Friday, April 14, 2006
about that forsythia
Here are my responses to some items that ran in newspapers and newsletters that I read regularly. By the way, I recommend all these sources.
"Inside Higher Ed" writes about a law professor suing an administrator at his university for failing to rein in secondhand smoke around campus doorways. Here's the link: http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/04/14/smoke
My take on this is that the anti-smoking activists went too far when they wrote laws prohibiting all indoor smoking. Public buildings like stores, hospitals and schools used to have smoking lounges. Visitors and employees could go into the smoking lounge, close the door and puff away to their hearts' content. They had a place to practice their vile but still legal addiction while keeping the stench to themselves. The only non-smokers who had to smell it were those unlucky enough to be walking past when the door opened to take in or disgorge a desperate addict on the way to or from a fix. I say, bring back the smoking lounge and get the cloud out of the doorway.
"The Scotsman" covers the sentencing to a two-year prison term of a woman who accidentally crashed a car full of un-seatbelted 13-year-olds, killing the other driver and a couple of the kids.
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?=552332006
A sad and tragic story. Sounds like this mom got caught in a bind with having promised to take her son and his friends somewhere and not having anyone to help with the driving. The boys were apparently acting up in the back seat and she made the wrong decision -- instead of disappointing them or pulling over and calling for help once they got unmanageable, it looks like she just tried to get there faster and have it over with....
And at the Commonweal discussion group -- commonweal@yahoogroups.com -- they were recently talking about the Boston Archdiocese's decision to stop providing adoption services rather than place children with gay couples. Not the majority, but a couple of people there still seem to be suggesting that any married heterosexual couple makes better parents than the most stellar single or same-sex household. Things like "Girls need Mommy to teach them to be feminine and boys need Daddy to teach them to be real men."
As a working (I won't say professional) woman with two mostly-grown children who so far have turned out OK, I am a bit perturbed by the comments on gender roles in parenting. It is a point of pride with me that I raised my daughter not to be a "girly" girl and she seems to be a more successful young woman as a result. Would it be better to be raised by a mother who teaches her daughter that physical attractiveness is her only potential gift to the world (as many girls are taught) and a father who teaches his son that confrontation and violence are the most manly reactions to disagreement? Is this common and quite legal situation healthier for children than the example of a single parent or same sex couple?
To me as a Catholic, the problem is that same sex couples aren't legally married, so any physical relationship they have is, by definition, extramarital. Of course the solution would be to let them marry like all of us heterosexual perverts.
Finally, spending time communing with the forsythia or walking in the bosque is indeed something more valuable than national, church or office politics. That's why I wish the bosses would really take charge and leave me to my laundry.
"Inside Higher Ed" writes about a law professor suing an administrator at his university for failing to rein in secondhand smoke around campus doorways. Here's the link: http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/04/14/smoke
My take on this is that the anti-smoking activists went too far when they wrote laws prohibiting all indoor smoking. Public buildings like stores, hospitals and schools used to have smoking lounges. Visitors and employees could go into the smoking lounge, close the door and puff away to their hearts' content. They had a place to practice their vile but still legal addiction while keeping the stench to themselves. The only non-smokers who had to smell it were those unlucky enough to be walking past when the door opened to take in or disgorge a desperate addict on the way to or from a fix. I say, bring back the smoking lounge and get the cloud out of the doorway.
"The Scotsman" covers the sentencing to a two-year prison term of a woman who accidentally crashed a car full of un-seatbelted 13-year-olds, killing the other driver and a couple of the kids.
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?=552332006
A sad and tragic story. Sounds like this mom got caught in a bind with having promised to take her son and his friends somewhere and not having anyone to help with the driving. The boys were apparently acting up in the back seat and she made the wrong decision -- instead of disappointing them or pulling over and calling for help once they got unmanageable, it looks like she just tried to get there faster and have it over with....
And at the Commonweal discussion group -- commonweal@yahoogroups.com -- they were recently talking about the Boston Archdiocese's decision to stop providing adoption services rather than place children with gay couples. Not the majority, but a couple of people there still seem to be suggesting that any married heterosexual couple makes better parents than the most stellar single or same-sex household. Things like "Girls need Mommy to teach them to be feminine and boys need Daddy to teach them to be real men."
As a working (I won't say professional) woman with two mostly-grown children who so far have turned out OK, I am a bit perturbed by the comments on gender roles in parenting. It is a point of pride with me that I raised my daughter not to be a "girly" girl and she seems to be a more successful young woman as a result. Would it be better to be raised by a mother who teaches her daughter that physical attractiveness is her only potential gift to the world (as many girls are taught) and a father who teaches his son that confrontation and violence are the most manly reactions to disagreement? Is this common and quite legal situation healthier for children than the example of a single parent or same sex couple?
To me as a Catholic, the problem is that same sex couples aren't legally married, so any physical relationship they have is, by definition, extramarital. Of course the solution would be to let them marry like all of us heterosexual perverts.
Finally, spending time communing with the forsythia or walking in the bosque is indeed something more valuable than national, church or office politics. That's why I wish the bosses would really take charge and leave me to my laundry.
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And after listening to the Good Friday service tonight I am thinking of the famous last words, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." We should all spend a little more time working on ourselves and stop blaming everyone else...like the smokers and harried mothers...there but for the grace of God...@)->>--(and those poor execs who were just afraid of their own shadows.)
As a single person with no prospects for marriage and a poor outlook on the entire institution as a result, I propose instead of banning homosexual marriage, we should ban marriage altogether. Of course that would put many of the homosexuals out of work in the burgeoning wedding industry, so on second thought...never mind. We should be able to marry a houseplant if we are so inclined. What is marriage in the legal sense anyway? Doesn't it boil down to, "If I die, you get all my stuff" and "If I become a vegetable, you make all the decisions about my stuff" ?
Now, about smoking...I agree with Dorothy, but let's take it a step further. Charge admittance to the smoking lounge. Charge a tax on the admittance. Apply the tax money to the subsidized education of middle aged students such as myself. Brilliant!
Now, about smoking...I agree with Dorothy, but let's take it a step further. Charge admittance to the smoking lounge. Charge a tax on the admittance. Apply the tax money to the subsidized education of middle aged students such as myself. Brilliant!
Dorothy, coming from you, that is the supreme compliment of my life. Do you know anybody in publishing? I am also fairly attractive (decent book jacket photos) and marketable(white trash backgrounds are hot right now!).
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