Bullying Day

Today is a day chosen to speak out against bullying.  Recent events, including a freshman college student who committed suicide because his roommate and another person decided it was ok to broadcast him having sex with another man live on a webcam has brought to light a situation that is out of control.  Kids start at an early age picking on others who are different or weaker than they are.  Parents don't take it seriously and schools make a 'no tolerance' proclamation which is a joke and not enforced.

I was bullied growing up.   My first experience was in about 3rd grade where the older sister of one of my classmates decided that I was fair game and proceeded to follow me while I was walking to school and call me names and throw rocks at me all the way.  This went on until my mom called her mom and the following stopped although I did get called names when she did see me.  I was very shy and cannot imagine what could have possibly brought this on.  I certainly never fought back, verbally or physically.   I can honestly remember laying in bed at night crying and dreaming of ways to kill her.  She let up after about a year for some unexplained reason.  Probably found a new victim.

My 2nd experience was in my sophomore year of high school where, still shy, 2 girls decided to call me names and make fun of me and put gum in my hair on a regular basis.  I was overweight and new in school and again, an easy target.  Luckily, I only attended that school for a couple of months so I'm sure they too found another victim after I left.  One of the girls and I have a mutual cousin and she knew me but she was actually the follower.   I may have seen her over the years but she is not really in my orbit in any way so she is ...whatever.   The leader was very popular at the time and I take a little joy in the fact that I think she's had a pretty miserable life.   Failed marriages, financial problems and a sweet daughter that was raised by her sweet grandparents.

The problem is of course magnified because of the internet and particularly networking sights like Facebook and My Space.  Kids and even adults use these sights to make fun of or tease or even set someone up for major heartache and humiliations.  They again pick a target and find a weakness and prey on insecurity and lack of confidence to make someone else feel less while making themselves feel better.    There was even a case where a mom set up a fake My Space account portraying herself as a teen boy who then contacted a little girl who her daughter had problems with, flirted with the little girl and then dumped her telling her that she was worthless and should just kill herself.  This woman was allowed to reproduce mind you!!    The little girl took her advice...she killed herself.  There are too many of these stories to document but they seem to pop up every day.  Sadly the mom did not break any laws on the books at the time and was not convicted of anything.    She would like us all to be sad that she had to move out of her neighborhood, that she was shunned by friends and had to close her business.  Sorry bitch...not sad.    Cases like hers have painted this problem in a new picture and have at least started a dialogue about anti bullying laws.  Its not a done deal yet but I guess it's progress.

So count me in as saying out loud that bullying is in not now nor was it 45 years ago acceptable.   It does not matter if someone is smaller or weaker, if you don't like their name, nationality, skin color, sexual orientation, tennis shoes or taste in soft drinks.  You don't have that right.  Trust me, you wouldn't like it if it were happening to you.  It doesn't run or ruin my life but I have never forgotten.  Parents, schools and lawmakers need to let all know that it is NOT ACCEPTABLE to bully another person and that consequences apply!!

30 day blog Day 3 Favorite television program

Wow, another hard choice.

I loved 'Quantum Leap' & 'Sisters' but my number 1 winner is 'Homicide, Life on the Streets'.    I have to qualify that probably only seasons 1-5, the Pembleton years.  After he left, the cases were good but the acting went way, way down hill.

Set in a Baltimore police detective squad room, we met Pembleton, Bayless, Lewis, Kellerman, Crocetti, Bolander, Russert, Howard, Felton, G and of course, Munch.   We watched their lives, we watched them live and die and we watched them do the best the could to solve crime in the city they all loved.  I don't remember if it was all of them but I know most grew in Baltimore, their dads working hard to make sure they had better lives.  They were guys that saw the futility of what they were doing and still came to work every day to "speak for the dead".   There were guys--and 1 girl, at the beginning, Kay Howard--of all ages and experiences who brought a unique perspective to a job that would eat you alive if you let it.  The first 5 years, the scripts were good, the acting brilliant.  Sadly it went on too long.  Too many losses of a good cast and the addition of of...whatever...not good.  I've got the set on DVD and when I want to watch brilliance, I put them in the dvd player.

