Mumbling Madly

I went to the library last night to pick up some books. I chose Garrison Keillor’s Wobegon Boy because my parents have always loved Wobegon Days and I thought perhaps this book would be more suited to me. Obviously someone else didn’t care for Garrison Keillor: I found this sticky note stuck to the first page. Well! I’m surprised he earned a thumbs down just for being a “Pot Head.” I mean, who knew? Who knew…

I know, I know…it’s a let down. It’s worrisome, it’s upsetting.
Yesterday, I went to teach my AcTeen class, and found the kids all riled up from a day of post-election talk. Turns out, they’re very aware of the issues, “even though we can’t vote until, like, eight years from now” one girl put it. Most of them will be voting in the next election, and many of them reflect Colorado’s divided stance on major politics. Now, granted these are theater kids, they’re a little more open and hip to the ways than other kids…but many of them come from strong Republican families. Many of them consider themselves “divided down the middle” and not associated with either political party, and yet, I found that most of their views would be considered from the liberal left, (of course I didn’t tell them that). I heard a lot of: “So, if you want to marry someone of the same sex or have an abortion, that’s fine, I wouldn’t do it, but it’s still your right to…” One girl repeated the argument that gay people want to get married just for the benefits, and if that happens than everyone is going to start living together just for the benfits whether they’re gay or not…she countered her own argument with the very valid point: “Two straight guys are not gonna live together and pretend to be gay just to get benefits, though, they’re way too concerned about they’re masculinity.”
I also heard a lot of concern over a draft happening that might affect older brothers and sisters, and I must say that these kids were way more concerned about our involvment in the war than they were concerned about their security. Seems like they don’t care if there’s a terrorist threat, we’re in a war and it’s very distressing to them.
Probably the most alarming thing I heard during the entire conversation was this story: In a local junior high a student was wearing a Pro-Kerry t-shirt. A teacher saw her t-shirt and said, “Cover that shirt up, right now…” when the kid protested, he said: “I mean it, I don’t want to see that shirt, put a sweatshirt on. If you’re at all for family values and morals, you do not vote liberal.” I was astounded when I heard this story from one of my students. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, I said, “That’s illigal, you can’t tell that to a student. So what if she’s wearing a Pro-Kerry t-shirt…what was he going to do, send her to the office for wearing it?” But here’s the thing I forgot, when you’re in junior high you don’t have that kind of power against adults…you don’t have the confidence to say, “Fuck you, Mr. Jerk-Off, I’m wearing my shirt, whatcha gonna do?” When you’re in junior high you’re still influenced by your teachers, they can make or break you, what the hell is going here?

I want this reversible jacket…I just wanted you all to know.