Political Correctness Truly Defined (Part 3)

In this part I will focus on an aspect of political correctness that needs to be addressed in society as a whole. It is how members of our society try to force the entertainment community to conform to their own expectations, freedom be damned.  I am referring to people who have a compulsion to condemn an artist for the words he or she writes or speaks.

On one hand, it would seem legitimate on the surface to condemn someone for remarks they feel are cruel and insulting toward political figures and other celebrities based on things they cannot help. The problem with this point of view is that it is often a delusion. Most people in the public eye put themselves there and they don’t care what those who oppose them think. In fact, they don’t even watch or hear those views, so for someone to rise up to the defense of someone they do not even know and try to crush the career of such a person seems to be rather pointless because their fans are loyal. Short of a national scandal, the audience will not abandon those they adore either.

However, when one stops to think about it, the question that needs to be asked is “Why is this of concern to them?”  In the first part of this series, I referred to Joan Rivers’ outspoken humor.  For many her humor in later years was not well-received by some people,  yet her fame continued to rise like a meteor. I can explain why that is.  She represented another generation entirely. It was as if in the present, anything resembling America of the past is becoming unacceptable by modern members of society. The fact of the matter is that many still keep those  values that old America held dear and there seems to be a move to revert to some of those values in light of recent world events.

If that happens, there is no need to go into an uproar over it.  Everything happens in a continuous circle of change. Some things progress and at times they reverse themselves.

However there seems to be a need among some people to take to social media to try to chide or “correct” or discourage the behavior of an entertainer–whether that entertainer be a comic, actor, actress or musician and it comes from both sides of the political spectrum. “I think you’re picking on the president and/or his wife based on appearance, race, way of speaking, etc….”  the list goes on.  Often these people demand total silence from anyone who opposes the policies of the current political leaders in this country. They will attack fans who support them, and often throw up insult after insult on their fan pages. This is especially true on Facebook.   However when those of opposing view were in power, those who agreed with that point of view could care less what was put up about them–yet the opposition made the same jokes and such. Why? They realize it is pointless to try to battle over something nobody has any real control over.

Quite frankly, when it comes to entertainment and the arts, Voltaire had the right idea about all of it–“I may not agree with everything you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

There will always be an audience for performers who have a fan base no matter how great or small. Most of those complaining are not fans of the acts and never were. When they start spewing vitriol, it only tells those that they are being hypocritical because on many of those pages they have to “like” the page of the person they are condemning in order to make a comment, and then they will post vitriol until they realize it does no good due to the fact that they are big fish in a little pond, OR until the admins of the pages ban and remove them. This is also true on the political pages.

If they keep trolling after that, then it is because they have a need to make themselves heard–just like an artist or politician that they are condemning. Taken in that sense, one could say that they are in the same club…Or can they? Either way, it shows those who think outside of the box how as a society, America has become well-known for its double standards.

Some fans even resort to attacking the fans for liking an artist.  Those are the ones who make fools of themselves by trying to win them over to their point of view when it absolutely will NOT happen. This is also true of people who support one person or another on the political pages. Ironically, in trying to box the fans and/or supporters of a person or group into a corner they end up putting themselves in one and it makes them look like they are true bullies, rather than intelligent human beings capable of conducting civil discourse.

By the same token, those who dislike an artist and/or the material in question have a right to express those views as well. They get enough of a bashing from those who aren’t fans for their behaviors that the opinion doesn’t make a difference. I have actually seen non-fans of artists support people that they are NOT fans of and defend them against trolls as well. Everyone has opinions and we all know what opinions are like.  I will not let either extreme dictate what they think I should or do not do. They do not live my life, I do. They don’t answer for my actions. I do. By the same token so do other entertainers, writers and politicians of all views and they should also bear these things in mind rather than take them personally. My father had a better piece of advice on such matters, and most have heard this before, “Consider the source.”

Besides all the above there is one basic fact of life that every entertainer or writer on Earth has learned one way or another and that is the fact that no one can please everyone, so why sweat bullets over it?

 

Political Correctness Truly Defined (My Not So Humble Opinion)…

Political correctness is the art of forcing a society to conform to a set of norms for a segment of the population that cannot deal with the normal processes of changing from a teenager into an adult. It is not about racism. That is a separate issue. It is not about misogyny. That is also a separate issue. It is also not about silencing religious views, which is still another issue.  However those pushing to monitor and control free speech are combining these issues in order to kill three birds with one stone so that they can live in a world that is only big enough for them to thrive on.