30 day blog Day 2 Favorite Movie

This one is complicated too but I'd have to say 'Casablanca'.    Perfect story, perfect cast.  Humphrey Bogart is Rick Blaine, the owner of 'Rick's Place' in WWII in Casablanca, Morocco which was neutral during the war.  It was a safe place where the Germans and the Allies co-existed pretty peacefully.  Rick claims no loyalties to either side but is secretly a gun broker for the Allies.  Ingrid Bergman was never as beautiful as Ilsa, the woman Rick loves and who stood him up in Paris because she had a secret, her husband Victor Laszlo,  a war activist she thought dead, played by Paul Henreid.     Ilsa and Victor come to Casablanca to escape to America and Rick is the one who can help them.  Will he help the woman who betrayed him and her husband escape?  

There are 3 scenes that stand out and make me cry everytime.  Ilsa comes to try to explain to a drunken and crying Rick and he is very cruel to her.   Later she explains what happened in Paris and why she stood him up.  And the 3rd shows the German officers singing their national anthem and Victor striking up the band to play La Marseillaise to drown them out.

Others in the cast include Claude Rains as the local police captain and Sidney Greenstreet as a shady businessman.

It's a great movie, great characters, moving story and not an "F" word in site.

Amazing.

Divorced Barbie

The Divorced Barbie Doll

One day a father gets out of work and on his way home he suddenly remembers    that it's his daughter's birthday. He pulls over to a Toy Shop and asks the    sales person, 'How much for one of those Barbie's in the display window?'    The salesperson answers, 'Which one do you mean, Sir? We have: Work Out    Barbie for $19.95, Shopping Barbie for $19.95, Beach Barbie for $19.95,    Disco Barbie for $19.95, Ballerina Barbie for $19.95, Astronaut Barbie for    $19.95, Skater Barbie for $19.95, and Divorced Barbie for $265.95'.

The amazed father asks: 'It's what?! Why is the Divorced Barbie $265.95 and    the others only $19.95?'

  The annoyed salesperson rolls her eyes, sighs, and answers: 'Sir...,    Divorced Barbie comes with: Ken's Car, Ken's House, Ken's Boat, Ken's    Furniture, Ken's Computer, one of Ken's Friends, and a key chain made with Ken's balls.

Thanks to my Facebook friend Donald for this one

They are not my pants

I've heard people have said it but did not believe it.

When I was a police dispatcher several years ago, I was riding with my friend Paul and we stopped this guy staggering down the street.  We both saw him drop something out of his pocket and Paul found a bag of some drug.  Paul asked the guy if it was his and he said no.  Paul told him that it came out of his pocket.  And the guy actually said it:     They are not my pants.

30 day blog Day 1 Favorite Songs

I stole this from another blog because I need to write and I cannot always think of what to write about.  




Day 1  - your favorite song 

This one is kinda hard....I like 2 for different reasons.


1st would be 'I Just Can't Help Believin' by B J Thomas.  I love his voice, always have.   I love it because he's a man in love.     It came out in the most impressionable musical time of my life, 40 years ago when I got the 1st radio that belonged just to me.    I saw him in concert twice, once in college when he was on a gospel tour and then just a few years ago at the Cactus Theater where I happened to read on Sunday afternoon that he was going to be there that night.   I went alone and while standing in line, a man gave me a ticket and it was a great seat.    He has been through a lot, drugs and what he calls a lot of wild and crazy times.   It shows in his face.  But his voice was still strong, beautiful.   I remember him saying, as he started 'Dont Worry Baby' that if he'd known he was going to live this long, he'd have recorded it in a lower key.  


Here is a Youtube link to a live performance.   He makes it look effortless.   And is possibly wearing someone else's pants.  But... Amazing.


I Just Cant Help Believin


2nd would be 'Amazing Grace'     An amazingly simple song with an amazingly simple message.


Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost but now I'm found,
Was blind but now I see.


Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.


Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
Tis grace that brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home


When I've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun


Does anything else have to be said about that?

It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month

It's October 1 and the awareness begins!!   There are thousands of diseases out there that need attention and I often think maybe this one gets more than it's share.  I wear a pink shirt and carry a pink grocery bag and have a pink ribbon pin.  The AJ was pink today and the Susan G Komen walk is tomorrow.   And I participate in it all because on May 31, 1997 I lost my big sister Cathy to breast cancer.  She had many battles and it finally won.  And statistics show that I have a high probability of meeting it in my future too.  So I'd like a cure  so if that happens, it will benefit me.   For now, I choose to honor Cathy and walk in her name...for me her sister, for her daughters, for her granddaughters.   Lets get rid of this disease so we can concentrate on another.