on parents being parents these days...or, as it turns out, not so much---
LET’S PUT THIS AS SIMPLY AS POSSIBLE:
Too many parents not only don’t know the first thing about parenting, too many parents are too lazy and/or stupid to bother trying to figure it out….
FIRST…. when, exactly, did the era of being “buddies” with our children begin….Bill Maher commented on his HBO show “Real Time this past week: “…there needs to be a whole lot less “hey, buddy, are you ready to go?” and a whole lot more “get in the car”….
SECOND---Many parents have retreated from their roles and asked the government to step in. Our schools are not schools anymore, but foster homes. AND THAT’S BAD ENOUGH, BUT THE REAL FRUSTRATION FOR TEACHERS HAS TO BE THAT PARENTS EXPECT, EVEN DEMAND, TO HAVE IT BOTH WAYS….HERE, you take care of the kid and teach the kid values and respect for authority and respect for others, but WHOA if you even come CLOSE to upsetting my kid, I’m gonna have a lawyer on your ass faster than you can say…WE GOTTA GET RID OF ALL THE HULA DANCERS
on the truth, the whole truth and nothing we want to hear less than the truth---
here’s a fact that’s REALLY hanging us up…We still haven’t learned, as a nation or even as human beings, how to keep from throwing the baby out with the bath water…MEANING THIS…..saying that all black people are bad is both ridiculously and insultingly incorrect and racist…saying that black Americans are responsible for 50 percent of the murders in this country, and almost 40 percent of our rapes, robberies, and assaults, despite making up only 13 percent of the population is simply statistical fact…no more mean spirited than saying the Ravens have lost 6 and won only 2….but in our silly, misguided efforts to make omelets without breaking any eggs, we are either afraid to, or criticized for, pointing out the statistics so we can honestly deal with them…
although I know, and anyone who has ever heard me utter a word knows, that I am not a racially prejudiced man, I also know that saying eight times more crimes are committed by blacks than whites will have any number of people immediately accuse me of that very prejudice….and WHOOPS THERE IT IS….the real problem….because there can be NO resolution or solution when the response to “here’s a problem” is “I’m insulted that you pointed out that this is a problem”….see, that’s how it works in this country these days…we wave flags and Bibles and we scream about truth…..we just don’t want to hear truth…..and I’m not supposed to speak truth….well, ooops….cause I just did…
on the "fight" over putting a privacy curtain in the girls locker room---
the stupidity in all of this ….is that those who immediately fire off their pissing and moaning pistols are trying to sell everyone, no, actually, strong arm everyone into learning to live with the notion that they shouldn’t be treated any differently than anyone else because they aren’t any different than anyone else….WHEN the plain fact of the matter is that they ARE different….and a large part of this “problem” is that the word “different” has some how diabolically mutated into a synonym for “mutant” or “freak” or “aberration”…..when, in fact, different still basically means nothing more, or less, than different---
the dictionary defines “different” as “not the same as another or each other, unlike in nature in form or quality; distinct, separate---
and this life, like it or not, is full of different….male is different than female, white is different than black, Mets are different than Royals, much to the delight of Kansas City fans, smart is different than stupid and silly is different than ridiculous….and I added those last four in primarily because they apply to the real issue hidden beneath all the silly, stupid, ridiculous issues piled on top of it….
why should any reasonable person on either side or in the middle of the gender section have a problem with privacy curtains when it comes to transgenders? I read a lot of history and I don’t recall ever coming across a great social movement in our history where women felt discriminated against because they weren’t allowed in the men’s locker room and/or showers….I don’t recall a single campaign by men to demand free access to the women’s locker room and/or showers..(although, admittedly, that one probably still gets considered from time to time because, let’s face it, men are pigs….which is another thing, come to think of it, which makes us all delightfully different)…..
the first, supposedly best argument that gets shouted by those who want us all to be showering together is that not ALLOWING that showering together is a discrimination on a scale that matches the racial discrimination that birthed the historic civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s …that’s crap…..again, invoking that pesky term “reasonable” let me offer you that the color of skin was never a good reason to deny someone a seat at a lunch counter or to make them sit in the back of a bus or to prevent them from having the very same quality of education as anyone else….it was an unfair and unreasonable line to draw….
but life, this life that is filled with different, IS, in fact, also filled with lines….and the trick to it is NOT these absurd campaigns to erase all lines….it is to find the reasonable, common sense, common COURTESY way to DRAW the line in the first place….
it’s not unreasonable to show another person, regardless of the color of their skin, the courtesy of not trying to prevent them from eating lunch, riding the bus or going to school like the rest of us do…(Oh, and by the way, one of the ULTIMATE arrogances of this life is the term “different color skin”….to a black man, I’M the one with a different color skin)….
it’s also not unreasonable to put up a privacy curtain in a girls locker room so that the male who identifies as a female can use the facility while AT THE SAME TIME the actual females who don’t care to be displayed don’t have to be displayed….
there is, of course, the debate that goes on about allowing transgenders ANY access to obviously male or female facilities and, I gotta tell ya, I’m a simple guy who sees this in a simple way: you go in the room that matches your particular equipment….BUT while all this silliness is being sorted out, let’s make it easier on ourselves and just take the path of showing each other some common courtesy….