To be politically correct is to not have your own opinions on an issue that are not in agreement  with those who are writing the playbook. They will certainly be censored or omitted altogether. Your creativity will be subject to censorship and ridicule should you offend someone who is nothing more than a panty waist who cannot deal with the fact that not everyone will agree with their views.

It does not make the politically incorrect cowardly or dastardly when the opposition pushes this, it reveals those pushing it off on society as persecutors of those who espouse the U.S. Constitution.  In essence, those who push the “PC Movement” are cowards themselves. They fear what they hear rather than deal with the reality that they should be looking at.

The people should be setting the course for this nation–and I do not mean those in Hollywood. I mean the people as a whole. I also do not mean the powers that be. Why? Because all I have seen recently is failure and disappointment with their actions–or the lack of them.

 

 

As for me I’m with Voltaire on the issue: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”

Voltaire

 

 

Yes, People Kill People But….

Look, I do not talk about this a lot. Yes, I DO support the right of EVERY law-abiding citizen to own a gun, but mental health in this country has to be addressed.  I’m not into all this gun grabbing crap a lot of people are trying to push for,  but I see nothing wrong with flagging people who have severe behavioral disorders from getting a gun. If people are arrested for domestic violence, robbery, assault, etc…they should automatically have their guns confiscated also until found not guilty–and if found guilty, they should not be returned to anyone in the household, but sold to cover costs incurred by the county and/or state.

I do not agree with the extreme left on this issue because they give off a perception that they do have a goal to take ALL guns away, or at least many of them do. However, these violent groups of people have to be dealt with.

I do not think it is that much to ask for. I’m not advocating limitations on all guns or gun sales, just to individuals who have such records.

Had such a system been in place in the 1970’s my stepmother might not have blown her brains out when I was almost 15. Was she mentally ill? Yes. We found out AFTER her death that she had been institutionalized. Her favorite thing to do when my dad was at work was to point that .22 that she killed herself with and put it to my temple as her method of “discipline” which was nothing more than terrorism in my home.

To this day, people, I can still feel the cold end of that gun at my temple. Sometimes I wake up dreaming about it. It was only after she died that I realized that this wasn’t just a surrealistic nightmare I lived in, but that she could have, at any moment, blown my brains out and anyone else’s in the house too.

Unless you lived through it, I know you can’t relate to it and more went on than that, which I will not discuss. Funny thing is I didn’t really realize what “normal” was until I got around “normal families” that sat at the table together and such after her death. I grew to pity her. Hopefully, she is at peace. I forgave her long ago, and despite the nightmares I have once in a while, I can still feel pity for her and understand that she could not help herself–but that the state failed to help her a long, long time ago.

I will say this much for those who have gone through something like this at the hands of a mentally ill relative or person close to your family. What helped me was to forgive her. Once I did that, the nightmares gradually happened less often, and became less intense. I actually stood over her grave about seven years ago and told her that I forgive her. Anyway, I hope that does help someone out there. I know forgiving her did help me.

Elliot Rodger…All That’s Left is “Why”?

This is another one of my short rants. We’ve got a director blaming the NRA for the deaths of innocent people. Evidently he doesn’t know squat. Elliot Rodger was mentally ill. He needed help. His parents tried to get him that help. Had the Santa Monica Police Department seen the warning signs of trouble in his videos, MAYBE they could have gotten him committed to a psychiatric facility for at least 45 days. Had they done that, 8 people might be alive today. THAT is the bottom line of it. In my opinion, mental illness doesn’t excuse an action or make it right, but it does help explain the “why” of it to a degree.

Now I want to know what also figures into this “why”? Was this guy bullied all his life or something? THAT is the vibe I got off of watching some of the videos. He doesn’t really come out and say it, though. The reason I say this is that a lot of shooters seemed to have experienced school bullying. THIS is one thing I personally would like for the public to know. Hopefully one day all the families, including Rodger’s, will have the answer to that “Why?”

