How About Some Common Sense???
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Gripes

Recent news stories about kids and weapons really have me steamed. What an hysterical society we've become!  I don't mean that kids should be carrying weapons.  As far as I'm concerned, NO ONE should be carrying or keeping weapons, except law enforcement (and I'm not even too sure about some of them).

1.  A boy was suspended from school for making a stick drawing of a man shooting a gun.  Not AT anyone, just shooting.  He passed the picture to some kid on the bus.  This kid showed it to his parents who went insane and demanded the originator of this drawing be brought to justice.  When finally asked, this young "artist" swore to his mother that it was a water gun.   

2.  A 14-year-old girl is making herself toast, sees that her school bus is coming down the street.  She races out of the house, butter knife in hand.  Gets to school and throws it in her locker, forgetting about it until it falls out of her locker two weeks later.  A teacher sees it and immedicately reports it.  The girl has an expulsion hearing during which she states her case, and gets expelled anyway.  All in the name of zero tolerance on weapons.  The fact that this girl is an exemplary student with absolutely no discipline problems, lots of friends and loves school, is never considered.

3.  The 10-year-old son of a friend of mine found a some bullets and put them in his pocket. His mom, upon finding them, told him that this was bad and stupid and made him give them to her.  But he missed one.  Or kept one.  He's a 10-year-old kid, right?  So, he jumps into the same pants the next day (as most boys his age seem to want to do) and off he goes to school.  He discovers the bullet in his pocket and shows it to a friend.  He is reported and suspended for bringing a weapon to school.

Now let me say here that I'm somewhat in favor of "zero tolerance" as far as it goes.  That is to say, fairness.  You can't punish someone for doing something, and NOT punish someone else for doing the same thing.  The same rules should apply to everyone.  But can we use some common sense while we're making up the rules?

The kid with the drawing is not reported to have threatened the kid he gave the drawing to.  He is not reported to have said that this was what he was going to do to someone else.  He just passed the drawing on.  The girl with the butter knife didn't even show it to anyone.  When she realized she had it, she didn't even carry it with her.  She put it in her locker and forgot about it.  She didn't threaten anyone with it.  The boy with the bullet just thought it was cool looking.

My son says you should never be a snitch.  I disagree.  I think that there are sometimes when you must tell.  When you see a kid getting beat up every day, you should snitch.  If you hear someone repeated saying they're going to blow up the school, and I mean REPEATEDLY, and sounding like they mean it, you should say something.  You need to use common sense about it.  And common sense seems to be lacking in our society.

Case in point.  Today's parents seem to have zero tolerance for whining and tantrums.  So do I, but I just don't stand for it.  These parents give their kids everything they whine for.  Your 6 year old wants to play Halo, or some other game rated M.  An M rating means it should not be played by anyone under 17.  And there's a reason for that.  But no, the kid whines and kicks his/her feet and mom and dad (who are usually trying to show each other up anyway) get the game for the kid.  And most of these kids cannot properly process the violence, as say someone of the proper M rating age could.  They're allowed to watch R rated slash and gore movies.  And think they're cool.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm old, but I just don't think it's cool to see someone's guts being strewn all over the place.  And don't get me started about the crap that's on television that kids shouldn't be watching.  Not all cartoons are for kids.  Period. 

So after viewing all this that his "progressive" parents allow him to be exposed to, he draws a picture of a man with a gun.  And I'll bet that the kid he showed it to watches just as much junk and plays all the same violent games as he does.  But he saw an opportunity and took it.   And his hysterical parents did just what he thought they would do.  People, what part of common sense do you NOT understand?????

Kids have to grow up.  Kids will be exposed to all sorts of stuff.  You can't wrap them up in cotton batting and never let them experience the world.  I grew up in the 60's.  We were required by our teachers to watch the news every night.  The Vietnam War body count scrolled across the bottom of the screen and pictures of protesters and police battling it out, or of civil rights marchers being blasted with fire hoses and attacked with dogs, were views I saw every night.  But someone was there to discuss it with.  My parents, for one.  They were watching what I was watching.  We only had one television in the house, after all.  And we discussed it in school.  Not in the baby talk that kids get nowadays.  But in hard reality.  This is the world kids, and the world is not always kind.  So, snitch if you must.  But cope with a LOT.  I saw all this and never shot a gun.  Never stabbed anyone.  Not that I never had a fist fight.  But I grew up.  I coped with my share of bullies.  I learned to walk by them and ignore them.  I hated them, but I didn't kill them.  I didn't blow up the school.  I didn't run around and kill a lot of innocent people because I was unhappy.  I coped.  Without snitching. 

Oh yeah.  And we played tag and never called it sexual harassment or "unwanted touching".  But that's a subject for another day.......... 

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Baseball

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again.  I speak, of course, of October, the home month of the World Series.  And last night, the Boston Red Sox slaughtered the newcomer Colorado Rockies.  It was almost boring.  Almost.  But being a born and bred Red Sox fan, I had to look anyway.........

