Rant Warning
Once again, I find myself without a specific topic to take on this week, but I have a large buildup of venom that must be directed somehow, someway, and somebody. It's not that I am a hateful person, I do not think I specifically hate anyone. However, there are things that get under my skin and I feel I have to give them what they deserve... a cyber-tongue lashing. Therefore, enjoy these multiple rants I have ready to roll with this week...
Nickelodeon, the cable network for kids, presented a special the other night dealing with homosexuality. This network has done things like this in the past, most recently dealing with the Clinton scandal with Monica Lewinsky in a way that does not shock or offend parents, and they got a lot of praise for it. However, once you bring up the word "homosexuality", suddenly the usual suspects come out of the woodwork. Family groups orchestrated a phone call/e-mail attack that sent literally over 100,000 complaints to Nickelodeon's offices. Jerry Falwell, who appeared on the special and to my knowledge was not portrayed in any way that shows him to be hateful of alternative lifestyles (difficult though it may be to achieve that), pulled a 180 and started protesting as well. Their agenda, of course, is based on their misguided belief that one becomes homosexual by choice, and therefore any discussion of homosexuality or even the existence of people of alternative lifestyles is "promoting homosexuality".
Naturally, these people couldn't be farther from the truth, at least the truth that a majority of Americans seem to believe. We, the majority, believe that your sexuality is defined genetically; you are born that way, and that way you naturally will stay, even if at some point one feels pressured into heterosexual relationships. Do we have proof? Honestly, I don't know, but I don't see convincing proof to the contrary, so I shall stick to my guns. Therefore, talking about it is not "promoting" it. The truth of the very existence of people of alternative lifestyles has to be revealed today, in an age where the most common schoolyard taunt is fast becoming the word "fag", and many children are growing up with two parents of the same gender. The religious right keeps believing that if they ignore it long enough, it will go away. That will not happen, the "ignore it, it will go away" strategy hasn't worked for much in our society, it's not going to work here, eventually every single one of us must know and learn and live with all that the world has to offer.
And that includes (as I take a 180 degree turn from the sublime to the ridiculous) sudden changes in the weather. I live in an area of the country where you can turn to the Weather Channel and watch the radar as a thunderstorm literally blows up on top of you, out of nowhere. Such is the weather in this region just east of the Appalachians, where cold fronts rumble over the mountains, hit the humid air over top of the Cumberland and Shenandoah valleys and, as the morning meteorologist on Channel 9 in Washington says, "pop a couple of thunderstorms". These storms then proceed east to play havoc on Philly, Baltimore, and Washington; this spring they spawned a devastating tornado in eastern Maryland. This being said, there is no reason at all why anyone should try to get their weather forecasts in this region from the MORNING PAPER! This is a swipe at me more than anyone else; since I no longer work mornings, I am no longer treated to the computerized voice of the National Weather Service telling me exactly what will happen in the next few hours. So, my only source is the paper (where the forecast was printed too long ago to be that accurate) unless I choose to turn on the news at 12 noon, which I rarely do. Apparently not many other people do, either, as it has quickly become a rite of summer for myself and several other people to dash out to our cars to roll the windows up when a sudden downpour drops on us out of nowhere. And the TV and radio stations alerting us to severe weather alerts are all well and good, but how about just a general "we think it's about to rain, you'd better get inside or roll your windows up" warning. It doesn't need to be loud and screeching like the severe alerts, a nice gentle voice to warn us would suffice.
Meanwhile, just for you to chew on, here's the latest examples of fan "enthusiasm" in the World Cup: a South Korean soccer fan felt his team didn't quite have all the support it needed, so he wrote out a suicide note proclaiming that he would become the team's "spirit" and proceeded to set himself on fire. The plan didn't work; he was "spared" by some bystanders, but let's put this in perspective. The last time we saw something like this, it was Buddhist monks in Vietnam setting themselves ablaze to protest a tyrannical government. That in itself I don't get, but then I don't know much about Buddhism. On the other hand, this was a guy setting himself on fire over SOCCER!
Despite this guy's failure to fry himself into the supernatural, South Korea still defeated Italy in their second round match. The game was not without controversy, as an Italian player was ejected during the match, leaving some to object to the officiating. More specifically, a crowd of Italian soccer fans in Rome were chanting "death to the referee!" They then proceeded to attack a much smaller crowd of Koreans who were cheering their home country's victory. It's things like this that make me wonder whether or not we are a more civilized world today than in the past. Sure, nations like the United States, Britain, France, even Russia have been able to exist peacefully for a good amount of time now without the need for a global conflict along the lines of our two World Wars. Sure we now have a war on terrorism, but I would see that as a small minority of uncivilized types trying to bring down our more civil societies. However, does this now mean that rooting for your nation's soccer team and doing whatever it takes to do so is now the new kind of warfare? Does winning a soccer game mean partying in the streets like it's V-E Day? Does losing mean you have to go find some property to destroy or some people from the winning nation to attack? If that's the case, let's hope this never escalates to the point where some trigger-happy prime minister somewhere decides to launch a full-scale military attack at someone because that nation beat his in a World Cup soccer match.