However the political “blame game” is not going to cut it this time. People need to quit using others’ tragedy to earn brownie points or to get people to take a look at their work and that is what the director that made the NRA comment is doing. That’s right. I’m calling him out.  He’s using a colleague’s tragedy to make a name for himself. They don’t need to use it to further politics either. People are sick of that tactic already, and before anyone starts complaining and moaning, I don’t own a gun myself. I never have. I probably never will because I don’t need one. However, I do support the right of law-abiding citizens to own one.

 

On a Not So Special Day…

In October of 2000, I remember going to Eastland Cemetery in Eastland, TX…I found my way to the woman whose suicide I blamed myself for many years…She wasn’t famous.  No one heard of her except the locals who knew of her tirades.  Her name was Judy.  She was my stepmother.  For about 3.5 years, I endured much at her hands but it was on this day that I came to one stark realization.  She could not help her mental illness.  In the last two weeks of her life, she thought she was four years old, and that I was her mother.

For years after her death, I kept asking, what if I had done this? What if I had done that.  The fact of the matter is that it does not matter, especially now. There are two things nobody has control over besides life and death and those things are the past and future. Neither can be changed. However I spent much of my 20’s trying to run from the memories of what went on in my home during the time she was with us. It was rather violent. I got shoved into walls, cabinets, picked up and thrown into one once–and those times were on the days when she wasn’t too pissed off and went off on EVERYONE.

Do I hate her? No.  Do the memories of a pistol getting pointed at my head still haunt me? Yes. That is probably why I never owned a gun. However times change and I do often think about obtaining one now. Please, if you’re into gun control, don’t preach at me. My family hunted for decades and before that my ancestors did also.  Not everyone who owns a gun is a nut-case.

Anyway back to my point.  There is only one thing that enabled me to get beyond the shadows of the past  when it came to her and that was to make this particular trip, on this not so special day to her grave.  It was in the 60’s and the sun was out.  And I stood here for a long time pondering what I would say if she were to stand next to me. It was then I said something very close to this:

This is my stepmother’s grave. My father was buried elsewhere

 

“It has been many years now. I have done some digging and now I can understand why you were so tormented over several things. Losing your own children and losing two sisters prior took a toll on you. I understand now, Judy. I understand the hell you went through at home as a child too. I forgive you.  I actually forgave you a long time ago but I had to come here to say it. I hope that you are at peace and that you are no longer suffering. I would wish what you endured on nobody now that I have put it together.”

Her suicide took a devastating toll on my emotions all the way through high school and beyond. I buried myself in my writing and my school work. I almost ended up getting into cutting but one of the counselors saw my journal and encouraged me to channel my energy elsewhere.  That was when I picked up a pen.

The chilling remarks when I came back to school after her death were the most cutting. Some new kid asked why anyone would shoot themselves.  My teacher in that class was a coach everyone got pissed at every day it seemed.  As I sat there he said, “I don’t know but women usually don’t go around shooting themselves because they are afraid to mess up their looks.”

I was livid. There is no way he didn’t know about her suicide being that he worked part-time for DPS.  I got up and bolted out of the room.  I stayed home for a couple of days and was in a different class after that. My dad made sure of it.  Even in her death the bullying and idiotic behavior of some of the other students continued as well. I never forgot that either. To them it was all a joke.  Well I hope they enjoyed their years at school afterward, because much of their entertainment came at the expense of others who were broken. This is why I don’t attend class reunions either–along with many others who opt not to show.

It is actually them I feel sad for. Even in adulthood they do not have a clue as to the scars they inflicted with their actions and words, yet most have suffered their own tragedies and seem to forget their past actions.  Ironically, I forgive them too. Some will have much to answer for one day. Until then, I will live my life and continue to work to get questions answered. For Judy, it’s the least I can do. She deserved better than what life dealt her.

 

Yale’s War on Women…Part 2…

This post is only going to put forth some rather inflammatory questions. Why isn’t Yale facing the same scrutiny and penalty in the public eye  that Penn State had to face over that child sex abuse crap/Joe Paterno controversy?  Are the leaders at Yale saying it is quite alright to abuse women by only giving reprimands and downgrading rape on campus to a charge of “Non-Consensual Sex“?  Who are they to decide penalty for what IS still a crime in this country? Better yet, who came up with that policy? Whoever came up with it should be exposed publicly for being such an insensitive, uncaring excuse of a human being.

