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Bubblychik
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Name: Leizl Mae
Country: United States
State: New York
Birthday: 2/27/1983
Gender: Female
Interests: drinking, dancing, music, good food, friends, fun, guitar, singing
Expertise: anything of a cynical or masochistic nature
Occupation: Web Producer
Industry: IT
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Maeflowr27
Member Since:
7/1/2002
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| Safer schools?With the influx of school violence lately, it makes sense that the dialogue regarding school safety in the nation has been jumpstarted. Long-term, extensive planning is necessary to combat the issue, and I'm waiting to see what some people have in mind to make schools safer for my future children and grandchildren. One of the ideas that has come up recently, however, worries me a bit.
From the Good Morning America Web site:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2580664&page=1
"The Independent School District of Burleson,
Texas, just south of Ft. Worth is the first in the country to adopt a
policy of training students to immediately fight back and use their
advantage in numbers to take tactical control if a gunman enters their
classroom."
While I agree that preparedness is an important thing to teach children, I'm not so sure if this tactic is the best idea. We all know that sometimes, no matter how prepared you are and how much you drill for emergency situations, you can very easily panic in the face of danger. The younger the responders, the more likely they are to react in a way that may endanger themselves even more. Children and teens may sometimes romanticize the idea of playing the hero, but realistically, not everyone will be able to actually be the hero when the time comes.
My concern is that these kids will runs these drills, have a grand time preparing for various scenarios where a gunman takes their school, and think they're completely ready to do what they need to should the situation ever arise. Then, God forbid, gunmen actually do take over the school, and half of the kids who ran the drills perfectly throughout the year immediately freeze up, leaving the other half to attempt to stop the gunmen. Yes, there is strength in numbers, but those numbers can very realistically become much smaller when the call to action comes.
I'm sure people will argue with me about this, but honestly, I don't think it's the best idea. Preparedness? Always a good thing. Teaching kids to protect themselves? Definitely. Making kids think their first reaction to a man with a gun is to throw things? Eh, not so much. The last thing I want is for my future kids to take part in drills like this, then freeze up should they ever be faced with such danger, and subsequently blame themselves should any of their other classmates get hurt. Or for them to drill and be confident that they can take a gunman on, and if it actually happens, for everyone else to freeze up and my kids be the only ones throwing books, making them easy targets for the gunman.
Let's face it - this practice may help some kids, but only in very specific situations. Safety and smartness first. Heroics last. | | |
| A New Yorker/Native New Orleanian Speaks OutI am going to say (post?) this once, and once only.
LAY THE HELL OFF OF RAY NAGIN.
I am sick and tired of all of the negative press that he keeps getting, and I hate that people close to me feed in to this media frenzy and end up with completely uninformed, media-spun negative opinions of him. The Mayor of New Orleans is a good man, and people who don't know anything about him or anything about New Orleans just need to back the fuck off. They have no right to say anything about him one way or the other.
I harbor no illusions that he was faultless in the events that transpired in New Orleans a year ago - clearly, every leader in the city made several mistakes - but since it happened, he has done everything in his power to make things move and make things right. He has done the best job that he can under constant fire, and I very much respect him for all that he has done, does now, and will continue to do for the city.
This of course results from his comment on 60 Minutes that the media has fixated upon for the past week: "You guys in New York City can't get a hole in the ground
fixed and it's five years later. So let's be fair." What everyone neglects to understand is that he was being interviewed by a New York City reporter, and was being antagonized for New Orleans not being completely fixed a year after the disaster. Taken out of context, the quote has caused an uproar among New Yorkers, and I am here to tell them to SHUT UP.
The point he was trying to make is that it's been five years, and, for so many reasons, the WTC Memorial still hasn't been built. There remains a gaping hole where the Twin Towers once stood, five years after the fact, and construction is yet to begin b/c the WTC Memorial is caught up in bureaucracy and miles of red tape. For New Orleans (which has its own unique bureaucratic and governmental issues), it's been only a year, and people want to know why an entire city isn't fixed yet?
Give the man a break. Like he said, let's be fair... sure, his response wasn't the most diplomatic one, and was slightly crass for the realm of U.S. political officials, but for that he's already apologized. Be honest: Can you really blame him? I know I certainly can't, but then again perhaps I'm just too close to the situation. Nagin is a straight-shooting, exhausted, good southern man who has been through too much shit as it is, and he's busting his ass every day to do what he can, but he doesn't have the final word in what gets done, as I'm sure everyone who has even a slight clue about state and federal government and the way they work knows. On top of everything else, he's got reporters constantly antagonizing him. Everyone has a breaking point, and I know he reached his a long time ago. He says what he thinks, he's an honest man, and while his style isn't completely PC, I totally respect him for it.
It's been five years, and Ground Zero is still a huge hole in the ground b/c of all the bureaucracy, but you don't see anyone jumping down Bloomberg's throat about it b/c everyone acknowledges that it's not that simple. It's only been one year for New Orleans, and an entire city is trying to rebuild itself, but in many places, it's still quite a mess. People are doing what they can - it's just going to take a long time. And everyone else in America needs to understand that.
