Meg...

"...My point is if we all grew thick skin and accepted we are all different there wouldnt be a word racism. And just because my work is being outsourced to india and I am annoyed at this I must be Racist etc, this world needs to grow up and get over it..."

This is sooooo true.

Earlier, when I said that racism was going away...I meant it. When I said that, I was thinking about a time when we could make harmless jokes about ourselves and other ethnic groups, even to the point of telling these jokes to the people that we were poking fun at. And...it WAS poking FUN!

The first huge example that I can think of is All in the Family, an extremely funny show that was the product of some of the most liberal minds in Hollywood. But, there is no way that a program like that could ever be accepted today.

When Nickelodeon first began running reruns of that program, I hadn't seen it in 20 years. I asked my son to watch it with me because he had never seen it and I knew what an excellent show it was. He watched it for 5 minutes before getting up, walking away in disgust saying, "This is the most racist show I have ever seen."

I raised my kids to accept people of all different types and I am proud of that. But I did something wrong...or maybe it was just that the world he grew up in was so different from the world that I grew up in. I never thought of that show as being racist, rather I took it as a sign that racism was an antiquated notion. At that point in time, we were laughing at the silly ideas that the older generation had grown up with and therefore, we could all laugh at Archie and his ridiculous prejudices. But, after seeing my son's reaction and the way that we all had become so politically correct, I had to admit, shows like that were gone forever as was the idea that we could all make fun of ourselves and others along even remotely racial lines.

I also remember when my brother showed me a collection of jokes that he had compiled. Most of them were stupid little jokes about people of all ethnicities. I had friends of many different backgrounds and we could easily tell each other jokes that were silly, funny and cute, certainly not nasty, mean or degrading. We all laughed at these jokes because they were funny. They poked fun at different aspects of certain ethnic groups and we laughed because they were, to some extent, true.

We didn't need "thick skin" then, we knew that the people telling these jokes meant nothing by them...we were simply trying to make each other laugh. And it worked!

I remember a lot of those jokes, but as harmless as they were, I wouldn't dare repeat them today for fear of being labeled a racist. I even have to think twice before addressing such things on this blog...I do it anyway, but there is much that I have to leave unsaid and that's ridiculous. An open discussion is the only way to open eyes but we can't do that...can we?

One of my favorite books is Farenhite 451. In that book, Bradbury creates a world wherein firemen don't put out fires, they just burn books and punish the people who have them. The reasoning is that there is something in every book that offends someone...so they simply did away with them all together.

In the book, television is reduced to a screen with pretty images and nonsensical words that offend no one, but neither do they provoke thought because to make people think might make them think critically and then they would see how ridiculous the world they live in is.

Our world is so very close to Bradbury's fictional world that it's actually frightening. If you haven't read that book yet, do so...it's a short read and well worth the effort.

Then, look at television and see if you don't see the mindless programming that is little more than pretty images and nonsensical words. There's very little out there that makes a person THINK. Critical thinking has been purposely stomped out of curriculums all over the country and classrooms were taken over by facist professorts who love taking advantage of the pliability of a students mind and shoving their own personal philosophies down the throats of young people who have not been given the other side, nor have they been given the skills with which they should be able to point out the flaws in the arguments being made by the socialist push onto the campuses of our centers of HIGHER learning.

That phenomenon began before I went to college and it continues today. When I took that stupid US History-1865 to Present...all I learned was how many ICBM's Russia had as compared to America. My instructor was a huge anti-Reagan liberal and he thought of Reagan as the "Stalin of Democracy." Considering the arms race was in the news at the time, this class was more current events than it was history. He didn't even go into the genisis of the Cold War...he just went into how many times we could each blow up our planet.

There's no arguing that the liberals have pretty much taken over the college campuses of our country. And there's even a pretty good reason for that. Back in the 60's...there were many ways to get out of going to Viet Nam. Now, I am not going to comment on the draft dodgers, whatever their motus operandi...that's not what this post is about. Without passing judgement on their reasons why...they did have a few legitimate outs. One of the legitimate outs was if the kid went into college to become a teacher.

I assume that most of them did so out of sincere disagreement with the war itself. I have no problem with that...there are enough people who will go, a few conscientious objectors never hurt anyone. So, they chose to major in Education. Obviously, most of these kids slanted liberal and perhaps they slanted really, really far to the left as well. Now, 40 years later, these "kids" are in the upper levels of Education and they're pretty much calling the shots.

As long as the 60's liberals are running the school's...things won't change. That is, of course, unless the parents and students ever develop a backbone and begin to simply ask questions. Just use the brains they were born with. Take a course in critical thinking. After you do, you will be able to easily pick out the flaws in arguments that you might have taken as gospel.

These classes don't change your mind, they sharpen it. They make you ask questions and they open your mind to the possibility of other points of view, more free speech, further discussion and all around increased learning. There's no chance of this type of class changing your mind, nor is it written in stone that you will return to your favorite professor and disagree with everything he says. On the other hand, it might give you the skills to see a really good argument and find that you agree with him/her all the more.

You know, I don't even know how I got here...and I don't know where I was going. But I could write about these things for hours, I'm that passionate about such things. But, I'm also passionate about a few other things.

Food. I like food.

I'm passionate about fruit especially.

I'm passionate about a man right now.

And, I'm passionate about my work. Since last Saturday, I havent' work expect for Thanksgiving and the following Saturday. I need a bit of time off. Yesterday I called the scheduler and said that I wanted to get 3 shifts in before the pay period ends so she gave me Tonight, tomorrow night and the next night. Then, the other scheduler called me and I promised her Saturday and Sunday night. So, I've gotten myself into another pickle. 5 nights staright...12 hour shifts. Yippee.

I better go relax and take a nap so I can wake up in time to take a nice warm bath in a tepid pool of my own filth.

Ciao,

Meg