No campus, be it high school, college, technical institute or whatever has any right to re-write the laws of the state they were built in OR federal law. The last time I checked, rape was (and still is) a felony.  As far as I am concerned, they are aiding and abetting criminals with such policies. The Attorney General for that state should also be raising hell at this point! Why is there only silence?  If there is a rape, they should all be REQUIRED to call the police immediately as they are not qualified to investigate a crime on campus. I am not even going into how many missing women ended up dead because colleges don’t report them missing when they don’t show up for classes and their belongings are still in their dorm rooms either…Yes, this has happened. Read the news!

Get real people! No one is exempt from the law–ivy league or working Joe… They are certainly not above them. Any college campus be it Yale, Harvard, Columbia University or whatever should be REQUIRED to report these crimes against women to the police in order to keep their certification status as well. If they fail to do so, they should be put on probation and if this behavior continues, SHUT THEM DOWN.  Their female students deserve a lot more respect than what such policies afford.  I am sick of these people re-writing terms to “sweeten” them so that they are watered down to mean nothing.

Yet we watch and still do nothing.  NOTHING…What is wrong with us? Do we not see that these policies are designed to bully us and reduce us to chattel again?  Is this what we want for our future women in this country? I don’t think that for one minute, and I do not think that Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony would disagree on that point either. If one basic tenant of our rights as women gets eroded, they all will eventually be eroded.

This is where women’s rights groups (Hear that N.O.W.?) should be raising hell but they won’t. The women’s rights movement has been very fragmented and disjointed for many, many years and if the women cannot unite long enough to take care of this, that organization might as well call it a day in this country.  They keep complaining that it is the GOP trying to take all of our rights away, yet Yale has turned out a vast number of political leaders.  Many of those from bygone eras are doing somersaults in their graves right now, and I am very certain of that. Why complain about the GOP when our very complacency as a group has rendered our voices to be so ineffective?

We spend more time arguing over gay rights and abortion rights than anything–and that is what these clowns at YALE are counting on. Put it aside for now. This is a bigger battle in this war and it is much more important. Anyone who thinks otherwise has never faced a rapist.

How can we raise hell for our rights when we cannot even agree on what those rights are? Alice, are you listening?  It doesn’t matter if we are Democrat, Republican, gay or straight, pro-life or pro-choice–we have to stand toe to toe against such policies to protect our daughters and grand daughters. Doesn’t anyone hear what I am saying? Get off the PC bullshit AND off of the ultra-religious bandwagon so that we can actually get something done to benefit all of us for a change.  We need to show these so-called “leaders in education” what we think of such policies and let them know that we will not stand for them.

Nobody deserves to be raped or abused and any policy that runs contrary to that particular train of thought should and MUST be challenged both legally and via demonstrations. It is time to stop shining the seats with our butts and take action. This is the beginning of a huge threat to our very existence as women in a free country.  It starts with such idiotic policies at the educational level. They really think we don’t care and will say nothing. WE have to prove them wrong!  It is going to be up to us to keep our freedom because no one else is speaking for us. NO ONE. Not N.O.W…Not Concerned Women for America…NO ONE.  That fact in itself is tragic. Someone needs to take up the reigns and guide the chariot. Where is that person?  Come on, Alice…Wake up!  Think!

It starts at the educational level. It starts with raising hell at Yale…Can we not unite long enough to rein them in?  Here’s an oddity for you: Both Bushes, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, and William H Taft all graduated from Yale.  Being that Yale churned out 5 presidents, one would think their standards of behavior would be more strict–but HELL NO!  They went back to the Medieval Era long before the GOP had a chance to get that going full steam–which is something the Democrats accuse them of on a regular basis…Well, if we sit silently and do absolutely nothing, the ultra-right wing of the GOP won’t need our help now will they?

 

The Escalation of School Bullying and Expanding the PREA to Stem the Tide…

Before I begin I am putting a link up here so that readers can see what the PREA is and what it does:   http://nicic.gov/prea

I want to begin  by saying that this act was put into place due to the suicides of offenders in the penal system because their pleas for help after being assaulted and/or raped were largely ignored.  In Texas, one high-ranking administrator was fired after an offender tried to report an incident to him said, “Well, nobody told you to come to prison.”   The young man had written detailed letters home to his family about the violence he endured and the last letter written detailed why he was killing himself.