I heard one responder to Nagin's comment say, quietly enraged, that Ground Zero is "sacred ground." Well, so is New Orleans, to me, and to half a million people or more who call/called it home. And if you want to argue that it isn't, I'll personally pay you a visit and deck you in the face.
I was here for 9/11. I grew up in New Orleans. To me, both Ground Zero and New Orleans are sacred ground. Both need to be fixed, and both rebuilding processes have to happen in their own time. I understand that. So should you.
And it's only been a year. For an entire city. So back off Nagin already. You self-absorbed jerks.
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| Beyond DoneMerry One-Year Anniversary since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, ruining livelihoods and claiming lives galore. Happy Anniversary to the day that ignited confusion, displacement, and despair among so many, something I saw happen to my own immediate and extended family and old friends, something that profoundly changed the outlooks, habits, and lifestyles of so many people I know and love, something that has shifted so many things in the place I still call home, even though the people who were once a part of that home have since moved away b/c of the damage Katrina yielded physically, mentally, and emotionally.
I don't really use Xanga anymore, except to vent. I considered deleting this account, but I suppose there are some memories buried deep within here, so the pack-rat within me won't allow it to happen. Instead, I will use it as I have been lately, posting articles and such that I find online and making snarky/enraged/embittered/what-have-you-type comments in response. It won't really serve much of a purpose anymore, and I suppose in due time I will delete it after all. But I won't at the moment, especially since I already paid for a premium account and should finish out the rest of the payment period.
In light of the today's disheartening anniversary, I share with you this cartoon:
Oh how I enjoy comics that find Bush as much of a worthless git as I do.
Also enjoyable, given this whole JonBenet Ramsey/John Mark Karr fiasco:
And of course, I also appreciate anyone who agrees that Tom Cruise is a total douche:
Have I mentioned that I hate Tom Cruise? Perhaps hate is a strong word... strongly dislike may be more apt.
These cartoons and the others highlighted for this week available at: http://www.time.com/time/cartoons/20060826/index.html
Fin.
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| From cnn.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/08/07/sexlyrics.teens.ap/index.html
"Songs depicting men as 'sex-driven studs,' women as sex objects and
with explicit references to sex acts are more likely to trigger early
sexual behavior than those where sexual references are more veiled and
relationships appear more committed, the study found."
Does anyone else find this stupid? I mean, I'm not saying that there isn't some psychological connection that can be drawn between music and the human brain, but I'm just waiting for the ridiculous Salem-witch-hunt parental reaction to this study. I can already imagine iTunes having to install all kinds of crazy security features, maybe where they have to screen song lyrics and block songs that use a dirty word, or set music ratings like they do with TV shows so the parents can block their kids from downloading them. Or do they already do something like that? In any case, I can see this getting out of hand pretty quickly.
I find it difficult to believe that just b/c a kid likes rap music, he automatically wants to go out and "bang all kinds of hoes" or something. I can think of a handful of people off the top of my head who like music that sometimes/often has sexual overtones, but who still made the decision to wait until the time was right to have sex.
"... 'it's not that surprising that a kid
with a heavier diet of that ... would be at greater risk for sexual
behavior,' Walsh said."
I didn't know that sexual behavior was considered a "risk." I find that word choice highly amusing.
I feel like I'm raving about the same crap I did when I posted my reaction to one of the latest attacks on MySpace. It's all about the parents and upbringing if you ask me. I'm not saying parents should hyperactively censor things for their children, but they should be aware enough to know what's going on. It also has a lot to do with peers. Ten bucks says the sexually active teens in this study also belong to a group of friends who are sexually active.
Sex always has been and always will be a choice that a teen has to make. And if music is indeed the trigger, I guess that means pretty soon, everyone will lose their virginities at 13. If there isn't some stupid parental reaction to this, however big or small, I may actually be surprised.
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| Post-Katrina Mental Crisis in New OrleansFrom time.com:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1221982,00.html?cnn=yes
"'There was an initial spirit about bouncing back and recovering, but it's diminished over time, as weeks have become months.'"
I know, I know, this doesn't come as any big surprise really, but the point is that things are getting worse. New Orleanians are a very resilient people by nature, so the ones who remained held plenty of hope (and maybe some delusion) that the city would indeed bounce back in due time. But it's been almost a year, and the despair didn't really dissolve for those most affected, and things haven't really improved much. Powerful negative feelings have a tendency to spread and become uncontrollably infectious. Throw in the natural reaction of the human mind to suppress things, and you've got a widespread depression epidemic on your hands.
I do not want to see my hometown disintegrate and really become a shell of its former self, at least not any more than it already has. I've been home twice since Katrina, and both times I've experienced heartbreak unparalleled to anything I have ever really known. There is an emptiness I associate with home now, and there's a hole that I am unsure can ever really be filled again. My best friend who still lives in New Orleans, Abby, is a true-blue New Orleans girl through-and-through, and as of late she's even been talking about moving away. That is perhaps the most telling sign that New Orleans is no longer the place it once was, and it possibly never will be again.
In two days I fly home for a high school friend's wedding, and Saturday I intend to spend time with my family in the city. I suppose I'll see the latest mental state of the city for myself, and judge from there. I just hope it isn't as heartbreaking as I fear it will be.
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