One of the fantasies I had before parenthood was that my husband and I would have lots of hearts-to-hearts with our kids. But now that I'm in the thick of parenthood, I realize that your schedule is overflowing and a young child's interests and attention span don't exactly line up for long or deep talks.
So, I decided that instead of waiting for an opening in the conversation, or waiting until I have time, I will turn to the blog. And the lesson I'd like my kids to learn today is loosely based off of the Occupy Wall Street situation, so it makes sense to pair it with today's earlier blog.
The Macaroni & Cheese Test
Kids, Mommy wants to share a discussion aid with you that will among other tools, keep you from looking like an ignorant schmuck in social circles be they in real life or on-line. You can use this when people are talking sports and entertainment, of course, but it's much more likely you will need it when you come across a discussion regarding something more controversial.
The test:
Before you speak or type, ask yourself whether you put as much time into researching the specific topic as you put into making boxed macaroni & cheese. If you have not, refrain from speaking, or admit that you are not equipped enough to reply. Don't get cocky and think you can weasel your way through it by repeating things you heard on last night's talk show or saw on a friend's blog. It doesn't matter how many large words you use or how passionately, sarcastically, or smugly you respond to something. People in the know will always know who in the group has failed the macaronic and cheese test.
Boxed Mac n' Cheese
The typical time it takes to prepare and cook a traditional 'boxed' macaroni and cheese ranges between 25 and 30 minutes. Of note, this is also the time it would take someone of average intelligence and average reading speed to read either three long newspaper or magazine articles, ten pages of an encyclopedia, or a dozen or so internet news articles depending on their length.
*
This rule is timely. Not only are we gearing up for an election cycle where the "form an opinion first, research later if at all" is almost a national pasttime. But we are about four months into the Occupy Wall Street movement. And after four months of information about the movement, its motives, its demographics, there are still millions of people shouting out confident opinions about the movement before they've even opened up the box to pour out the macaroni.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Try Occupying Your Principles
This week, thousands of Americans will stand in groups and sleep on public and private property all night long. This so they can be the first to view a popular teenage vampire-romance movie. Only 'Twilight' fans and people who live and work near movie theaters will know this is going on, and they won't give a passing care to it. Neither will the outer populace.
They won't be the only ones standing in the cold. They are joined by thousands of fellow Americans who will also stand in groups in public and private property, some attempting to sleep overnight. But there the similarities end.
There is a harsh divide between public perception of people who love teenage werewolves and stand up to show it, and people who love their country enough to get loud when things get bad. Opponents of OWS include high public officials, corporations, banks, Wall Street, mayors, more than half of our legislature, most of the wealthiest fractions of the country, the health insurance industry, all of the GOP frontrunners for the presidency, and millions of common citizens, some of whom proudly and loudly took part in the Tea Party protests four years ago.
This is the lesson we learn from this....
Millions of Americans think it's o.k. to meet in groups to applaud really shitty movies, but think it's atrocious for people they don't agree with to use their constitutional rights to public protests.
I think I got that about right.
They won't be the only ones standing in the cold. They are joined by thousands of fellow Americans who will also stand in groups in public and private property, some attempting to sleep overnight. But there the similarities end.
There is a harsh divide between public perception of people who love teenage werewolves and stand up to show it, and people who love their country enough to get loud when things get bad. Opponents of OWS include high public officials, corporations, banks, Wall Street, mayors, more than half of our legislature, most of the wealthiest fractions of the country, the health insurance industry, all of the GOP frontrunners for the presidency, and millions of common citizens, some of whom proudly and loudly took part in the Tea Party protests four years ago.
This is the lesson we learn from this....
Millions of Americans think it's o.k. to meet in groups to applaud really shitty movies, but think it's atrocious for people they don't agree with to use their constitutional rights to public protests.
I think I got that about right.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Liberal Values Defined
There was a three year period during my teaching career where I spent every moment while commuting listening to Right-Wing talk radio. What I once called "Being willing to listen to both sides" I can now honestly call "Listening to one-sided hateful conservatives made me feel more righteous as a liberal!". O'Reilley and Rush Limbaugh were my two mainstays, but I also dabbled with a local Libertarian's show as well as a two-man conservative team who unlike their peers, added comedy to the mix. Of the pundits in question, the last two shows share no blame in what I'm about to rant against, as they never spent time berating those of other views, nor did either of those two shows delve into the 'Culture Wars' principal that O'Reilley birthed and Limbaugh romanced time and time again.