Now let me tell you how the PREA is used to prevent suicides:

1.  When an assault (whether rape is involved or not), an offender is placed in protective custody and an investigation ensues. Often the offender will not talk about it for fear of retaliation regardless of housing.  News travels faster in prison than it does on a television network. Often offenders know when some riot is about to kick off LONG before anyone else does–on units OTHER than their own.

2.  Once in protective custody, the offender is offered counseling, alternative housing, and in extreme cases, unit to unit transfer. Some of these are offender “trade-offs” where two offenders can be switched out in different states to complete sentences.

3.  When an offender is suicidal, he/she is IMMEDIATELY taken into protective custody and placed in a cell with a suicide blanket only.  Nothing the offender can harm himself/herself with is placed in that cell.   Within 24-48 hours on most units, the offender is then sent to a hospital equipped with psychiatric facilities.  Not all offenders who threaten suicide have been raped or sexually assaulted. Many are bullied for commissary items, money, etc…They are given the same protections as an offender who is a sexual offender when this gets reported.

4.  It provides stiff penalties for staff members who either fail to report such incidents listed above, within 2 hours of the incident becoming known, OR face any number of disciplinary consequences.  It also provides that officers MUST count LIVING, BREATHING bodies–even at night when doing cell counts.  If someone looks like they are asleep, they must wake them–PERIOD.  If an offender is found dead on the next shift, the autopsy will reveal how long he/she was deceased and there is no excuse for failing to attempt waking an offender during count time at night.  They must also make sure that the OFFENDER is in the cell and hasn’t escaped by waking them up as well. Yes, offenders do stuff pillows and mattresses in their bunk and  try to break out.

Now let’s see how this can be applied to the school systems in this country, given the fact that many students now come from families with members who are locked up and/or are part of a gang affiliation.  In fact, children’s visits to a prison should be very limited. I would say no more than once a month for a child visitor.  There are too many sexual predators running around. Families would raise hell at first, but it is not the correctional officer’s job to baby-sit.

As far as school districts go, the barriers that prevent law enforcement from prosecuting these bullying cases need to be removed. Here is how this can be done while expanding the PREA to the public education system.

1.  With the growing number of children of gang affiliated families on campus, the school officials need to be aware of who these students are AND if they are involved in gang activity.  To that end, law enforcement officials, child protective services and the districts need to work together to reduce the impact such families have in the education system if they are known to be involved in illegal activities.   A true zero tolerance policy should always include automatic suspension and/or expulsion of students engaging in gang activity and/or illegal activity on campus.  In short, if they can face free world charges for what they pull at school, then the school district should be REQUIRED to report the activities within 2-4 hours of the details becoming known–unless it can endanger students and teachers–then it should be REQUIRED to bring in the authorities.

2.  If a student is suicidal or is suspected to be suffering from depression due to being bullied–either at school and/or online, the district should be required to immediately get these students to the school counselors so that they can make appropriate referrals to mental health services.  Parents should be notified IMMEDIATELY if this is the case–in a letter and/or in person via a conference.

3.  If a student is known to have been bullied, it is the bullies that should be punished and NEVER, EVER, EVER  the victim.  If the incident involves a sexual assault, then offer the victim a campus to campus transfer option–even if it means the student will go to school in another district.  Make the bullies be put in different schools rather than their target(s) when possible.  By breaking the social unit of these bullies up, the chances of the student being bullied again go down slightly.  Those who commit violent acts on campus should get an automatic jail sentence AFTER the time spent in juvenile facilities if applicable.

4.   Eliminate lunch detention (especially if not held in a classroom rather than the cafeteria) and mass movement at lunch.  Why?  To many gang kids, lunch detention is a badge of honor–much like when an offender gets sent to medium to high custody is.  They will continue to socialize anyway, throw gang signs and act up at lunch, so it does no good.  This is behavior mimicked in prisons too. The problem with mass movement is that things can get out of hand there too.  At the elementary level, have carts with DISPOSABLE trays and utensils  taken to the classrooms.  Using disposable trays will cut costs of excessive water usage.  After they finish eating, let them go to “reading circle” or go to the playground a bit if weather permits.  This will cut some of the garbage that goes on during movement–because it will be almost ELIMINATED.  To enforce a good lunch detention (if a district MUST have that) a separate classroom with cubicles needs to be used for this.

