Friday, December 19, 2003
Yo yo yo.
Haven't written in a while, due to a combination of my computer sucking and coming to the realization that writing as much as I was as often as I was writing it was going to lead to me getting burnt out. It's probably better that I write smaller entries for now, so that's what I'll do. I'll save the large entries for the weekends.
So I'm at work listening to talk radio, and as we're winding down I hear a story that a principal for a public school removed a nativity scene that the parents put on display. She gave the reason that it promoted Christianity. However, when asked why a menorah (sp?) was allowed to stay, she replied: "Well, Judaism isn't just a religion. It's a culture."
Sigh.
While I don't believe that the government should not let schools preach any religion, there is nothing wrong with the parent and student body pracitising a religion. I mean, are we that afraid of Christianity? I know that a lot of them believe some stupid things (Homosexuals are sinners, God will do everything for you), but most of them are tolerant of others in spite of this. Let people practice what they like. I don't mind preaching, as long as it isn't a government body itself doing the preaching.
You know what's sad? I mentioned this to the people I work with, and a couple of them said "What's your point?" My boss said I need to get out more. This is the second time he has said something stupid like that. The first was when I mentioned that there was an article posted by a day shift worker that stated that "An argument could legitimately be made that it is the secular humanists in this country who are intolerant."
That happened a week ago, and wow did it piss me off. Not the letter so much. The letter annoyed me. What pissed me off was my co-workers' reactions to my mention that I didn't like the letter. For one thing, they didn't seem to understand what a secular humanist is. I ended up just saying "Think athiest." One girl said that the above sentence was "only talking about the intolerant humanists."
In other words, she was arguing that the subject of the above sentence was "the secular humanists in this country who are intolerant." Well, if that's the case, then if we replace those words with the word "them", the sentence should still make sense. (Rachele, let me know if I'm right here.)
Let's try it: "An argument could legitimately be made that them."
Hey, that makes no sense!
And yet when I tried to explain this to her, she said that that was my opinion of what the words meant.
People, there are opinons, and there are fucking facts. That sentence is calling all secular humanists intolerant. This is a fucking fact. How can you intelligently debate someone who can't even comprehend that?
The article in question then went on to say that secular humanists "went through life with a chip on their shoulder." It argued that they are miserable, and they want to make everyone else miserable.
Only one person in that office could understand why that offeneded me. In fact, she was the only one who was able to understand how to read English.
The girl we were talking about earlier had the balls to say that I was being intolerant because I was trying to have something taken down that expressed an opinion I didn't agree with. Of course, I hadn't really tried to have it taken down: I had mentioned it to my boss because my former supervisor asked me to, and that was it. More importantly, there is a world of difference between an opinion I disagree with (and there were many more articles posted that I disagreed with but never said anything about) and one that makes blanket prejudicial statements about a group of people. I wasn't bitching and crying about it, but I believe I had the right to be at least annoyed about it.
An older woman kept asking me "But what are you going to do about it?" "Well, eventually I'm going to try and help people understand why thinking like that is so dangerous." "But what are you going to do about it now?" "Uh, nothing right now, but..." "Then stop stressing over it."
I hadn't been stressing about it, but my coworkers were starting to get on my nerves.
Then, my new supervisor had this brillant observation:
"You need to get laid more often. Go out and get drunk or something this weekend."
This is where I draw the fucking line. Right here.
I am perfectly satisfied with my life. I have a great girlfriend and great friends, and when I feel like it I go out and I have fun. I never hold onto negative feelings for very long. So to say something like this to me is to be an ignorant fool.
You do not know me. You do not know who I am. You do not know where I have been. If I say that something bothers me, and you can't understand why, fine. Let it go. But this bullshit will not continue.
You are living through life with blinders on. You cannot bring yourself to look beyond your own life. You are so wrapped up in your own little world that you can't be bothered to care about the world around you.
Well, I can. I am not so arrogant that I believe the only things worth caring about are the things that happen to me.
However, I am arrogant enough to believe that I can change what happens around me, no matter how big it is. I am also arrogant enough to not give a fuck what you think I should do. You go on ahead and leave your head buried in the sand. That way, you won't notice when I pass your ass up.
So much for not writing so much today....
