Tag: Rant

bookmark_borderCivil Discourse

Posted on by PaulaO


(source)

What kind of society do we have where a class has to be offered for political civil discourse? One of the outcomes of the shooting in Tuscon where Rep. Giffords and others were shot is the University of Arizona in Tuscon is starting a “Civility Institute” and will offer classes and seminars in political civil discourse. We have to take classes to learn how to be speak nicely to each other? Sure, in high school we had debate classes and in college we took speaking classes. You’d think that politicians would remember at least some of what they learned there.

But, nope. News programs are focused on sensationalism instead of journalism because it “sells” better.Who wants to watch two political opponents being nice to each other during a debate? Even the Weather Channel is more about drama than the weather.

Dr. Milward said the institute would focus on political disagreements “from the grass roots all the way to the top.”

“In a great democracy, it’s important for people to hold fast to principles, but at the same time to understand where they might be able to compromise,” he said.

(…)

Mr. DuVal, who was a friend of Ms. Giffords’s and was a co-chairman of her finance committee, said he hoped the institute would be one way the nation could work toward such a goal. One of the first steps, he said, would be to attempt defining “best practices and corrosive practices.”

“How do we nurture robustness on one hand and not in any way chill speech, and keep it in bounds that are not destructive to democracy?” he said. “Will it change the nature of dialogue? That will be a tall order.”

(source)

I don’t mind arguing during a debate. It can reveal flaws as well as the beauty and truth in your point. Or theirs.

I think one of the things that has created this kind of separation between common decency and our words is the creation of the internet and it’s many outlets. On a forum, no one knows you are sitting in your robe or in a cafe (hopefully not both at once). You can say what you want because no one really knows who you are. That feeling of anonymity flows over into places where we are known. Sensationalism eggs us on. A chart with crosshairs over your “enemies” isn’t really violence or promoting violence. It is a visual imagery representing your goals. It is your site so you can limit who can contribute and no real debate takes place. Only your side is presented. You don’t have to be nice. Why should you? Would Palin have told Gifford to her face in a civil discussion that she considers her to be within her group’s crosshairs? The she considers Gifford worthy of elimination, not just defeated in an election?

It’s not just the politicians who need to attend any classes they may have. We all need to learn how to discuss things as rational beings. From Westboro representatives protesting at funerals to politicians denying civil rights, common decency is going extinct.

bookmark_borderBorders Books Bankruptcy

Posted on by PaulaO

(say that real fast three times!)

At first, I was saddened by the bankruptcy filing of Borders Books. Not that we have one near us, but that any bookstore closing/failing is never a good thing.

But then someone reminded me of why it is an awful thing in this case. Let me explain.

As a writer, my publisher sells my book for me. Regal Crest is listed with several distributors who produce catalogs from which bookstores, such as Borders, order books from. But, unlike you and me ordering from a catalog, books are done differently. If I order seeds from a catalog, I pay for those seeds first, get them, and if I don’t use them all, unless the packet was unopened and IF the company has a decent return policy, I am S.O.L. and have seeds left over. Now let’s say Borders orders 5 of my books. They don’t pay for them. Consider it commission sales, I suppose. They sell 3. They return 2 (returns are standard practice and publishers who don’t accept returns, don’t survive for long). And, eventually, they get around to paying the distributor for the 3 they sold. Then, the distributor pays Regal Crest who then pays me. Bigger publishing houses are their own distributors so Borders would be paying them directly.

Now, back to the seeds. If I bought the seeds on my credit card, the credit card company pays the seed company then waits for me to pay them. If I declare bankruptcy, I can either pay them back a very small fraction or not at all, depending on the type of bankruptcy. So the credit card company is out of the money I owe them.

Borders is declaring bankruptcy. They sold a lot of books. They got paid for them immediately by the customer or shortly after by the credit card companies. But they’ve not paid the distributors or publishers yet. Which means RCE’s distributor isn’t getting paid which means RCE isn’t getting paid which means, you guessed it, I’m not getting paid.

In reading an article about Borders, I came across this information: (bolding mine)

Now the company is set to close some 200 stores and shed much of its staff in the coming weeks. The stores slated for closure are scattered throughout the country, including three outlets in Manhattan, 35 in California and 15 stores in the Chicago metropolitan area.

The company currently operates more than 650 stores and employs 19,500 people. Borders said that its stores would remain open during the bankruptcy process and that its rewards program would remain in effect. The company said it would continue to honor gift cards and coupons.

