If you live in my neighborhood and last night watched what passes for news locally, you were informed that one of our students brought a gun to school yesterday. The story had the requisite outrage that parents weren't notified more quickly, this, in spite of the fact that the reporter had time to get to our campus and find people to interview IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. There was the one funny part of the story: citizens stunned by the report, claiming "This can't happen in _______________!" which is ludicrously absurd whether it is spoken in Collierville, Germantown, Memphis proper, or our little suburb. Kids find guns wherever there are kids who get angry or feel threatened, and guns. And, after all, that's the American Way. But I'm not here at the moment to tell you what I think of the money-grubbing, bullshit-spewing, death machine of a trade association called the National Rifle Association, which rules this country by fiat, leaving a mountain of corpses in its wake each year that the late Osama bin Laden could only dream of and admire. And, parenthetically, can you imagine the right-wing nutjobs' utter moral outrage if Al Qaeda killed all the Americans annually that the NRA does? Hey! That's got to be the explanation! That damned Moslem terrorist Obama hasn't taken all the guns away, so that Americans will kill each other FOR the terrorists! Yeah, that's the ticket!
Anyway, the point here is that our people handled it right. I never even knew anything had happened yesterday until last night's news, and I was in the building where and when it happened. According to the dopes on channel 3, a student had the good sense to tell an adult that a classmate had the thing, the teacher told the principals, it was handled and no one was injured or endangered. The police dealt with the student who brought it. End of story, no tragedy! Sorry, local news!
I quickly came to the conclusion, after coming to work here almost a year ago, that this school and community are fortunate to have this principal, these assistant principals, and this faculty and staff teaching and caring for their children.
Yesterday just underlined that conviction, and put a few exclamation points at the end of the sentence!
Friday, September 21, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Religion, Outrage, Murder
Religion is absurd. Before anything else, let's be honest about that. "Treat other people the way that you want to be treated." Really? In this economy? Ludicrous! "If someone slaps you on one side of your face, offer them the other side so they can do it again." Riiiiiiiight! Just after I get through knocking their teeth down their throat. "Eat my body and drink my blood to remember me." Uh, thanks Mr. Donner, but my memory works just fine on its own.
"You're just another anti-christian liberal making fun of mypersonallordandsaviorjesuschrist!" Could be. But just to be fair and balanced..."OK, now all of you guys line up. We're going to cut some loose skin off your business. You'll never miss it. And this will hurt me more than...forget that part. Now, this will show...that...you are devoted to me! Yeah, that's the ticket." "Alright, good. Moses, I appreciate you doing this for me. Oh, and, no offense, but since you've agreed to make this little trip for me and risk your fugitive life mouthing off at Pharaoh, I'm going to try to kill you tonight, out of gratitude, I guess." "Hey, Abe, you know that kid I promised you? The one you waited so long for? Take him off by yourselves and slit his throat for me, just to kiss my ass a little bit, OK?" Still too close to home? How about this: a local good for nothing found golden tablets containing a third testament of Holy Words (two magic books not being enough) which just happen to tell him that god said he could marry as many women as he could con...I mean as many women as he wanted to marry. And he and his followers would be run out of every decent...I mean, make a pilgrimmage to...Utah (Freaking Utah!?!) where they will proclaim themselves the (way, way) lost tribe of Israel and start a really kick-ass choir, and..." Oh, shut up! And quit knocking on my door. And some of you people really want one of these nuts running the country? What, you couldn't find any of the Hale-Bopp crew? Oops, I guess they're all still dead waiting to be picked up by the comet. Anyway.
Here's the deal: to anybody who is not of your religion, you look and sound like somebody in need of a white coat and butterfly net. And you won't be holding the handle! And it doesn't make any difference what your religion is. Those who don't know your code or buy into your story think you are whacko.
But that doesn't mean you should be whacked.
Somebody made a tacky movie that made fun of Mohammed. Whoop-ti-do! I tend to find that whole "fly an airplane into a building, get eternity with 70 virgins" thing as ridiculous as anything humanity has EVER come up with. Except that 3,000 people wound up dead over it 11 years ago, and four more were murdered over religion last night. People in Libya killed the American ambassador and three embassy staff members. Because somebody made fun of Mohammed.
Mohammed must be one uptight bastard. Like that mormon asshole who declared that our christian American President had sympathy for the murderers of Chris Stevens and the other Americans, but didn't care beans about those people who'd been sent there by this same President. But, then again, you'd get the idea that jesus and his dad didn't have much sense of humor, either, if you just listened to the loudmouths on tv purporting to know the thoughts of whatever deity they claim to manage like Willard Romney is handled these days.
One thing I do know: if one or more of these gods actually exist, and actually have any power, she/he/they have an awesome sense of humor! How do I know? Because all these people who run all these religions into the ground are still running around!
Lighten up, Francis!
"You're just another anti-christian liberal making fun of mypersonallordandsaviorjesuschrist!" Could be. But just to be fair and balanced..."OK, now all of you guys line up. We're going to cut some loose skin off your business. You'll never miss it. And this will hurt me more than...forget that part. Now, this will show...that...you are devoted to me! Yeah, that's the ticket." "Alright, good. Moses, I appreciate you doing this for me. Oh, and, no offense, but since you've agreed to make this little trip for me and risk your fugitive life mouthing off at Pharaoh, I'm going to try to kill you tonight, out of gratitude, I guess." "Hey, Abe, you know that kid I promised you? The one you waited so long for? Take him off by yourselves and slit his throat for me, just to kiss my ass a little bit, OK?" Still too close to home? How about this: a local good for nothing found golden tablets containing a third testament of Holy Words (two magic books not being enough) which just happen to tell him that god said he could marry as many women as he could con...I mean as many women as he wanted to marry. And he and his followers would be run out of every decent...I mean, make a pilgrimmage to...Utah (Freaking Utah!?!) where they will proclaim themselves the (way, way) lost tribe of Israel and start a really kick-ass choir, and..." Oh, shut up! And quit knocking on my door. And some of you people really want one of these nuts running the country? What, you couldn't find any of the Hale-Bopp crew? Oops, I guess they're all still dead waiting to be picked up by the comet. Anyway.
Here's the deal: to anybody who is not of your religion, you look and sound like somebody in need of a white coat and butterfly net. And you won't be holding the handle! And it doesn't make any difference what your religion is. Those who don't know your code or buy into your story think you are whacko.
But that doesn't mean you should be whacked.
Somebody made a tacky movie that made fun of Mohammed. Whoop-ti-do! I tend to find that whole "fly an airplane into a building, get eternity with 70 virgins" thing as ridiculous as anything humanity has EVER come up with. Except that 3,000 people wound up dead over it 11 years ago, and four more were murdered over religion last night. People in Libya killed the American ambassador and three embassy staff members. Because somebody made fun of Mohammed.
Mohammed must be one uptight bastard. Like that mormon asshole who declared that our christian American President had sympathy for the murderers of Chris Stevens and the other Americans, but didn't care beans about those people who'd been sent there by this same President. But, then again, you'd get the idea that jesus and his dad didn't have much sense of humor, either, if you just listened to the loudmouths on tv purporting to know the thoughts of whatever deity they claim to manage like Willard Romney is handled these days.
One thing I do know: if one or more of these gods actually exist, and actually have any power, she/he/they have an awesome sense of humor! How do I know? Because all these people who run all these religions into the ground are still running around!
Lighten up, Francis!
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