I have not been able to stop talking this morning.
Maybe it's because it's Monday,
but I'm still not usually this chatty.
Haha.
One of the things we have
talked about at length in my office
is... courtesy.
Where has it gone?
Have parents gotten so busy
that they've forgotten to teach
common courtesies to their children?
Example:
Walking on the sidewalk on campus Saturday,
we passed three fellas (a grandpa, a dad, and a son).
They were taking up the whole sidewalk
and walking towards us.
Not one of the men moved to allow us
room on the sidewalk and we had to walk
in the grass.
Don't get me wrong; I have no problem
walking in the grass. However, I do have a problem
with what used to be commonplace aka respect
being seemingly nonexistent.
It does encourage me when I do have my
own children that we will not neglect that
part of parenting.
And I know I'm going to catch
some flack for this, but I'm going to talk about it
anyway.
The hot topic: Gay Bullying.
Last night, while I was waiting on Mad Men to start
I was flipping the channels and noticed that
Larry King had an entire panel on his show
about what to do about gay bullying.
They threw out facts and figures about the percentage of
gay teens who kills themselves and compared it to their
heterosexual peers. Apparently, they are 4x more likely
to kill themselves because of bullying...
They had celebrities on who had formed a new
organization called Give A Damn.org
for gay teens who need help.
They suggested that every school
needed a safe zone for gay students
to voice their concerns.
This is all great. HOWEVER,
if there's a bully in the school
he/she is probably not just
picking on the one "gay"
person in the school...
he/she is probably picking on a number of
students that may be black, Asian, little,
handicapped, female, etc.
Also, shouldn't there be a "safe zone"
for every student?
If that's what they meant, they
certainly didn't imply it.
You know why people
in general don't feel like
there's a safe zone for anyone
anymore?
Because so few people
actually show respect to everyone.
Oh, they say they do, but there
are still people that are on their list
that when called into question,
wouldn't be given the time of day.
Anywho, I noticed that 9 o'clock had rolled around,
so I flipped the channel to AMC and watched the
season finale to my favorite show...
thinking about a different time.
Making breakfast...
Hosting parties:
And the like... while
avoiding the craziness of Betty Francis.
(Note: I don't think it would have
been any better in this time...
especially for women in the workplace,
but they were still respected
by men on the street, who tipped their hats,
and moved to the side, so that a woman
could pass by.
Did I romanticize it too much?
Nah.)