In its filing in United States Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Borders listed $1.29 billion in debt and $1.27 billion in assets. As of the filing, Borders owed $272 million to its 30 largest unsecured creditors — including $41.1 million to the Penguin Group USA.

(source)

Now, first, FIFTEEN stores in the Chicago area?! Fifteen? For real? And that’s just the number they are closing. FIFTEEN!?

Second, $41.1 million owed just to Penguin. That’s a lot of money. And you can bet those writers aren’t going to be paid any more than I will be.

I am betting that we are going to start seeing other large chain stores start to falter. Like Borders, a lot of them exploded in growth that no longer has the demand. Borders (and the other Big Box Book Stores) killed a lot of small, locally owned bookstores. And now the Internet has killed them. Karma’s a bitch.

bookmark_borderA Note about E-book Piracy

Posted on by PaulaO

Let’s say you buy a printed book. You read it. You think it is great. You pass it on to a friend who also reads it who then passes it on to another friend, etc. By the end of the year, 7 hypothetical people have read that book. Yet, the author got paid for just one.

But that’s how it goes. Authors on the whole don’t mind you sharing your book. It spreads our name around and perhaps get some more sales later. Perhaps one of that 7 decided she wanted the book on her shelf so went and bought one.

Now here comes the e-books. That’s the digital form of books (electronic books) for those who don’t know. There are now a plethora of e-book readers out there which is good! People reading is always good. Except when it is a pirated book.

Back to that first scenario. You buy an e-book and you love it so you send the electronic format via email to all of your friends. Who then send it to their friends. And by the end of the year, umpteen have read it yet that same author has sold one book. And this time, those that perhaps wanted to keep it, can. They can send out copies vs the original.

Just so you know, that is illegal. In nearly all cases, all e-books are copyrighted and cannot be copied except as a backup copy for your own use.

But e-book piracy goes further. There are website specifically set up to display books for free. Tons of books. Sometimes an author’s entire collection. Sometimes even scanned in copies of printed books. This happens a lot. And it is all so very illegal.

People say it is good for the author. It spreads her name around and people buy her books. But do they? Why should they, really, when it will be up free just like this one?

In Big Name Publishing, they may not notice the sales difference. And unless they have a dedicated staff to track down these sites and watch them for pirated book re-distribution, they don’t do anything about it. But with lesbian fiction being such a niche market (read: small), we notice.

Like I said, people reading books is good. People reading illegal books is not. The author is trying to make a living, the publisher too. The editor. The cover artist. The distributor. The bookstore. All of these people depend on sales of books. But if the book is being given away free by the thousands (yes, thousands), it is noticed.

Work is being done to educate readers. Many have no clue it is illegal. Many think they are doing the author a favor by reading her book. And while myself and others think it is wonderful, we wish you had paid for that book. Else, we may decide to go flip burgers instead and you’ll not get to read another by us, paid for or not.

Karin Kallmaker, a wonderful writing and an advocate for fighting book piracy, has had several posts about this. And she says it much better than I do. As a writer of many books (vs my one), she has a vested interest in getting this stopped. Her way with words is amazing and she puts forth the problem both subtle and with the grace of a Mack truck trying to the next drop before the timer runs out. Here are some of her posts, in chronological order:

    Pirates Avast!
    Ye Olde Myths of Piracy
    Lesbian Fiction Fans—To the Rescue?
    Sunday, Day of Leisure
    “Appropriate Royalties” are Paid?
    No Bang. Lots of Whimpering.

So if you frequent any of those places. If you don’t see a problem with uploading or downloading pirated (ie stolen) books, then, well, I feel sorry for you. Karma’s a bitch and some day it and the law will catch up to you.

bookmark_borderSarah Palin Rant

Posted on by PaulaO

(I’m in a bad mood again. Consider yerse’f warned.)

I saw a headline a few days ago that made me twitch. It was where Palin said we (meaning the US) need to stand beside our North Korean allies.

Now, I’m not a history buff. I couldn’t tell you the time frame of the Korean War. But I could tell you which side we (meaning the US) are allied with. It ain’t the North.

I assumed I had mis-read and since I wasn’t interested in a blood pressure increase, I didn’t read further. Today I came across this article: (bold text is my doing)

Why Sarah Palin’s North Korea Flub Matters

Sarah Palin provided prime material for news outlets and comedy programs when she said on Glenn Beck’s radio show Wednesday:

“But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.”

