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A Persistent Myth

I'm really kind of astonished that I keep having to have this conversation.  

A few Mondays ago, someone I know posted this harmless little appreciation on her Facebook wall: "A teacher somewhere in your neighborhood tonight is preparing lessons to teach your children or marking work while you are watching television. In the minute it takes you to read this, teachers all over the world are using their "free time," and often investing their own money for your child's literacy, prosperity, and future. Re-post if... you are a teacher, an ex-teacher, love a teacher, or appreciate a teacher."  I see these little venerations quite a bit for teachers, firemen, cops, soldiers, paramedics, truckers and other self-sacrificial professions without which what passes for our society would be a rudderless craft adrift on a sea of dysfunctionality.  I never see these for farmers or garbagemen or nurses or nannies, for some reason.  Doctors, I wager, have too many shows on TV and make too much for people to feel okay about including them in these Interweb hallway needlepoints.  Anyway, recognition.

People post these, I think, for the most part not expecting anyone to disagree with them, or at least, be fucking dumb enough to do it out loud.  I mean, I'm not fond of the clergy, but I wouldn't let you beat one up.  Some behaviors are just generally off the rails.  That's why the sole purpose, really, of this blog entry is to shine the light of shame on Tracy Carroll Meisinger of Colorado, whose Facebook posts shitting all over teachers (admittedly, specifically ones from Colorado) included the following hunks of steaming rhetorical tripe:

• "They get so many teacher work days in Colorado, plus every Wednesday afternoon, they don't really need to do stuff at home. I appreciate teachers, but, c'mon... "
• "I'm sick of the guilt trip as if I'm sitting on my ass watching TV while teachers are suffering. LOTS of people work overtime and bring work home."
• "...there is now a new day off from school. "Teacher compensation day". How do I get a job where I have a "compensation day"?"
• "AND - they don't even do the PT conferences during school hours anymore - though the days are schedule (sic) to do them then."
• "...if a teacher needs to take work home, they are using the planned work time for something other than school."

Brilliant, yes?  You can be sure that she was assailed by many to the point of surrender, not least by me.  Some of us even used facts, something with which Tracy was apparently unfamiliar.  For the record: not me, I went for the personal attack, opening with "Wow, Tracy: You're completely ignorant in a way I find offensive."  I do this because I'm a caring and compassionate guy.  Over the course of what I consider to be a fairly short thread, we got to find out that Tracy homeschools as well, so before you think of Tracy as a victim here, just remember that she spread her ignorance to her progeny and then sent them out unprepared into the world.  We could all be victimized by her and her blathering offspring someday.

Poor Tracy - yet another American sucked into a whirlpool of lies and bullshit. Poor Tracy, ridden with guilt and rage at one of the oldest tropes there is; The Overpaid and Underworked Teacher with the easy job, getting their summers off, free from oversight or comeuppance.  Tracy, unfortunately, is an idiot with an axehandle she doesn't realize has no axe.  Fewer Tracies might benefit us all. 

Sporcle!

So, Sporcle, one of my actual favorite websites, is having a thing where if you blog about them, you are entered in a contest for an 8GB iPod Nano.  I don't really care what they're giving away, I wanted to enter the contest and genuinely think Sporcle's cool, so it was kind of a no-brainer.  Of course, if it had been an actual no-brainer, then I would have done it without the carrot of the contest, but I'd rather not think too much in that direction when I can instead, encourage you to go Sporcling.

Sporcle's a big website for trivia quizzes, some about real things - like geography and U.S. Presidents - and some about TV and comic books and music and stuff.  Some of my personal favorites are:

All of the Avengers, ever.

the Top 100 Comic Book Villains, as rated by IGN;

A list of 3 Letter Body Parts;

The Countries of the World, all of them;

Packing Heat in the Movies;

Movies by Lego;

Movie Posters (There are 4 of these);

NFL teams and also NFL Teams by Fans, and finally:

The Happiest Countries in the World According to North Korea.

If you can't find something to enjoy on this list, keep looking around, and if you still can't find anything, then it's you that's the problem - not Sporcle.

Moving (Again)

Max, my son, is pissed off at us for moving.

Originally, he felt that we baited and switched him on the actual houses, as the 1st one we looked at was a little pricey for the square feet and got snaked out from under us anyway, so we turned and quickly made an offer on the one we're supposedly closing on today.  When he saw the new house during inspection a couple of weeks ago, this evaporated a little bit, but got replaced slowly with a moody "I hate moving."  This, at least, is common ground.  I damn well hate moving too.  But this is our least disruptive move since 1996 - we're leaving neither zip code or school district.  After a pointing this out and  a few more conversations, I have found common ground at last with the boy - he's going to draw up a contract stating that his mom and I will not move again for three (3) years minimum, and preferably five (5).  We will sign it, and in return, he has promised to have a slightly better - and if failing that, quieter - attitude about this move.