Nickelodeon, the cable network for kids, presented a special the other night dealing with homosexuality. This network has done things like this in the past, most recently dealing with the Clinton scandal with Monica Lewinsky in a way that does not shock or offend parents, and they got a lot of praise for it. However, once you bring up the word "homosexuality", suddenly the usual suspects come out of the woodwork. Family groups orchestrated a phone call/e-mail attack that sent literally over 100,000 complaints to Nickelodeon's offices. Jerry Falwell, who appeared on the special and to my knowledge was not portrayed in any way that shows him to be hateful of alternative lifestyles (difficult though it may be to achieve that), pulled a 180 and started protesting as well. Their agenda, of course, is based on their misguided belief that one becomes homosexual by choice, and therefore any discussion of homosexuality or even the existence of people of alternative lifestyles is "promoting homosexuality".
Naturally, these people couldn't be farther from the truth, at least the truth that a majority of Americans seem to believe. We, the majority, believe that your sexuality is defined genetically; you are born that way, and that way you naturally will stay, even if at some point one feels pressured into heterosexual relationships. Do we have proof? Honestly, I don't know, but I don't see convincing proof to the contrary, so I shall stick to my guns. Therefore, talking about it is not "promoting" it. The truth of the very existence of people of alternative lifestyles has to be revealed today, in an age where the most common schoolyard taunt is fast becoming the word "fag", and many children are growing up with two parents of the same gender. The religious right keeps believing that if they ignore it long enough, it will go away. That will not happen, the "ignore it, it will go away" strategy hasn't worked for much in our society, it's not going to work here, eventually every single one of us must know and learn and live with all that the world has to offer.
And that includes (as I take a 180 degree turn from the sublime to the ridiculous) sudden changes in the weather. I live in an area of the country where you can turn to the Weather Channel and watch the radar as a thunderstorm literally blows up on top of you, out of nowhere. Such is the weather in this region just east of the Appalachians, where cold fronts rumble over the mountains, hit the humid air over top of the Cumberland and Shenandoah valleys and, as the morning meteorologist on Channel 9 in Washington says, "pop a couple of thunderstorms". These storms then proceed east to play havoc on Philly, Baltimore, and Washington; this spring they spawned a devastating tornado in eastern Maryland. This being said, there is no reason at all why anyone should try to get their weather forecasts in this region from the MORNING PAPER! This is a swipe at me more than anyone else; since I no longer work mornings, I am no longer treated to the computerized voice of the National Weather Service telling me exactly what will happen in the next few hours. So, my only source is the paper (where the forecast was printed too long ago to be that accurate) unless I choose to turn on the news at 12 noon, which I rarely do. Apparently not many other people do, either, as it has quickly become a rite of summer for myself and several other people to dash out to our cars to roll the windows up when a sudden downpour drops on us out of nowhere. And the TV and radio stations alerting us to severe weather alerts are all well and good, but how about just a general "we think it's about to rain, you'd better get inside or roll your windows up" warning. It doesn't need to be loud and screeching like the severe alerts, a nice gentle voice to warn us would suffice.
Meanwhile, just for you to chew on, here's the latest examples of fan "enthusiasm" in the World Cup: a South Korean soccer fan felt his team didn't quite have all the support it needed, so he wrote out a suicide note proclaiming that he would become the team's "spirit" and proceeded to set himself on fire. The plan didn't work; he was "spared" by some bystanders, but let's put this in perspective. The last time we saw something like this, it was Buddhist monks in Vietnam setting themselves ablaze to protest a tyrannical government. That in itself I don't get, but then I don't know much about Buddhism. On the other hand, this was a guy setting himself on fire over SOCCER!
Despite this guy's failure to fry himself into the supernatural, South Korea still defeated Italy in their second round match. The game was not without controversy, as an Italian player was ejected during the match, leaving some to object to the officiating. More specifically, a crowd of Italian soccer fans in Rome were chanting "death to the referee!" They then proceeded to attack a much smaller crowd of Koreans who were cheering their home country's victory. It's things like this that make me wonder whether or not we are a more civilized world today than in the past. Sure, nations like the United States, Britain, France, even Russia have been able to exist peacefully for a good amount of time now without the need for a global conflict along the lines of our two World Wars. Sure we now have a war on terrorism, but I would see that as a small minority of uncivilized types trying to bring down our more civil societies. However, does this now mean that rooting for your nation's soccer team and doing whatever it takes to do so is now the new kind of warfare? Does winning a soccer game mean partying in the streets like it's V-E Day? Does losing mean you have to go find some property to destroy or some people from the winning nation to attack? If that's the case, let's hope this never escalates to the point where some trigger-happy prime minister somewhere decides to launch a full-scale military attack at someone because that nation beat his in a World Cup soccer match.
Labels: protests, random thoughts, soccer, weather
posted by Dave | 11:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home