If she hasn’t already, I’m sure Palin will say that the “elitist,” “lamestream” media is doing her wrong, and that she is once again a victim of “gotcha journalism.” And Palin’s small but passionate group of supporters will undoubtedly argue that Palin made an honest slip of the tongue, something that could happen to any of us. Her supporters are right. Saying “North” instead of “South” is something that any of us could easily do.

But here’s the thing: Any of us did not stand up two years ago and claim we were qualified to fill a job that is a heartbeat away from the American presidency. We haven’t written books, made speeches, endorsed candidates and spoken to the (mostly right-wing) media as if we were policy experts. And we haven’t been scouting office space in Iowa for a 2012 presidential run.

(snip)

That’s the real story about the Palin flub about North Korea that the media isn’t covering. It’s not that she misspoke, but that anyone cared what she had to say on the issue in the first place.

Sarah Palin, with her reliance on spouting talking points, simplistic approach to issues and complete lack of experience beyond a half term as governor of a state the size of Columbus, Ohio, is not competent to be discussing North Korea. (Columbus, Ohio’s population is bigger than Alaska’s, 769,360 to 698,743.) And shame on any media outlet that treats her opinions as if they’re worth anything.

The real damning Palin quote in the Beck interview is the one in which she worries if “the White House is gonna come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea’s gonna do.” Putting aside her usual butchering of the English language, she takes a complicated problem facing the United States (and the world) and reduces it to a talking-point political attack on the president.

Her comment reveals that she has no understanding that we are dealing with a North Korean leadership that may not be rational and may even be self-destructive. And one with the firepower to kill legions of South Korean civilians. To her simplistic, politics-driven approach, it’s only about how the Democratic president isn’t tough enough. (As an aside, she is talking about a president who has increased troops in Afghanistan, stepped up drone attacks on the enemy, and taken out more Taliban and al Qaeda leaders than George W. Bush ever did, but I digress… )

Personally, the fact she baled out of her job as governor just half-way through her term tells me she got a case of the big-head and wanted more. To hell with her obligations to Alaska. She’d ridden that boat as far as she thought it could take her then jumped to another.

I sincerely doubt the Republican Party is insane enough to nominate her to run for President in 2012. I know they have slid backwards a lot lately but, surely, not that far back.

As y’all know from previous posts, I full support the right of Free Speech. I support Palin’s right to open her mouth and continue to prove she is an idiot. What I don’t support is this “pot calling the kettle black” mentality and here I will digress some.

What the fudge are they doing calling themselves the Tea Party for? They injure the original Tea Party folks. The original one, which happened in Boston harbor in 1773, was an early act of rebellion by the Colonists against Britain and Big Corporations. (read about it on Wikipedia) Basically it was about taxation without representation.

Now we have these idiots Americans who call themselves the Tea Party as a response to the way they think America is being run. Thing is, they started this group at the change of government, putting total blame on a brand new President and NOT on the previous administration. Um, wha…? They protest the acts of this new administration, blaming it for the unemployment, the recession, and for not acting quick enough to do what they want. Um, wha…? The original Boston Tea Party-goers did something. They stopped bitching and they did something. Granted, that something got everyone in trouble (the 5 ‘Coercive Acts’) but they did something at least. What has the current Tea Party done? Caused a huge rift in an already crumbling political party, brought all the nut cases out from all sorts of closets, and made us the further laughing stock of the rest of the world. (please, please, stop calling them “tea baggers”. makes me gag)

We can’t act as a nation with so many directional pulls. On the one hand, McCain (bless his twisted heart) says the repeal of the DADT push by Obama is ‘politically driven’ (duh, it’s Washington. what else fuels the crap there besides money?). What is Palin’s comments based on? Sheer love for this country or sheer love of the power and big-head case she has? No, it is also politically driven but for some reason, for her it is allowed. Oh, that’s right, she’s a Republican and therefore exempt. Riiiiight.

One last thing and then I will shut up. Maybe.

I think that when a person holding a political office decides to run for another office, they need to quit first. While H. Clinton was running against Obama, who was looking out for the state of NY’s interests in the Senate? While Palin was joy-riding with McCain, who was looking out for Alaska? And after losing, they all go back to their original jobs and proceed to represent their constituents against an opponent they lost against. It ain’t right. Not right at all.

Let’s say Lorna wanted to work for FedEx. But first, she needs to show that FedEx delivers better than the USPS and UPS and how she, as a future employer of FedEx, would be a good representative if hired. Meanwhile, she is still delivering mail for USPS. How far do you think that would last? And how happy do you think USPS would be when she returned, unhired to FedEx, to get back to work for a company she ignored and/or mistreated?

