When I was twelve, my family moved from a working class urban setting to a rural one. The town in which I had lived was large enough to contain a lot of different faiths and ethnicities. The rural town was in the Bible Belt and was overwhelmingly Protestant. My family was one of the very few Catholic families in the county. We drove to another city in another county every Sunday morning for Mass. We were definitely an oddity. There were a couple of other Catholic kids in school. They had learned to play down their faith and blend in. Having attended parochial school and imbued with a strong pride in my faith, I had not figured this coping mechanism out.
I endured prejudice unimaginable to most people. The drill went like this. The rednecks would surround me regularly. I was asked a rhetorical question. If the Pope asked me to submit to a homosexual act, I would have to comply, wouldn't I? I say the question was rhetorical because the first couple of times I tried to explain the infallibility of the Holy Father extended to matters of faith and morals only and the point was moot anyway, I got nothing but angry stares. I was probably the only guy in seventh grade who knew what infallible meant.
It went on. Since I was available to the Pope and the Pope wasn't planning a visit to Hickville, they would take a shot, they said. We went through this three or four times until the local Neanderthal population came to understand that Irish Catholic kids knew how to fight and would beat hell out of them in a pinch. You only had to kick the crap out of one or two before the rest lost their courage.
I was left unmolested. I had a few friends who had more intelligence and sensitivity than a cockroach, only a few. One of my friends was gay. He was into theater. We were friends. The "cool" boys snickered behind my back in the school hallways, partly because I did not shun my friend, partly because I was a Papist. The night we graduated, several of the cool guys pulled my gay friend from a car and disappeared with him. I searched for him as I feared they would kill him. By the time I tracked them down, they no longer had my friend. After a little dust up, I learned where they had left him. I went to the area and found him hiding in a tree. He rode back to town with me. Soon,I left town for college and never went back.
Recently, one of my old classmates contacted me about a high school reunion. I declined to attend. The classmate did send me a brief bio on all the people they had been able to track down. I had already seen a newspaper article explaining that one of my tormentors had become the town drunk. I was surprised upon reading the notes to learn that one of the Cretins was president of an oil company. Others had achieved varying degrees of success, as well. America! What a country!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Enough Already!
Dear sir/madam:
I strongly protest the blatant racism and sexism of the Job Market segment aired today, June 11, 2009. I watched the segment with great interest, since I am out of work now.
The first subject in the segment was Tico, a young Latino, apparently. We were told his name, his area of interest, and his geographical location. Clips of his resume' were shown on the screen. The cougars conducting the session spent over two minutes regaling us with Tico's accomplishments, limited though they were. They generally fawned over him.
Next came an apparent Anglo female. We learned she resides near Atlanta. We heard of her extensive experience. We saw clips of her resume' and she received constructive criticism. Again, the time allotted to her was over two minutes.
Then we met James. Unlike Tico, James had obviously taken the time to dress for the session with a suit or sports coat and tie. We heard briefly that James was a transportation engineer and we must assume he has extensive experience. Sadly, we must assume that because James was quickly cut off. We never saw his resume'. We heard no advice given to James as to how he could enhance his chances for success. We were not even told where James lives! James got less than a minute of air time on the five minute, fifteen second segment. If anything, James was made to look less employable by this dismissive interview.
James deserves an apology on the air and another chance to display his abilities. NBC needs to apologize for its racist and sexist programming and pledge to do better.
I have to date dismissed the argument that the media is some vast liberal conspiracy. I still discount the conspiracy idea because conspiracy connotes organization, which is sorely lacking in the media. I do think if you lean any more to the left, you may well fall flat on your face.
Racism and sexism are wrong, no matter who engages in the practice.
Signature
PS: My wife, a high school guidance counselor for over twenty years, wants to interject she is really sick of all the women "personalities" sitting on stools displaying their legs. She has always taught her students there is another definition of dressing for success.
I strongly protest the blatant racism and sexism of the Job Market segment aired today, June 11, 2009. I watched the segment with great interest, since I am out of work now.
The first subject in the segment was Tico, a young Latino, apparently. We were told his name, his area of interest, and his geographical location. Clips of his resume' were shown on the screen. The cougars conducting the session spent over two minutes regaling us with Tico's accomplishments, limited though they were. They generally fawned over him.
Next came an apparent Anglo female. We learned she resides near Atlanta. We heard of her extensive experience. We saw clips of her resume' and she received constructive criticism. Again, the time allotted to her was over two minutes.
Then we met James. Unlike Tico, James had obviously taken the time to dress for the session with a suit or sports coat and tie. We heard briefly that James was a transportation engineer and we must assume he has extensive experience. Sadly, we must assume that because James was quickly cut off. We never saw his resume'. We heard no advice given to James as to how he could enhance his chances for success. We were not even told where James lives! James got less than a minute of air time on the five minute, fifteen second segment. If anything, James was made to look less employable by this dismissive interview.
James deserves an apology on the air and another chance to display his abilities. NBC needs to apologize for its racist and sexist programming and pledge to do better.
I have to date dismissed the argument that the media is some vast liberal conspiracy. I still discount the conspiracy idea because conspiracy connotes organization, which is sorely lacking in the media. I do think if you lean any more to the left, you may well fall flat on your face.
Racism and sexism are wrong, no matter who engages in the practice.
Signature
PS: My wife, a high school guidance counselor for over twenty years, wants to interject she is really sick of all the women "personalities" sitting on stools displaying their legs. She has always taught her students there is another definition of dressing for success.
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