 Let me say something about fans here.  There are fairweather fans, and Boston has a lot of those since winning the Series in 2004.  There are fans who are fans because their boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands/wives are fans.  And that's ok I guess.  But the truest baseball fans I've ever found are Mets fans, Cubs fans, and Red Sox fans.  I mean, who else could still love these guys after waiting 86 years for a Series trophy?  Yep, me for one.  And my dad for another.  I remember watching the games with him on tv.  And I remember the annual outings to Fenway, back in the 80's and the chant then was "Dewey, Dewey, Dewey".  And we'd be shouting it at the top of our lungs.  The chant of "YOOOOOOOOklis" in last nights game reminded me of those games and those times.

That's the kind of sad part of this series.  I live in South Carolina and my dad lives in Connecticut.  But during baseball season, we talked often, and we talked baseball.  Red Sox baseball.  Papi and Manny and Tek, Shilling and the bloody sock, and Johnny Damon's defection to the Evil Empire.  How we hated the structural changes they made to the wall at Fenway.  And how we sometimes wondered if Terry Francona knew what he was doing, and then how we knew he was a great manager.

Here in SC, baseball is really NOT the sport of choice and, unless you have cable tv (which I do not), it's hard to find a game to watch.  Even harder to find a Red Sox game to watch.  But FOX shows the playoffs so I watched as my Red Sox stole the Indians chances away in game 7.  It made me cry.  I don't have anyone to talk with about the games anymore.

My dad is still with us.  But, after apparently having several ministrokes, his mind is not.  Hard to take when you're talking to him one day about the Sox and The War and the one room schoolhouse he went to as a kid, and then find out he's in the hospital and doesn't know who anyone is.   And no one seems to know quite why.

So, I'll still carry the flame.  I'll watch the Series to its end, whether bitter or sweet.  But I miss my Dad, my baseball buddy. And Red Sox baseball will be something bittersweet to me. 

For they have entertained angels unawares......................
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: My Funny Valentine
Topic: Good Stuff

Even on the worst of days, we still have blessings we need to be thankful for.  Oh, I know, they're hard to see sometimes.  And we all have "angels" in our lives.  Some may have lopsided haloes, while others may have broken wings.  But they are angels all the same.  Let me tell you something about mine.

First, there's the angel who struggles every minute of every day with bipolar disorder.  We've known each other for years, we've laughed together and we've cried together. And while her condition makes for some interesting roller coaster rides, I have no doubt at all that she's in my corner.  At the best of times and the worst of times. 

Another angel has a pretty tough exterior.  She's had a tough life and from that experience, she's built up some pretty strong fronts.  But if someone thinks they're going to push me around, she's there saying "I've got your back, baby."   And she does.  I know without asking, she'll come through when things look the worst.

But there are more angels:  one who makes me laugh, and really listens to whatever I have to say.  Sometimes I have to nail his shoes to the floor to get him to stay in one place, but when the chips are down, he's there.  And finally, there's the one who smiles and makes everything seem not so bad.  Who accidentally gets something extra at the fast food place, when really she knows that you didn't bring lunch that day.  Who tells you that "it'll get better" and somehow it sounds pretty convincing coming from her.

 Of course, there are many others who touch our lives briefly.  Someone you hardly know who shakes your hand and leaves a twenty behind, just when you needed it most.  Somehow, they knew.  And the one who buys you groceries because he heard you were having it tough.  And you hardly know him.  The one who holds your hand and prays with you because you look like maybe you need it.  And you do.  The one who knows that even though you say, "I'm fine" that you're really not.  The one who makes sure that you're ok when you've been sick.

I could go on and on.  I've met many angels in my life.  The staying kind, and the kind that comes into your life and goes, leaving you richer.

It's easy to get down.  It's easy to always look at the bad side of things.  But just open your eyes and you'll discover that every dark cloud really does have a silver lining.  And it's caused by the reflection from all the haloes of all your angels. 

Excuse me!
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Everything (Lifehouse)
Topic: Gripes

Ok, I'll just come out and say it.  We are a nation of excuse makers.  Nothing is ever our fault.  Everything is beyond our control.  And for a nation of control freaks, that's something.  Yes, control freaks.  Can't be two steps from our cellphones or blackberries.  So afraid we're going to miss something.  But do something wrong and get caught?  Oh, it wasn't MY fault.  I grew up poor.  I come from a broken home.  I have a syndrome.  It's because of the video games.  I have a disorder. The instructions weren't written clearly.  Someone told me to do it.  I saw someone else do it..........  I think of my dear departed mother, and her famous saying, "If they all jumped off cliffs, would you jump too?"  Let's get a grip.  If you screw up, you screw up.  Period.  You made a bad decision, a bad choice.  Deal with it, live with it, and then move on.  Ok, they're are certainly some individuals who truly don't know the difference between right and wrong.  I'll concede that.  But I find it hard to believe that so many individuals just don't have the capacity to tell right from wrong.  The scary thing is that the excuse making is passed from generation to generation.  My son tries it on me, but I'm not buying.  I come from people who survived the Depression and the War.

So, America, grow up.  Get a grip.  You're not perfect.  Put down the cell phones, blackberries and video games and pull yourselves together. 

Well here goes.......
Now Playing: Hey There Delilah (Plain White Ts)
I decided to start a blog.  I might be getting in over my head.  You know, you put your opinions on something like this and no matter what you say someone has to come gunning for you.  Like what I say means the end of the world.  Or what they say has to show me how stupid I am.  Comments are welcome I guess.  Just nothing adversarial.  OK?