So why would the state of Alaska, NY, and all those others even WANT them back?

bookmark_borderMore on TSA pat downs

Posted on by PaulaO

I feel good knowing I am not the only one shrugging off the new TSA rules. As a person with a disability, the type of pat downs I’ve had to go through for years is not much different from what I will now have to endure should I ever fly again.

For disabled, airport security hassles are old hat

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – For air passengers already fed up with being hauled off to the side of the security line for a pat-down or facing aggressive questions about bulky clothing or odd items in their luggage, advocates for the disabled have this to say: Welcome to our lives.

For the disabled and infirmed – many forced to go through security lines in wheelchairs with ample hiding places for contraband, wearing prosthetic limbs that could harbor drugs or explosives or lugging oxygen tanks that could really contain god-knows-what – the added discomfort and inconvenience that many travelers are now experiencing is something they’ve put up with for years.

(snip)

Since the new airport security screening procedures began Nov. 1, stories of travelers with disabilities or medical conditions being humiliated, perhaps inadvertently, by Transportation Security Administration agents have made headlines: A bladder cancer survivor from Michigan had to board a plane covered in urine after agents tore open his urostomy bag during a pat-down; a flight attendant and breast cancer survivor in North Carolina said she was ordered to expose her prosthetic breast to two TSA staffers.

(snip)

For Guinivan, speaking to The Associated Press by phone from her home, the concern for her son goes beyond pat-downs to worries that his wheelchair may get damaged or that he will have trouble sitting between two passengers on the flight.

“Our expectation when we fly is to be prepared for uncomfortable situations,” she said. “A lot of the things people with disabilities experience every day, the general public is now having to deal with.”

Eric Lipp, a partial paraplegic, said he had no problems when he recently took four flights over two days, though he definitely noticed the pat-down he received was more aggressive.

Lipp, executive director of the Open Doors Organization, a Chicago-based nonprofit group that focuses on accessibility in travel and tourism, said that TSA agents should get more training in how to treat people with disabilities in a respectful manner, but that he does not object to the new policies.

“It might be a little more intrusive now,” Lipp said, “but it’s expected.”

***
A dear friend of mine pointed out how the new pat down rules are exceptionally traumatic for those who have PTSD or have been raped/molested. I agree. And I consider them brothers and sisters who have had to endure this for ages now. I don’t feel that the few inches closer to their crotch wouldn’t matter in that case. They’re either immune to it at this point or they prepare themselves mentally for it. Or they don’t fly.

I don’t fly often, didn’t before 9/11. It isn’t a matter of packing a few bags and taking a cab. People who have never done it have no clue what it involves. I can’t take just any cab. I don’t pack just one bag. I have to let the airlines know ahead of time. Luckily, I don’t have to have my ass squeezed into one of those aisle chairs and endure that humiliation. Then there’s the fear that my chair won’t be waiting for me when I land. Or it won’t be in the same condition. Every time I fly, something on my chair breaks. So the idea of being touched in private areas in public spaces doesn’t bother me that much. Been there, done that.

bookmark_borderTSA ‘pat down’ rant

Posted on by PaulaO

About the new TSA pat down rules:

[rant mode on]

Where the f* y’all been? People with disabilities have been physically frisked for decades. We get touched, rubbed, scanned. We get catheters tugged, feeding tubes yanked, and questioned about private stuff. We have had hands in bras, prostheses removed, medications discussed. We’ve been ignored, put down, treated like mental imbeciles. Have been for, like, ever. Nobody but us cared or complained or noticed. It has slowly gotten better, though, through *massive* education of TSA staff. It isn’t perfect but it has gotten better.

And now you TABs get frisked and you freak? Please. So your tampon or pad shows. Do you really think these people care? Do you really think those over worked, underpaid, constantly watched TSA people are really truly getting their jollies feeling up millions of people a day? Do you really? If so, paranoia is a treatable illness ya know. And those scans? Get over it. They are viewed remotely, way far away from you, and no one even knows who you are. Next time you are at the docs office or an emergency room, take a look at the xrays being viewed by anyone who walks by. Look at the breasts being profiled, the fat revealed, the ‘junk’ shown. Right there. Right there with very visible names on them.

You bitch and complain about privacy. You ought to ask frequent flying crips how they handle it. They’re experts since they’ve been experiencing it for far longer.

But then, TSA could stop doing all of it, get back to the other routine. And when that plane full of people crashes somewhere, who is going to get blamed? Those same over worked, underpaid, constantly watched TSA agents you are treating like un-registered perverts and pedophiles.