Dig The D
Haven't written in a while, due to a combination of my computer sucking and coming to the realization that writing as much as I was as often as I was writing it was going to lead to me getting burnt out. It's probably better that I write smaller entries for now, so that's what I'll do. I'll save the large entries for the weekends.
So I'm at work listening to talk radio, and as we're winding down I hear a story that a principal for a public school removed a nativity scene that the parents put on display. She gave the reason that it promoted Christianity. However, when asked why a menorah (sp?) was allowed to stay, she replied: "Well, Judaism isn't just a religion. It's a culture."
Sigh.
While I don't believe that the government should not let schools preach any religion, there is nothing wrong with the parent and student body pracitising a religion. I mean, are we that afraid of Christianity? I know that a lot of them believe some stupid things (Homosexuals are sinners, God will do everything for you), but most of them are tolerant of others in spite of this. Let people practice what they like. I don't mind preaching, as long as it isn't a government body itself doing the preaching.
You know what's sad? I mentioned this to the people I work with, and a couple of them said "What's your point?" My boss said I need to get out more. This is the second time he has said something stupid like that. The first was when I mentioned that there was an article posted by a day shift worker that stated that "An argument could legitimately be made that it is the secular humanists in this country who are intolerant."
That happened a week ago, and wow did it piss me off. Not the letter so much. The letter annoyed me. What pissed me off was my co-workers' reactions to my mention that I didn't like the letter. For one thing, they didn't seem to understand what a secular humanist is. I ended up just saying "Think athiest." One girl said that the above sentence was "only talking about the intolerant humanists."
In other words, she was arguing that the subject of the above sentence was "the secular humanists in this country who are intolerant." Well, if that's the case, then if we replace those words with the word "them", the sentence should still make sense. (Rachele, let me know if I'm right here.)
Let's try it: "An argument could legitimately be made that them."
Hey, that makes no sense!
And yet when I tried to explain this to her, she said that that was my opinion of what the words meant.
People, there are opinons, and there are fucking facts. That sentence is calling all secular humanists intolerant. This is a fucking fact. How can you intelligently debate someone who can't even comprehend that?
The article in question then went on to say that secular humanists "went through life with a chip on their shoulder." It argued that they are miserable, and they want to make everyone else miserable.
Only one person in that office could understand why that offeneded me. In fact, she was the only one who was able to understand how to read English.
The girl we were talking about earlier had the balls to say that I was being intolerant because I was trying to have something taken down that expressed an opinion I didn't agree with. Of course, I hadn't really tried to have it taken down: I had mentioned it to my boss because my former supervisor asked me to, and that was it. More importantly, there is a world of difference between an opinion I disagree with (and there were many more articles posted that I disagreed with but never said anything about) and one that makes blanket prejudicial statements about a group of people. I wasn't bitching and crying about it, but I believe I had the right to be at least annoyed about it.
An older woman kept asking me "But what are you going to do about it?" "Well, eventually I'm going to try and help people understand why thinking like that is so dangerous." "But what are you going to do about it now?" "Uh, nothing right now, but..." "Then stop stressing over it."
I hadn't been stressing about it, but my coworkers were starting to get on my nerves.
Then, my new supervisor had this brillant observation:
"You need to get laid more often. Go out and get drunk or something this weekend."
This is where I draw the fucking line. Right here.
I am perfectly satisfied with my life. I have a great girlfriend and great friends, and when I feel like it I go out and I have fun. I never hold onto negative feelings for very long. So to say something like this to me is to be an ignorant fool.
You do not know me. You do not know who I am. You do not know where I have been. If I say that something bothers me, and you can't understand why, fine. Let it go. But this bullshit will not continue.
You are living through life with blinders on. You cannot bring yourself to look beyond your own life. You are so wrapped up in your own little world that you can't be bothered to care about the world around you.
Well, I can. I am not so arrogant that I believe the only things worth caring about are the things that happen to me.
However, I am arrogant enough to believe that I can change what happens around me, no matter how big it is. I am also arrogant enough to not give a fuck what you think I should do. You go on ahead and leave your head buried in the sand. That way, you won't notice when I pass your ass up.
So much for not writing so much today....
Dig The D
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