Thursday, December 27, 2007

Ground Rules

Dag Nabbit! I reread my first posting several times, but I still managed to make some errors. So, let this be a lesson in letting go. Perhaps some ground rules are in order. Please forgive me my grammatical, spelling and punctuation trespasses and I promise to only blog when I really have something to say. I take it back, that is too much pressure. Didn't blogging get its name from blah, blah, blah, blog? I promise to forgive myself my grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors and to blog only when the mood strikes me. That is better. Who is this audience I think I am writing to anyway? Family? A few dear friends? Or an intellectual, creative cyber community? Yeah, right!
In my very first blogging experience I actually caused offense.
"BLEEDING HEART LIBERAL?" my father exclaimed incredulously.
"Yeah, so? " was my eloquent response. It seems my parents have never viewed themselves as "bleeding heart liberals", but rather they fancy themselves "radicals". So, I will set the record straight. Being members of the white arm of the Black Panthers in the 70's does warrant the more "radical" characterization. I do recall the FBI jumping out of the bushes to snap photos of us playing in the backyard of our "political collective" home that we shared with two other families. I thought it was hysterical that they would listen to my six year old phone conversations while wire tapping our phone lines as part of their misguided investigation into the kidnapping of Patty Hearst.
So do I filter everything I write in fear of offending, or prompting the FBI to reopen our family file? I heard that you can request to see your FBI file through The Freedom of Information Act, but that if you didn't have a file prior to your request that your request would prompt the opening of one. The paranoia is mounting. I bet my folks regret complaining about being called "bleeding heart liberals" now. In all fairness, and kidding aside, my parents worked toward a goal of social justice and that work as much as anything has shaped who I am today. Their compassion and empathy for society makes me proud to be their daughter and I know as an educator I was hoping to follow in their good works footsteps.
All power to the people!

1 comment:

tobeacrow said...

It is my job to break the cherry blog. Anyway, I guess it is. I had many profound things to say, but profundity has gone to bed for the night. Only thing I wish to add to the "Yes, Ma'am" controversy is that Marge McSwain was the first person I knew that used "Yes, Ma'am". She, as you know, is a Texan (which counts as a Southerner in some places but not in Georgia). When she used it, she used it in a derogatory manner to passive/aggressively display her anger at a rude customer.