My apartment, which I have striven for a year and half to keep in a very clean and tidy state during my time not working, and in which I have spent a lot of daytime hours teaching my daughter, doing art projects, learning to cook and playing, is now exploded and boxed and disorganized.  Tonight I amused myself for five minutes doing my Gwenyth Paltrow impression where I put my head in a box.  Great fun.  Almost all of our books are packed and I fully intend to move all my comics to the new place by my fucking self just so I don't have to hear bitching again this time.  I think Matt, Jimbo & Lyla might be the only people to move them and not bitch and complain, and Jimbo gave them a special ride.  I miss moving with a bunch of my friends around.  The Amish fireline moves were some of my favorite times together, and it saddens me that they're no longer practical.

Max started his second full week of the 5th grade yesterday, and Abby gets phased into K'garten this week with two 1/2 days and two full days, starting today.  We close today, C starts grad classes this weekend and her chorus has its kickoff for the season - also this weekend.  I start school at MTSU at the end of this month, and my nervous breakdown is scheduled for shortly after that.  I keep waiting for the thing that will jump up and ruin everything, or the detail I miss that causes chaos.  We're going to be moving slowly over the next couple of weeks, because we can.  Mostly just me and a truck.  Further bulletins as events warrant.

The Relevance of Robin Hood

"Fundamentally, Was Robin Hood really a hero or a thief?"

This was a question asked on a HS friend of mine's Facebook wall almost exactly a month ago.  His rules for answering were that you couldn't simply say "both," and that you had to justify your response or there would be consequences.  Whatever, he was just trying to foster an interesting discussion.  Here's how I answered, and I was the first one to do so:

"Hero. My son and I were discussing this yesterday. In most versions of the legend, Rob only takes from the comfortable, and only enough that they're not really injured, to give to the destitute and starving, people without houses who're being taxed into the grave by King John. The net good of his direct action far outweighs the bad, and he rails against a corrupt and oppressive government (initially indirectly) in the process.  Of course, there's also the notion that he may just have been a crazy person in a hood inventing communism."

I won't tell you which friend of mine posted this, but I will give a few highlights of the 41-comment-thread that ensued.  My opinon was firmly in the minority, but I am used to this.  The conversation quickly veered into American partisan political territory, and I freely admit that I may have been a bit naive for not interpreting the question that way in the first place.  There was some outright paranoia from the sort of people who think Obama's a socialist - they wanted to know what right someone like Robin Hood would have to decide if they were "comfortable" enough to steal from, and got downright rhetorically violent over the proposition of wealth redistribution.  

One person raised the "would you steal if your children were starving" question and was shot down by a two-pronged black-and-white religious argument (the Protestant 8th Commandment got tossed around) that ironically misquoted "the devil's in the details," implying that right is right and wrong is wrong, and that since it is "wrong" to steal, it is never justifiable.  Too bad there's no "Thou Shalt Not Value Archaic and Overly Simplifed Rules Over Thy Fellows (And Indeed Thy Children)" commandment, I guess, but that was a large part of this thread: The abandonment of more complex and even inherently contradictory lines of of thinking - that in my opinion are the bulk of what come up in normal human life on a regular basis - in favor of drastically simplified, easily digested non-thoughts or ridiculous axioms.

After that was the name calling.  They weren't very good names.

Anyway, I wanna know what you think: 737-ROCK or 737-ROLL - throw some comments down on this one so I can see if the people who come here are capable of devoting more thought to this than people in a comment thread on Facebook.  Winner gets an autographed picture of Obama dressed like Green Arrow.

James Craig Anderson

Seriously, where do I even start?

On the night of June 26th, 2011, a truckload of white teenagers in a 2-car convoy led by Deryl Dedmon attacked and ran over James Craig Anderson, killing him because he was black.  There is apparently cell phone audio of Dedmon jubilantly yelling, "I ran that nigger over!" so this thing seems pretty well out of the realm of the "alleged."  This is a horrible, senseless tragedy that kicks my whole life in the kneecaps and erodes overall faith in humanity - just when you can maybe, just maybe, see people treating each other with respect at the mountaintop, some dumb motherfuckers beat and kill a man because he's a different color and drag us all back down the mountain.

 This happened in Jackson, Mississippi, and we've talked about some of Mississippi's racial problems before.  This happening continues to happen, though, since fallout from the event is all over these articles and stories, I have yet to read a detail that's not immensely disturbing.  The truck that was used as a murder weapon?  Returned to Dedmon's family after "processing."  Really?  Because we wouldn't want them inconvenienced like the Anderson family, who has to do without their family member?  Forever?

And who are the witnesses to this attack, who have said that they saw Dedmon's Ford jump the curb and instantly end the life of James Anderson?  Why didn't they act?  What did they see, exactly, and when did they get there?  Too many passive observers in our society.  I don't know if they could have stopped this thing at just a savage and unprovoked beating, but I can't help but wonder.  You know, it says they tried.  How hard did they fucking try?  One of these people was a security guard, another has "Dr." in front of his name.  Really?  Did you guys heroically step up and witness the whole thing?  Way to go - let's have a Hooray for Community.