5.  At the upper grade levels (8-12) close campuses for lunch. That way stuff isn’t being brought in as much for them to “sell” and trade.

6.  Go to uniforms!!!! This is important!  That way gang students have a harder time locating each other. Crime rates on campuses with this policy in place have seen crime rates drop by as much as 85% in some districts!   This isn’t about a students’ rights or respecting individuals’ rights–it is about protecting others in a system that is greatly flawed. No wonder teachers burn out within 5 years in many states…

7.  Give teachers the authority to take the classroom back. Have them trained in self-defense if they want and/or make PMAB training mandatory so that they can restrain students who are out of control.  This training is used to teach others how to properly restrain people who are out of control so that they don’t get hurt and it does come in handy for students who are prone to getting out of control.

No solution is perfect but it has to begin somewhere and to me, that place lies within the PREA.  The links below are to other articles related to this issue.  Not all of them involve school bullying, but all the bullying in society needs to be brought to a halt! Many of these were reported on other networks as well.  Thank you for your time.

Related articles

• Bullying leaves lasting marks on victims, witnesses (utsandiego.com)
• Lindhurst student takes stand against bullying (appeal-democrat.com)
• Virginia bill tackles bullying for students, teachers (wtvr.com)
• Shocking News: Bullying on the Aging Population (belmarrahealth.com)
• Father of suicide victim speaks at anti-bullying assembly (fox13now.com)
• Judge dismisses Mentor HS bullying suit (newsnet5.com)
• OK school says ‘zero tolerance’ for bullying after teen shoots self in bathroom (rawstory.com)
• Why Bullying Needs to Stop (lorensworld.com)

When Educators are the Bullies–Part II

As previously stated in this blog, there is a trend among some teachers to either allow student bullying under the guise of “teacher-induced peer pressure“, which is what I’m going to label that, or direct cursing and name-calling.  I saw and addressed this issue in the prisons. Either offense should result in severe consequences when it is just another form of child abuse. However the problem lies in that the district often protects the teacher rather than addresses the parents‘ concerns–at least that is the case where I live.

It got so bad that a parent had her son take HER cell phone into the classroom to film the abusive behavior. When she then brought it to the attention of the principal, instead of focusing on what was done to her child, they were more concerned that the rule in the school handbook about the cell phone was violated and threatened severe consequences for her son, banned her from coming onto campus over it, etc.  Listen up, people…Schools are not prisons and nor should the districts be allowed to run them as such.  As long as a parent is not creating a disturbance, there is no reason why the person cannot visit the classroom.  This district is trying to cover up the real problem here and that is more teachers manipulating students into bullying one another–OR they are directly bullying themselves under the sanction of the district.

This cannot be tolerated. Parents MUST speak up and start making their voices heard in the district. These people do not OWN your children!  These children are not inmates and it is time to return our classrooms in this country into sanctuaries of learning. Children must be taught BY parents to report this.  Parents need to sit down with their children and explain to them that teachers are NOT ALLOWED to act in a certain way.

It is time to put a stop to this and rid our districts of people who are behind it.  Parents, this is the usual “chain of command” when faced with any issue requiring state involvement in TX.  1. Principal   2. Superintendent   3. School board meeting (get scheduled to speak if necessary prior to the meeting)  4. Texas Education Agency.

I promise you if TEA gets it, they won’t take the case lightly. They will investigate it thoroughly so keep recordings, journals, etc…but it is imperative that you go through the chain of command PRIOR to going to TEA.  The reason many teachers still get away with this is because parents are often too afraid of being harassed by local authorities and/or administrators in their district.  IT is time to fight back for the sake our the children, people. Do no tolerate it! It is the taxpayers (meaning us) that sign their paychecks with the taxes taken out every year so these issues MUST be effectively handled.

Also, someone put forth a proposal in this district to allow teachers to conceal/carry on campus this week. This is ludicrous.  Until the last teacher who is bullying is gone, they are the last persons I want to see with a gun.

I am not sure what the chain of command is in other states, but it is best to follow this to avoid state boards from asking, “Why didn’t you go to (the principal, board, etc…)?” As long as you have taken proper steps prior, there should be no problem with getting this issue addressed.

School Bullying has gone WAY too far!