[rant mode off…maybe]

On other notes, the pic going around of the nun being frisked by, gasp, a woman wearing a hijab? That’s from 2006. And the one of the woman in the new scanner? That’s from, I think, 2004. I can’t find their exact origin now because they were taken from people’s sites and reused without permission (except the one I found that had links to their original source) so now they are, as they say, ‘viral’.

bookmark_borderNews from The Onion

Posted on by PaulaO

Ohmygawd, check this out:

U.S. Flag Recalled After Causing 143 Million Deaths

WASHINGTON—Citing a series of fatal malfunctions dating back to 1777, flag manufacturer Annin & Company announced Monday that it would be recalling all makes and models of its popular American flag from both foreign and domestic markets.

(…)

Despite fears about the flag’s safety—especially when improperly used or manipulated in ways not originally intended—sales continued unabated over the years, potentially putting billions of unsuspecting people in danger.

“At first, we wanted one of our flags in every home in America,” Burman said. “Unfortunately, the practical applications of this product are far outnumbered by the risks it presents. Millions have died needlessly, and when you ask people why, they point to the flag.”

(…)

Studies conducted by the Annin & Company research and development department revealed that faulty U.S. flags have caused more than just injuries and deaths. During the mid-1950s, the flags were found to have the bizarre side effect of causing fear, paranoia, and hysterical behavior among millions of Americans. This was dismissed as an isolated event until September 2001, when similar symptoms reemerged on a massive scale.

As hazardous as the flags may be on their own, Annin & Company officials claimed the products become even more dangerous when used in conjunction with other common household items.

“When combined with alcohol, excessive patriotism, grief, or well-intentioned but ultimately misguided ideals, U.S. flags transform into ticking time bombs, just waiting to go off,” Burman said.

(source)

By the way, it’s a joke. Mostly. Kinda.

bookmark_borderTerrorism Cont.

Posted on by PaulaO

And, to prove my point, this was in today’s news: (bolding is mine)

Feds: Militia leader told members be ready to kill

DETROIT (AP) – The leader of a Christian militia planned an elaborate, two-part training session for this month and told members it was OK to kill “anyone who might stumble upon the operation,” federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing Friday.

Details about the Hutaree’s planned training session – to be held during the second and fourth Saturdays in April – were revealed in a 17-page document prosecutors filed in response to a defense motion to free Hutaree leader David Stone while he awaits trial.

It, along with several other government filings over the past week, help paint a fuller picture of the southern Michigan-based group’s make-up and activities.

Stone and eight other suspected Hutaree members were arrested after a series of raids across the Midwest late last month and charged with seditious conspiracy, or plotting to levy war against the U.S. The self-proclaimed “Christian warriors” trained in paramilitary techniques in preparation for a battle against the Antichrist.

(…)

Prosecutors claim Stone and the others plotted mass killings of police as a prelude to a larger war against the government. In Friday’s filing and others that trickled out over the past week, they described several ways in which Hutaree members considered killing law enforcement personnel.

According to one scenario, they would place a phony 911 call, kill responding police officers, then set off a bomb at the ensuing funeral to kill many more.

In another, Friday’s filing said, Hutaree members talked about “torching the homes of police officers and then shooting them and their families as they fled their burning homes.”

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20100417/D9F4HHTG0.html

How many more of these groups are going to be found before one of them succeeds? How many people have to die before proper attention is given this situation? Substitute Christian for Muslim and this would be all over the news, people would be all in a patriotic huff, and the Republicans would be making some statement about how it is all Obama’s fault. But they weren’t Muslims planning to kill police officers or anyone else who got in their way. These were Christians.

Jihad = holy war

Crusade = holy war

War is never holy. Never.

bookmark_borderAnti-Muslim Rhetoric

Posted on by PaulaO

I am so tired of it. Really, I am. I’ve had enough.

The people who crashed the planes into the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and those that wound up in the dirt in PA – yes, they were Muslim. They were twisted people who used their version of the Islamic laws to condone doing something very evil.

Eric Rudolph who bombed several gay bars, several abortion clinics, and even the Olympics in Atlanta is a Christian. That guy who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma and his friends that assisted him, they are all Christians. The idiots in the Davidian compound in Waco, the followers of Johnson who drank deadly Kool-Aid, and the old geezer Alamo who molested dozens of girls – they did all that in the name of their God, with their twisted version of Christianity to condone doing something evil.

Yet, where are the laws that says women can’t wear their hair real high? Where are the laws that say you can’t carry your Bible in the back window of your Buick?