the path that heads us this way: if you are a standard issue male or female who has a problem with the whole idea of transgender, meet halfway by grinning and bearing it and supporting the idea of curtains, etc, to allow for some wiggle room until it’s determined how much wiggle there will finally be in the room….
and if you’re a transgender or a zealous transgender advocate, meet halfway by not trying to shove your agenda into the face and/or down the throat of those who don’t wish to feel uncomfortable….NOT necessarily because they see you as a freak or a mutant or an aberration, but, simply because they feel uncomfortable when they are not given the courtesy of having their very simple and, these days, almost delightfully, charming, modesty respected….
the real beginnings of the solution to this societal dilemma will actually occur when standard issue males and females accept that things are never again going to be the way they used to be…but transgenders accept that it’s neither reasonable nor likely to ever expect to be seen as the same as everyone else…..
because you’re not a freak or a mutant or an aberration….but you are different….
like male is different than female, black is different than white, smart is different than stupid and silly is different than ridiculous
liar, liar, pants on fire...and poll numbers up, regardless---
when it comes to lying and liars in our poltical process, there’s a couple of things we need to remember…..
we live in a cold hard world and the cold hard fact is that people will often say whatever they need to say to get what they want or cover their ass…and sometimes spare others feelings….we lie every day…every one of us…wow that hair cut looks great on you….no, I didn’t eat the last brownie….yeah, I DID read that email, let me get back to you…..
bottom line is lies are life and life is lies….along with all the other zillions of things that life is….and in this upcoming election, the one who brings out the loudest cries of liar is the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination….
I’m not crazy about the idea of Hillary as president….but I’m too jaded to be bothered with something as silly as the fact that she lies….Lincoln lied, Roosevelt lied, Nixon lied, Reagan lied, BILL Clinton lied and this weekend there’s a big ol buzz about Ben Carson “exaggerating” his claim that he was offered a scholarship to West Point (for those following the plot, the term exaggerating is modern slang for lying)...yes. all God’s chillum be lyin at one time or another
---the only thing about Hillary Clinton becoming president that really and genuinely concerns me is a selfish concern…I’m rock bottom sick and tired of venomous and vitriolic hatred being the standard operating procedure in this country and electing Hillary is a no fail, without a doubt guarantee that we will have four or eight more years of that same attitude…..because too many people in this country who disagree these days don’t have a damn clue about how to do it without being vicious about it…they know NOTHING about informed dissent or loyal opposition….they probably don’t even know what the terms informed dissent and loyal opposition mean…all they know is ignorant, petty, stupid and absolutely useless hatred….and, even more exhausting and annoying, is that a lot of those haters probably wear a cross around their necks and have Jesus fish on the trunks of their cars…which to my way of thinking is like robbing a bank wearing a badge…now, I’m pretty sure that the country can deal with four or eight more years of character flaws….and, Lord knows, Hillary’s got em….just like Bill’s got em---and Barack’s got em….and I’ve got em….and YOU’ve got em….what I’m not so sure of anymore is to whether or not this country can deal with four or eight more years of the kind of hatred that acts like acid…eating away at the foundation of the republic itself…
Hillary gets mocked for hundreds of reasons, including the title of a book she wrote a while back “It Takes A Village”….forget the fact that, in fact, it actually DOES take a village (look up the saying and give it some thought)…..and forget, for a second, that Hillary has anything to do with the saying….for a second, just think of this….
any fool can clean UP a village….by burning it to the ground….and if there’s no flame around when you need one…there’s something else that burns things down pretty good….acid….
final thought, last sharings and a parting shot or two---
what I should have said to the nice lady who called last week and took me to task for making fun of Lacey Lafferty ….why we are willing to accept less than the very best instead of “whatever else” is available….when interviewing someone to fill a position, an employer is, of course, limited by whatever is available in the applicant pool…but we’re not talking about hiring a new secretary or stock clerk or fast food counter person……
we’re talking about someone who we expect to lead us, manage our affairs, spend OUR money…..maybe it’s time we start thinking about lowering the river instead of raising the bridge and rethink our whole notion of what constitutes leadership in this country in this day and age---
MEANWHILE----it’s ironic, and would be funny if it wasn’t so sad and not just a little stupid, that those who keep spewing the loudest about Barack Obama being a failure at everything he has done are those spewing the loudest that he’s going to come and take away all the guns and turn this country over to the Muslims…seems like it would take somebody pretty smart to organize and pull off all of that….so if you’re one of those worried about losing your guns and having your country stolen out from under you, you really don’t need to worry, after all…because Obama is a failure at everything he does….right?....must be right….because I heard it from YOU---
AND FINALLY---
watching and listening to the political talk shows on radio and TV and it occurred…both sides are equally guilty of the smirk…or the snark….for the smug….and NO ONE is really trying to ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING except the smirk or the snark or the smug---
“I know you are but what am I’ may be the kind of method that six year olds employ to deal with those things they find unacceptable…but it’s really a lousy way to inspire a nation---
join the conversation---Sunday nights at 7 Eastern...on Delaware 105.9
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