I am really sick of high school kids committing crimes and then having it downplayed by the school district‘s labeling it “bullying“. When kids are going around assaulting other kids, sexually harassing them, etc…These are CRIMES adults go to jail for! Stop downplaying this problem by calling it “bullying” and address these crimes against our children for what they truly are–and for you school administrators that downplay this issue–shame on you! You’re not fit to be in charge of any child in a public school environment! Either man up and take care of the thugs or the litigation will after your districts pay some heavy fines! If it’s not stopped there, these kids may end up in prison anyway and you are the ones that wanted a “village” to raise the child…Well man up and do your bloody part! It’s happening under YOUR watch!

Here is a link to a story that should anger every parent whose child has ever been a bullying victim:

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/mississippi/family-special-needs-student-attacked
This boy is a special needs student. He is paralyzed on one side of his body and has cerebral palsy.  Granted the kid threw a soda can at his attacker after the senior called him a name but we do not know what the victim’s mental age is and such–or even if he had good aim with the can.  If the can was empty, there was no reason to react in such a fashion.  The bottom line is, as a senior, this young man should have been mature enough to set the example for the other students and  to not go off as he did on a person with a disability.  PERIOD. Sorry but while I do think the Stokes boy needs to learn to ignore such crud that is said to him and probably have some anger management therapy, there is absolutely NO EXCUSE for the senior using the force he did to levy such an injurious and brutal attack.

I can assure you that if I were the principal of that school, that senior would at least be in ISS for a while…

I am not a big fan of Fox, CNN or any of the major news networks but when I see this stuff in more than 1 report, and the info matches up on the networks, I am most likely going to express my opinion on the matter.

 

Nana is on a Rant! ***HATERS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED***!

I have to be brutally honest here.  It is shameful when any writer uses their forum to abuse a child. PERIOD. I don’t care what the person’s credentials are or anything of the like. If I can tell they are writing in an irresponsible way, they will be called out on the carpet for it. I’ll be the first to do it because they make those of us who take our craft seriously look bad and we all get lumped into the same category after time has passed…

I cannot stand it when writers bully a child in the media, write an article on a movie or series they obviously did not watch all the way though, critique a musician’s album when they obviously only listened to one track, etc…These are not writers or journalists, they are bullies and armchair experts who don’t know what they are talking about. It’s that simple, and if they have a degree–shame on them.  They just made their own college look VERY bad when they do this garbage.  The reality is, a lot of them ignore what they were taught once they have the degree in their hand.

We saw this type of bullying when Gabrielle Douglas was attacked for her faith when she won the gold medal at the Olympics in London.  They also criticized her looks this week rather than praised her for her accomplishments.  Shame on those so-called reporters who brought it up. I lost respect for several of them.

They often mistake opinion for truth, diatribes for journalism and perception for reality–if they are not deliberately distorting it to suit their own purposes.

That being said, the negative commentary made about Gabrielle Douglas by these so-called “adults” is nothing more than cyber-bullying in my book. They have attacked a 16-year-old child for her faith, her hair, her looks and anything else they can think of to take the spotlight off what she accomplished in London.  The people that write such tripe also put down soldiers, honest people who work to make change in society and they play armchair expert on almost any subject known to man.  One can’t argue too much with them. They think they know everything. All one can do is when they find the place where they have distorted the truth, use their own words on them and make them eat that article for lunch.

I don’t care if someone worships Allah, Vishnu, God, the Great Spirit, little green men from Mars or whatever–there is never any reason on Earth to attack one’s faith, looks or their person, rather than focus on their achievements.  Anyone who has nothing better to do than launch personal attacks on someone has wasted this reader’s time.

I’ve called these so-called writers on the carpet for their tripe many times and will not stop doing it as long as such irresponsible writers abound…I don’t care if it is a so-called movie critic that didn’t watch the film or series past the first few minutes (or the first episode), a music critic that OBVIOUSLY only listened to ONE track on an album and then judged the entire thing, OR the mere bully who wants to attack a person who has achieved much simply because they don’t have what it takes to get out from behind their keyboard and make a difference themselves.  There are obvious ways to see who these people are. I learned to spot them years ago. They are a shame to the craft.  I may not be perfect at what I do, but that is what my friends are for and they see my writing LONG before  put it out there.

I feel better now…I shall now leave to go see the little man:

and he ALWAYS brightens my day!

And to all the haters,  racists and such out there–KISS MY FANNY!