The difference is the weapon Shrub and his handlers used. They used Patriotism. They used it to justify going to Afghanistan. They used it to go to Iraq. They used it to rename french fries and french ticklers. They used it to do all sorts of illegial activities. All in the name of Christian Patriotism. I don’t think American Patriotism had much to do with it.

We forget one thing. We, the Christians and the Muslims and the Jews, we all follow the same God. We just see God differently but it is the same God. I see Kevin as my baby brother, his wife sees him as Honey Bun, his kids see him as Dad. Same Kevin, just different view points.

My point is this: stop condemning an entire religion on the actions of a few. Even if those actions resulted in the deaths of over 3000 people (and not all of them were Americans, a fact they’ve conveniently let us forget). Going to Afghanistan was and is justified. Ridding the world of terrorism is a good thing. Never will be accomplished but trying to do it is a good thing. Invading Iraq….don’t get me started on that one. The Muslims are, on the whole, a good people. They have strong beliefs in nature, in each other. Just as I am not at fault for Rudolph bombing abortion clinics in the name of God, neither are all of them to blame for the actions of bin Laden.

Stop sending me anti-Muslim emails. So far, I’ve not responded. So far, I’ve kept my opinions to myself. Not any more.

I will not go naked in the streets just so Muslim men will commit suicide.

And Rudd of Australia did not tell Muslims to leave his nation so, no, I will not vote for him to be King of the World.

If women want to wear doohickeys that cover their faces, let them. It does no physical nor mental harm to them. Can’t say the same for high heeled shoes.

bookmark_borderAnd Now, Something Serious

Posted on by PaulaO

My brother sent me a link to something which led me to search for something else which led me to yet something else. Amazing thing, this Internet.

Bro sent me a link to Fagbug.com, a site dedicated to a victim of a (mild form of) hate crime. Erin Davies had her car vandalized because she had a rainbow sticker on it. No other reason. They wrote “fag” and “u r gay” on her Volkswagen Beetle. Hence the “fagbug” term. She got mad (yes!) and drove around the US and parts of Canada with the graffiti still on the car. There’s a documentary about her journey, some cool stickers, and some t-shirts to support anti-hate crime groups.

What got me on a search was that her car was vandalized on the 11th Annual National Day of Silence (2007). One, I hate it when I hear about ‘day/year/month of’ events the day after, at the end of the month, or near the end of the year. Two, that day was the ELEVENTH and I’d never ever heard of it. So I looked it up. The National Day of Silence (it is April 16th this year) is geared toward schools to stop verbal and physical bullying toward LGBT kids.

The National Day of Silence brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. Each year the event has grown, now with hundreds of thousands of students coming together to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior.

That site (and it’s great!) led me to Think Before You Speak. This site is dedicated to word usage that is degrading to others. Such as using words like ‘fag’ and ‘dyke’ and phases such as ‘that’s so gay’. I’d heard that phrase many times but wasn’t sure what it meant exactly. I knew it wasn’t a good thing but it wasn’t an all out bad thing either. They have some public service announcements that make it clear just what it means. My fave is the one with Wanda Sykes. They also have doohickeys to add to websites and posters you can download. I like the posters a lot, especially the That’s so “Cheerleader who can’t like, say smart stuff” one. (posters are at the bottom of the page)

Frankly, it is about time something is done about bullying in school. Because it has always happened, it’s just become accepted, a kind of rite of passage. Except some kids don’t make it through. Some kids, like Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover can’t take it anymore and commit suicide. At age 11, Carl hung himself. Eleven years old. Think about that. Any time an 11 yr old kid kills himself because he was being daily bullied and humiliated, that ain’t normal. It should never be accepted. Sadly, Carl wasn’t the only one. There were at least four other middle school age kids who committed suicide due to constant bullying.

You a kid? Stop bullying. When you see someone doing it or suffering it, step in. Yeah, you’ll get bullied, too, but now there’s two of you. Talk to your friends and soon there’ll be more of you. Make it stop. It is easier to stop bullying than it is to attend a funeral.

You an adult? What the fuck are we doing? Carl’s mom repeatedly talked to the school, trying to get them to do something about the bullying. Nothing was ever done. Carl had to die to make it stop. We need to talk to our kids, our nieces and nephews, our neighbors, our friends’ kids. We need to make them aware that bullying isn’t good for anyone. It doesn’t matter if a kid is being bullied because they are small or because they are Hispanic or fat or smart or dumb or whatever. Feeling belittled for whatever reason feels the same.