Random thoughts…

Random thoughts…Re: The Mess We Inherited, No one is Getting Canceled, Teachers, Dr. Seuss.

I write these things down and sometimes they sit and I’m just going to bullet point put them in a blog in no particular order...

· How do you feel when you come to work and the night crew hasn’t done their job? It’s like that but on a much larger scale. Getting mad at Joe Biden because the coronavirus has not been contained and the country is still on partial shutdown and he has asked us to wear masks is like getting mad at the guy who showed up late because he is replacing the guy who didn’t show up at all.

· People act like when a person gets “canceled” it is because of a misunderstanding…one tweet, one misstatement, one stray hand in the wrong place, when it’s usually part of a pattern. (Garrison Keillor actually is creepy. Gina Carano had a sustained hate march against marginalized figures. JK Rowling doubled down on hate. And on and on… and yes. Andrew Cuomo is a scumbag. He should resign, as should any man who abuses or rapes or harasses women, especially in a power dynamic.)

· Online politics is full of people disingenuous enough to wonder why a single person can’t “fix” systemic racism, especially when the entire force of white supremacy always comes out to defend itself. Re: “I’m not racist but…” and butt hurt over voting rights and “Ma freedom” to say “Ma little (racist/misogynistic/picks on retards) joke… We are some terrible people. And we fight to stay that way.

Because it’s much easier than trying to learn someone else’s point of view and why your joke or statement is hurtful or offensive.

• People: “Yay, teachers are heroes and we love you.”
  

Teachers: “We need vaccinations and face shields and basic precautions before we can come back.”

Also People: “Teachers are lazy! They should just do their job!”

(BTW…take the words “lazy teacher” out of your stupid fucking mouth.)

· Dr. Seuss is not beyond reproach…to be treated like a saint instead of a man with human foibles… He was a man of his time and reflected the racist attitudes of the time. (You probably don’t use the same words you used when you were a kid, either. When was the last time you called someone a “Poopy-head?”)

HIS PUBLISHING HOUSE is doing this PROACTIVELY to protect his legacy. No one is “canceling” him. I would hope that if I became rich and successful off of a fifty-year career in writing that when I’m gone someone might look out for me in a similar way, eliminating some of the less-evolved pieces I may have written earlier in my life.

Hey…you’re an adult: did you even know about the existence of these books before this news came out?

And for the “Butt-hurt” people: without Googling, do you even know which books are being discontinued? Do you have them on your shelf? We’re not talking about the Cat in the Hat here.

· Finally…If you’re using social media to show the world what a mean and awful person you are, we don’t have to be friends.

Anyway…I am the Parochialist, and I’m glad to get that off my chest.