pronounced) small 1

"detainees" 1, with your hands behind your back

"freedom" 1

"Homeland" 1 if followed by "Security"; 2 if another context

“nukular” 1

( N.J. Gov to Make Gay Unions Official )

What do you all think of calling it Civil Union instead of Marriage? personally I think it falls under the 'rose by any other name category.


*I know these guys! They live in my part of town, and are friends with my friends, Jennifer and Melissa. Their son is adorable.

The White House is considering an expansion of the U.S. Army and Marines for "the long struggle against radicals and extremists," .


[Poll #892554]

This article was on my Comcast home page today. ( Gay Penguin Book Shakes Up Ill. School )

This is the part that annoyed me the most: Lilly Del Pinto thought the book looked charming when her 5-year-old daughter brought it home in September. Del Pinto said she was halfway through reading it to her daughter "when the zookeeper said the two penguins must be in love."

"That's when I ended the story," she said. Because love is bad? love=sex? Come on. They're penguins. God forbid you use this as an opportunity to explore the idea that there are all kinds of people in the world.

It's blog against racism week, according to slammerkinbabe and october31st, and both of them wrote really fantastic entries on this already, so I'm going to keep mine simple, and just tell a story.

My father was born in 1940, and had grown up in a working class neighborhood right outside of Philadelphia. my mother, born in 1944, grew up in the more upper-middle class neighborhoods of Haddonfield and Cherry Hill. I mention this only to point out that they came from a time and place where racism was more likely to be expected, yet neither of them ever exhibited that overt racism that some of our neighbors, their contemporaries did.

Oh, there was some prejudice; you know, of the 'some of my best friends are black' variety, but they did the best they could, and certainly made it plain to us that hating someone because of the way they look was not on.

While I was growing up the television was full of people pointing out how we should all clasp hands in brotherhood and friendship. Heck, Pa Ingalls probably did it once a week. My parents, as I said, didn't raise us to judge a person by his race. My mother marched for civil rights, even. It was The Age of Aquarius, for heaven's sake. People didn't do that sort of thing anymore, I thought. I grew up believing that.

And now I'd like to believe that in this internet age we really stop worrying about what people look like as we build these online friendships where the only black and white involved is the page color and fonts.

Mostly what I'd like to believe is that, despite the prejudice that was lurking on the edges of my childhood, I have grown up 100% free of any prejudice, but I doubt it.

When I was around 6 years old, I remember going to the mall with some of the neighborhood kids. I think we might have been going to see a movie or something, I can't remember. We were in a department store arguing over who got to sit in the bean bag chair that was on display. I lost, and wandered away, feeling sorry for myself. A few minutes later my friend came back and told me I could sit in the chair because she didn't want to any more, because some black kid sat in it.

I honestly couldn't understand what she was talking about, but I remember feeling hurt because she implied it was okay that I was exposed to whatever it was she was afraid she would be exposed to. I had no idea why it was bad that a black kid sat on the chair, but I understood that it was bad, and it worried me.

I didn't sit on the chair.