I haven't thought about those shows for a long time. But today a fellow Facebook poster referred to the 'liberal media' and then proceeded to make the term 'liberal' synonymous with the lack of decourem, the smutiness, the hyper-sexuality, and the uber-violence found in television and movies today. And this wasn't her using liberal in a 'different way'. She directly contrasted it with politically conservative views.
I immediately realized how powerful these right-wing pundits were in their "Culture War" theme. They have taken an entire generation of people who are political conservatives and convinced them that having an opposite political view mandates you have lower standards in basic decency. People see a director who shows smut or bad jokes or tube tops, and thanks to Bill O'Reilley, the director and anyone who watches the show in question, are presumed liberal in political party.
I have to say, accalaids must go out to O'Reilley and others who followed his lead. Because of them, any sort of sexual indesgretion or ethical falure or 'icky' situation in the movies can be easily blamed on Liberals. And that paves the way for all of life's ickiness to be similarly protected from being blamed on Conservatives or their ideology.
The only solution I can think of for this is that anytime an innocent right-wingers parallels sex/violence/rudeness in the media with "Liberal Values", they get called on their falsehood right away.
I haven't thought about those shows for a long time. But today a fellow Facebook poster referred to the 'liberal media' and then proceeded to make the term 'liberal' synonymous with the lack of decourem, the smutiness, the hyper-sexuality, and the uber-violence found in television and movies today. And this wasn't her using liberal in a 'different way'. She directly contrasted it with politically conservative views.
I immediately realized how powerful these right-wing pundits were in their "Culture War" theme. They have taken an entire generation of people who are political conservatives and convinced them that having an opposite political view mandates you have lower standards in basic decency. People see a director who shows smut or bad jokes or tube tops, and thanks to Bill O'Reilley, the director and anyone who watches the show in question, are presumed liberal in political party.
I have to say, accalaids must go out to O'Reilley and others who followed his lead. Because of them, any sort of sexual indesgretion or ethical falure or 'icky' situation in the movies can be easily blamed on Liberals. And that paves the way for all of life's ickiness to be similarly protected from being blamed on Conservatives or their ideology.
The only solution I can think of for this is that anytime an innocent right-wingers parallels sex/violence/rudeness in the media with "Liberal Values", they get called on their falsehood right away.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Celebrating Death
If anyone understands the momentousness of life, it is someone who has had a life stripped away from them too soon. I read an editorial this morning written by the sister of a man who was a victim of Bin Laden's September 11th attack. The man's widow told her today that she sees nothing to celebrate about September 11th, 2001, not then, not now. I can't imagine how this woman felt on September 11th but I empathize well with how she feels now.
I never thought that as someone who intentionally looks for "Pro Choice" and "Pro Death Penalty" candidates when choosing who to vote for, that I'd be so thrown off by yesterday's jubilation at the news of Osama Bin Laden's death. It seems to be the realm of the Pro-Life/Anti-Death Penalty Christian crowd to not wave flags or sing joyously at someone's extermination, not mine.
But people aren't so predictable when it comes time to act out their true character. It was the Roman Catholic Church that stepped up as the sole organization to condemn celebrations (rarely the non-hypocrite right?), not Amnesty International or the ACLU or even James Dobson's fervently Pro-life 'Christian' Coalition. Other groups and individuals that always claim to honor life didn't step up to the plate to actually.... honor life. Instead they triumphed outwardly.....in an assassination. Somehow it didn't click with them that there was an 'assassination' on September 11th, 2001 as well and just like yesterday, people worldwide celebrated in the streets. We've come full circle.
Does it matter who dies? That's the defense people gave for why they were waving flags, shouting curse words of joyous revenge, or sending rhymy celebratory posts to each other on Facebook. When what they construe to be a scummy person dies, not only is it o.k., but it's an excuse for a beer and a parade. I wonder where that gets tangly.
I remember the sick glob in the pit of my stomach watching people in 'enemy' countries celebrate Bin Laden's attack on us a decade ago. But I rationalized it to myself. Hey, these people are brainwashed. The women aren't allowed educations or jobs. They live in third world countries. They are taught from birth how horrible the west is. Heck, the west has done some crappy stuff to them so it's understandable. Even so, I found them low. I found them ignorant. I found them beastly and unevolved. I never imagined those same videos would ever be made in America.
Osama Bin Laden was killed last Sunday and that video was made in America. Well, wasn't that a simple way to take my naive self-righteous American egomania and shove it where the sun don't shine. We're no better. Any group of people that actively celebrate a death (that's actually multiple deaths).... are at the same level.
