Today in one my journals from twenty years ago I came across some thoughts I wrote then as verse... It wasn't difficult for me to remember what was on my mind. It was a time before I retired... difficulty with three members of a board who made me that day wish I had chosen some other profession or perhaps that some other profession had chosen me.WITCHES
Every neighborhood of any size
has at least three witches in it.
Mine does.
That’s the way it works.
One witch by herself is little threat
to any careful man.
Two together must be watched.
Three of them together...
Be very careful!
Little boys know who the witches are.
Some deep instinct signals
who it is can cast a spell and who cannot.
Nature meant, I guess, to keep the species going,
so she gave the male a way to tell.
But, ah, too soon the gift is lost.
A boy of sixteen doesn’t have it anymore,
or if it’s there, it’s mostly overshadowed
by something going on between his legs.
3 comments:
Went to your blog and read the piece on young gay men.......the suicide of a young adult gay man was tragic.
CNN is running a series on bullying with a special emphasis on the event at the university. It is by in large a good series and helpful. They discuss with young adults and high school students the gay issue. Those students who were the target of bullying talked about being discounted when people would say they were "so gay" and other demeaning comments....all resulting in a form of hazzing that hurts and too often results in death or violence.
When terms like faggot, nigger, spic, honky, guk are used peoples ears perk up and people take a short step....(The Fred Phelps stuff is truly ugly)......and often are offended as they should be...these words are meant to discount, demean and trash others....and they are used to stereo-type.
However, there is another word that is being used that discounts, demeans....that is KID. I remember as a child I never liked being called a kid....it was used to stereo-type a population of people who infact were very different, shared different views, held different beliefs. How often when graffiti and others events occur, adult write such events off on "kids". Teachers love to call students kids. Of course kids are young goats, but beyond that the use of stereo-types with any group undercuts and devalues.
White privilege makes it very hard for whites to understand(and understand their own racism) many issues...such as racism, homophobia, ableism, ageism and so on. Whites just don't get it. And then there is a shooting several years ago on a high school campus in El Cajon(I think that is where it was) and whites became very upset/shocked and if you remember the black community while upset with the tragic event wasn't surprised for their children had been the targets of such events for years....I believe you got a clear picture of this when you worked at the high school after you retired.
My point is that in the business of education and community, we need to find ways to promote the health and welfare of children, students young adults.....as they grow and stretch and develop which is the common task of all adults, why is there such a blind need to demean them/discount them. If they are to become leaders and whatever as they make their walk don't we want to encourage them and respect them as valued human beings.
Kids is a label that children are painted which is in my mind hurtful....and believe it happens in college life all the time. In community colleges where the average age is 28, faculty, staff and administrators call these adults(over 18) kids....and don't get it. Words do count....if the word kid is spelled in reverse the resulting word is DIK......another demeaning work.....
If I want to see things get better I must get better so I stop discounting others and myself. Words I use do count and influence others.....it did with the college student and he took his life.
We can do better....if we "NOTICE". So the word KID should be included in the litany of words that demean and stereo-type...
agape'
JB
Wow! I was actually going to comment about your post, but by the time I finished reading the comment by Anonymous, I totally lost my train of thought.
Maybe it's just me, but I totally disagree, respectfully, with his thoughts on the work kid being a degrading word. And, DIK isn't a word, is it.
If you spell GOD backwards, it's DOG. But I won't stop using the word GOD!
I must say, I have never ever heard of that argument before, I thinks it's laughable.
Are we now looking for issues that aren't there, because we don't have enough issues?
I'm totally blown away with what was written, but I love the fact that you have the right to say what you believe. I just don't have to agree with it. And I don't.
In 1942 Humphrey Bogart said to Ingrid Bergman a sentence with the word, if I may be so bold, KID, in it.
I don't think it was said to demean her.
I have 3 kids and will always have 3 kids, someone asked me the other day how many kids do I have.
Should that upset me?
I don't think so.
Jerral - powerful writing today! Thanks, Taylor
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