Note. Sometimes when I disagree so strongly with a point of view in the hereabouts, I simply ignore it. That must be the case for the following because my hit count total for yesterday suggested more than a single reader. I guess I'll take my lumps. So be it. Thank you for your input Screwdriver.
This Morning a Momentous Thing Happened
I actually agreed with Tony Snow.
It seems that
New York City is creating the nation's first public high school for gays, bisexuals and transgender students. (I know this isn't exactly a breaking story....)
This is being done presumably under the guise of creating a safe environment for said gays and lesbians. Huh? Since when did gays need protection and protection from what exactly?
Assuredly, this blog has nothing to do with gay rights. This issue is focused on a high-school and the reasons for its proposed construction.
In my humble opinion there are two main reasons why we spend a large portion of our early lives in educational institutions (read school). In the very first portion, education is decidedly all about the basic three-r's. After that, formal education's entire intendment and objective is 1) Teaching people how to think and learn and 2) Teaching people social skills - perfunctorily how to be a member of society and how to get-along with the other guy. (Some people are better students than others albeit.)
When I was in high-school, I didn't get picked-on much. Thinking back on the experience I guess I was lucky. I mastered the art of obsequious disenfranchisement. In other words, I just stayed under the radar most of the time but I was still fortunate to be intelligent enough, big enough and mean enough to assuage all would-be intimidators. Some kids weren't so lucky.
Such a person was one Bill Wostemburg. I and my best friend Jim B had known this guy since early Junior-High. Bill was a nice guy - a friendly guy - and a smart guy. We were his protection mechanism - part of his survival tool. You see, Bill was what we refer to ubiquitously as a geek. He threw a football like a girl. Need I say more? Occasionally Bill would come back to the locker room after PE only to find his locker broken into and his street clothes floating in a nearby toilet. People are cruel in case you hadn't noticed. I always felt sorry for the guy and I am eminently ashamed of myself for not defending Bill more than I did. Truly. But I had my own survival to consider remember? (Not that it rationalizes my own cowardice you understand.)
In those days, I was the editor of the school newspaper, a member of the debate team, the chess club and that new-fangled thing called the computer club. Those things alone were enough to earn me geek status but, as I've stated, for some reason, nobody messed with me - not when there were easier targets.
Bill and I were on the debate team and when partnered up we killed. We were a pertinacious team and realistically undefeatable. I say that so much in an audacious or egotistic way - the spotlight, in this case, was always on Bill. He had the gift of genius when it came to debate and it was always my honor to be a part of his team.
Over the years Bill seemed to accept his "geekness". I invited him to my parties (hey, get over him asshole - he's a nice guy) and he to his. Regrettably, Bill died in an automobile accident our senior year.
Should we have built a special school back then for "geeks" - for men who throw a football like a girl? Or how about fat kids? Or ones with glasses? Or fat kids with glasses for that matter? Or even one for my (then) half bald friend Jim? No. In my opinion, it isn't the answer. A rapacious mandate for people to get-along with one another simply isn't achievable - no more so than President Bush's farcical attempt to abrogate all evil in the world. Segregation is never an answer to persecution. I think history will amply acknowledge that.
[Note: I have a sometimes editor now and she deleted a few "unnecessary" paragraphs from this story. But I'm married to her and, as it turns out, she's a pretty good editor. (Several paragraphs were deleted in their entirety) As well, the term "fat chicks" ended up being "fat kids". Gotta commend her for that one - keeps me out of hot water in the hereabouts. Maybe I'll hire her on a more permanent basis.]
10:56:12 AM 
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Welcome To The Club