I wrote my feelings in a Facebook broadcast and people who I haven't talked to in weeks, people that never respond to my posts, came in to rebut to my feelings. They don't feel strongly about the other things I've written about (life, children, racism, politics, education, history)...but they are quite strong in their belief that being 'stoked' and 'joyful' about some guy getting shot in the eye is an appropriate human response. Human?
My five year old daughter saw a picture on a newspaper today and asked me about it. The picture showed a man holding up an American flag, surrounded by a joyously celebrating crowd. Lucky for me and unlucky for my children, they are still of the ages where us parents can steer a conversation any which way we want to! And the way I wanted to steer it was this.... A simple summary of 9/11 and Obama Bin Laden's orchestration of it and then this question: What makes a human being different from an animal? That's simple enough even for a preschooler. We're higher order beings for many reasons including these: We're empathetic, we use our brains to solve high level problems, and most importantly (here I'm steering): We have the ability to consciously go against our aninal instincts for our personal good or for the greater good. Animal instincts tell us to use violence to solve problems. Animal instincts tell us to scream and pound walls instead of using dialogue to solve a conflict. And animal instincts tell us to grab beers, shout profanities, and party loudly at Ground Zero because another human being was killed.
I never thought that as someone who intentionally looks for "Pro Choice" and "Pro Death Penalty" candidates when choosing who to vote for, that I'd be so thrown off by yesterday's jubilation at the news of Osama Bin Laden's death. It seems to be the realm of the Pro-Life/Anti-Death Penalty Christian crowd to not wave flags or sing joyously at someone's extermination, not mine.
But people aren't so predictable when it comes time to act out their true character. It was the Roman Catholic Church that stepped up as the sole organization to condemn celebrations (rarely the non-hypocrite right?), not Amnesty International or the ACLU or even James Dobson's fervently Pro-life 'Christian' Coalition. Other groups and individuals that always claim to honor life didn't step up to the plate to actually.... honor life. Instead they triumphed outwardly.....in an assassination. Somehow it didn't click with them that there was an 'assassination' on September 11th, 2001 as well and just like yesterday, people worldwide celebrated in the streets. We've come full circle.
Does it matter who dies? That's the defense people gave for why they were waving flags, shouting curse words of joyous revenge, or sending rhymy celebratory posts to each other on Facebook. When what they construe to be a scummy person dies, not only is it o.k., but it's an excuse for a beer and a parade. I wonder where that gets tangly.
I remember the sick glob in the pit of my stomach watching people in 'enemy' countries celebrate Bin Laden's attack on us a decade ago. But I rationalized it to myself. Hey, these people are brainwashed. The women aren't allowed educations or jobs. They live in third world countries. They are taught from birth how horrible the west is. Heck, the west has done some crappy stuff to them so it's understandable. Even so, I found them low. I found them ignorant. I found them beastly and unevolved. I never imagined those same videos would ever be made in America.
Osama Bin Laden was killed last Sunday and that video was made in America. Well, wasn't that a simple way to take my naive self-righteous American egomania and shove it where the sun don't shine. We're no better. Any group of people that actively celebrate a death (that's actually multiple deaths).... are at the same level.
I wrote my feelings in a Facebook broadcast and people who I haven't talked to in weeks, people that never respond to my posts, came in to rebut to my feelings. They don't feel strongly about the other things I've written about (life, children, racism, politics, education, history)...but they are quite strong in their belief that being 'stoked' and 'joyful' about some guy getting shot in the eye is an appropriate human response. Human?
My five year old daughter saw a picture on a newspaper today and asked me about it. The picture showed a man holding up an American flag, surrounded by a joyously celebrating crowd. Lucky for me and unlucky for my children, they are still of the ages where us parents can steer a conversation any which way we want to! And the way I wanted to steer it was this.... A simple summary of 9/11 and Obama Bin Laden's orchestration of it and then this question: What makes a human being different from an animal? That's simple enough even for a preschooler. We're higher order beings for many reasons including these: We're empathetic, we use our brains to solve high level problems, and most importantly (here I'm steering): We have the ability to consciously go against our aninal instincts for our personal good or for the greater good. Animal instincts tell us to use violence to solve problems. Animal instincts tell us to scream and pound walls instead of using dialogue to solve a conflict. And animal instincts tell us to grab beers, shout profanities, and party loudly at Ground Zero because another human being was killed.
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