Speak of the Devil

I can be an outspoken person - when I feel like the situation deserves it.

Today, the situations yet again poked me repeatedly until I found myself in a ditch. Yes, these situations deserve it.


#1 Surely every person who reads this has heard the abused -and abusing- phrases that float around schools. Throughout the halls, classrooms, cafeteria, fields, and even bathrooms, the fire refuses to die. "What phrases?" Why, I'm glad you are wondering, because that would suggest that you have not heard (or used) them before, which is unlikely but a pleasing thought that it might exist somewhere in the world. Phrases such as, "That's so gay", "Stop being a Jew", and the occasional "You look like a stupid Mexican".

What do all of these phrases have in common?

Well, I'm glad that you asked, again. All of these phrases are rude and discriminatory towards a specific group of people. It is bred out of prejudice towards a group of people, and common use among peers. It's extremely inappropriate.

I will use the phrase "that's so gay" as my main example, because it is that which I hear most used (along with all other . What can you find particularly wrong with the use of this statement? Besides making the user sound, well, ill-educated in word choice, it shows their prejudices. Which brings up the matter, what is there to be prejudiced about? I know many people and have friends that would fall into the LGBT group, and nothing is wrong with them. I love my friends. I suppose I could go up to the person using the phrase and say, "That's so Emily!" to attack their friends, but what would it accomplish? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

As an addition to the above list is a phrase that I have often found myself using: "You're stupid." As a friend of mine who had at one time been called "stupid", "idiot" and "retarded" pointed out to me, the effect is the same in that it is rude and hurtful. If you ever hear me use it, I give you permission to pinch me.

(Think Before You Speak - Don't Say "That's So Gay" has something interesting. How much have word such as "fag", "dyke" and "so gay" been used on Twitter today? I find it a bit sickening. Sign the pledge! Mine is "That's so how the Grinch stole Christmas!" What's yours?)


#2 Another issue that has poked and prodded me is that of the spread of rumors. (If you are unfamiliar with the word, or would like to make sure you understand, refer to definitions 1 and 2 of rumor.) In my opinion, I see that there are two types of rumors; those that are spread about a specific person or persons, or those about an idea, religion, event, or other groups (etc). I have heard my fair share of rumors about friends, and I hope that I am not the subject of any of them, but those are not what I am here to speak about. I am here with the annoyance of rumors spread about groups (whatever that may refer to).

Please do not say anything that you don't have all of the facts on. This is still directly related to situation #1, because I know that part of this rumor spreading is because the people saying these things that I will soon say are either prejudiced or have heard the same thing somewhere else.

My examples: In 8th grade around when the presidential election was going on, it somehow came up in U.S. History that someone asked the teacher what Obama's views on abortion were. Now, I know that as a HISTORY teacher, they should have known much better than to say what they did. "Yes, he's pro-abortion." Hold it! What did she say? Yep, those gasps confirm it. She just told our whole 8th grade class that Obama was "pro-abortion". She let her personal feelings towards Obama (yes, I am pretty sure she did not vote for him) out to a whole bunch of 8th graders who might as well be 8 years old.
Why 8 years old? If you were in West Hills last year, you probably heard it too. "OMG, Obama's pro-abortion! Tell your parents not to vote for him!" 8 YEARS OLD in the fact that NONE of them bothered to check their facts before they spread said "facts". If they had bothered, they might have noticed that there is no such group known as "pro-abortion". I knew that she meant "pro-choice", because some people define them as the same thing (which they are NOT, because pro-abortion sounds as if you are encouraging every person to abort their child, not simply offering that choice), but no one knew the real definitions of "pro-choice" and "pro-abortion". I blame the teacher and the students for this one. I had to sit through the rest of the year hearing nasty(er) things about Obama after that one.

Another example: Around Halloween time this school year, our geography teacher asked if anyone knew what Pagans were. This was about the same time that I had my own pagan "phase", where I studied it and things started to make sense, oddly enough. One student raised their hand confidently and said, "They're devil worshipers." I must say, I was appalled. This also proves that they did not get their facts straight. This same thing has happened before with other things too, but still mostly revolving around paganism and voodoo.

I guess the whole point of #2 is "don't speak about something until you have bothered to check your own thinking".

Please, please, please, please, think about yourself in all of the previous.



Whew. On another topic, I'm super excited for this new reading pages assignment in Ewell. I don't know what picture book I'm going to do yet, but I checked out ten from the library today... I think I'll find something worthwhile. :) I'm thinking maybe If You Take a Mouse to School, a Dr. Seuss book, or The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. (Ooh, I love The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses! Beautiful pictures...)

ANYONE WHO HAS NOT READ FLOTSAM, DO IT!! This is a commandment. It's freaking amazing, and I wish that I could do it for this assignment, but it's pretty much no words. (It's hard to parody background containers... CheezIts, iPod, Sketchers, YAY DONE!) But anyway, it's pretty much (amazing*fantasticalness)^79

Found out something interesting on my Adventures of Wikipedia today. Apparently "lucifer" actually originally meant "morning star", as in reference to Venus. Probably the most interesting thing I have come across in quite a while. I freaking love it. Why do we continue to use the meaning with the bad reputation, when this one is so pretty? I shall forever see lucifer as a beautiful word...

Angels' names are all really pretty. :)

Night-night! Sleep tight! Don't let the beddy-weddy buggy-wuggies bite! X )