And DOES it really get better?  Apparently, Pastor Richardson of the local Baptist ministry there in Jackson had gotten the police involved with Dedmon back in '09 when the racist prick and his fellow fuckwits bullied the pastor's kid with some homophobic epithets.  I mean, I guess it gets better in Jackson if you're the white pastor's son - you can blend in, gay or not.  But James Anderson took his skin out of his house with him every day, making him a target for free-roaming moron hatred.

The judge in this case is flinging some serious mixed signals, too.  We've got Dedmon's bail cranked up to $800k, but why is there bail?  And we've got dumbfuck John Rice - who arguably started this whole thing, by the way - with downgraded charges.  Really?  We don't have accomplices anymore?

This whole thing is shameful.  The city of Jackson and the state of Mississippi, the country we live in and all of us as people should be shamed by this.  The only acceptable punishment for these two young demons is to make them know the fear and violence that they brought into the life of James Anderson before they snuffed him out.  Failing that, examples should be made of both of them so that the stance we take as a society does not equivocate.  You kill someone like this, you go away, your life is gone.  Your family's loss mirrors that of the victim's family.

Anger, rage, disgust, sorrow.  My heart goes out to the family of James Craig Anderson.

UPDATE ADDED 8/14: I was actually emailed the below press release from the Cochran Law Firm (representing the Anderson family) in Mississippi last night, and thought I would make the PDF available here.  The family of Mr. Anderson is starting a foundation with aim of promoting racial tolerance, and have asked that any money that might have been directed to the family be directed instead to the Foundation.

James Craig Anderson Foundation Press Release

August Upon Us

Right now, my house is quiet.

My lovely wife is asleep on the couch, having crashed 26 minutes into her Tivo'd soap.  Abby's been out since about nine-thirty or so, the dog is flat on the living room floor, and Max is in his top bunk reading the Far Side.

I got up today at 5:30 and showered, after which I took a moment to sit quietly and ruminate on the importance of sitting quietly.  At 6:30 I awakened others and threw breakfast and clean clothes at them, packing lunches for Max and C.  I took the dog out, and she obediently evacuated, perhaps sensing my impatience.  At 7, I successfully started the car that burned blisters on my right hand yesterday when my ancient jumper cables (kid left a door ajar) broke and flamed out.  By 7:32, Max was involved in his first day of fifth grade.  If you remember when Max was born, take a minute here.

After that, I was obliged to spend some time touring the school so that the shock of the Kindergarten phase-in wouldn't upset Abby, who has been waiting since last year to go to Kindergarten and was recently informed by the city school system that there's an assessment test followed by an open house, followed in turn by some half days and that the first really full day of Kindergarten isn't until the 18th, which is two days after we close on our new house.  Yay.  So we toured the library and gym and cafeteria and Kindergarten rooms and played word games and such until 9 or so.

We grabbed fast food breakfast then, and got some toenail trimmers for the dog.  Put some gas in the car.  Abby helped.

Picked Max up from the half-first-day of school at eleven, which of course requires a 10:40 arrival in the car line, which is from Hell.  Skipped the damned thing entirely and just went and stood in the lobby.  Got Max, quizzed him about his day, got the details you can get from a 10-year-old, and took them both to see their mom at her school, where she's inservicing with no kids as yet.  After a fitful and distracted conversation, took the kids to Tennessee's only Culver's, and taught them the soup spoon joke.  We had a great time, and annoyed the other diners.  Had this weird synethetic - I think - experience with cashier's voice and kept getting her to talk more so I keep having it.  Curds.

Checked B&N, got my father-in-law's birthday gift.  Got trapped by giant rainstorm for over an hour.  Could not find book recommended by Jon Broad, played dollies with Abby, and watched a girl crush on Max in the kid's section.  She arranged toys to spell his name, then was really sketchy and moongazy.  Max also won a mango/orange smoothie in a Harry Potter trivia contest by answering a question about Quidditch.  Had to reconnect battery cables on car in rainstorm, stopped home, took the dog out again.  Freshened, checked emails, left house to go back to school at 2:40 for Abby's K'garten assessment.

She aced it, demonstrating advanced knowledge, outgoing personality, scientific inquiry (TEACHER: "Is this butterfly symmetrical?  ABBY: "I don't know; let's fold it in half and find out.") and excellent motor skills.  She was bursting with pride, and so was I.  C met us at what will soon be the kids' school and we re-grouped at home so Abby could de-brief, which she did, at length.  Watched Matt Damon defend teachers on the Internet and tapped out for ten minutes during Shark Week.  Had a graphics layout meeting with a customer in a mall food court at 6pm.

Went really well, the meeting - couldn't find the Jon Broad book in Books A Million, either.  Stopped briefly at the grocery for one more dinner ingredient only to find that everyone ate whilst I was out.  We watched the new Phineas & Ferb movie together, and then I packed a few boxes while C read to the kids.  Abby fell asleep on the couch and was easily moved.  Max went much later.

Now it is 11:11.  There is always going to be too much to do now.  I will attempt to sleep soon.