From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Jun 09 2002 - 22:28:29 MDT
Phil Osborn wrote:
>
> Locally - Kalifornia: A new law has been introduced by
> some legislator that will require businesses to
> provide up to 12 weeks of PAID leave - to be paid for
> from a fund that ALL employees and their employer will
> be forced to contribute to 50/50 - to care for a sick
> relative. Of course, if YOU are your only relative,
> then you are SOL, but you will still be charged.
>
> More locally - Orange County, KA: Some jerk has been
> placing sharp objects in playground sand for the past
> year or two - rasors, blade up at the foot of the
> slides, etc. Anyway, the cops arrested the alleged
> perp last week, and it turned out to be a 20 year old
> caucasian woman who worked for the INS. (Just trying
> to keep up with the news services here - the local
> papers dedicated a full page for three days running to
> analysing this poor, unfortunate, obviously conflicted
> young lady, and what social forces might have forced
> her to do such a terrible thing.)
>
> However, none of that is the point. RU listening,
> Sam? One of the first responses by officialdom was by
> the Major of Mission Viejo, who made a comment to the
> effect that - "Well, I suppose most people were just
> shocked to hear that it was a young woman..." I
> wondered why she didn't add "and WHITE, too." My
> feelings were obviously shared by other misbegotten
> souls, as one published reader's letter to the
> Register the following day echoed exactly my internal
> commentary.
My name is not "Sam" and no, I am not listening to
you for quite a while. You seem more than a bit
disturbed and I don't have a need to deal with
your disturbance.
>
> So? The point, Phil? Well, note that the Major
> didn't say that SHE was shocked. She only said that
> perhaps other people were shocked that it was...
> I.e., here I was guilty of the same jumping of the gun
> that I continually criticize the PC crowd for. So
> easy to fall into that trap.
>
> A few weeks ago, some local high-school English Lit
> teacher wrote an op-ed for the Register on the subject
> of censorship in the classroom. She focused on the
> effort to delete Huckleberry Finn from the reading
> curriculum, solely because of the use of "nigger."
> (Actually, I think I had to infer that, as I seem to
> recall she lacked the moral courage to use the actual
> term, substituting "the N-word." Anyway, she did make
> the point that HF is perhaps - and I would agree - the
> most powerful single anti-racist novel in the world.
>
I agree some people take anything and everything
too far. But please pay attention to where
you do that and give the leave off on the rest
for a while ok? You seem to have more than
enough work to do straightening out your own
house.
> Obviously, they should have gone to the local black
> leaders, that is, the progressive black power
> "leaders" who had succeeded in turning back half of
> the gains of the civil rights movement to build and
> maintain their power base, and asked them what they
> should do.
>
> More later...
>
Not on my account I hope.
- samantha
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