My Turn

Let me just share with you a recent incident. Shook me to the core and made me sad that there are still people out there like this today. What's even worse.... it is learned behavior, not natural.Friday night. Around 1:45am. Norm's. Huntington Beach. My boyfriend and I were sitting outside having a minor debate when two men walked out of the restaurant. One of them, sporting an oh-so-hideous mullet, made some comment as the two went to their car. We were so into our discussion, David and I paid no attention to them. As they were getting into their car, Mullethead said "Oh look, a white girl and a ni**er. Oh look at that." (Pause to laugh at me being mistaken for being white...)And then he went on to hurl racist remarks. I was still not paying too much attention until they stopped the car next to us, and Mullethead actually stepped out of the car to continue. "F*cking ni**gers trying to take all our white women. F*cking ni**er. Look at you two all interracial. You make me sick. You make me f*cking sick!"Here's the kicker.... he saluted Hitler style and said "Sieg heil!" complete with a kick of the legs to attention. Then spit in David's direction. Then he got back in the car and they drove off, but not before Mullethead could shout out "F*cking ni**er" two more times. I was still in shock, I couldn't even comprehend what was happening as it was happening. It wasn't until we went inside that it hit me, and I started bawling. How? How are people so ignorant and hateful??? How??? It feels like I was in a drive-by shooting, only I'm lucky to have escaped bullets actually hitting me. I'm still weirded out by this incident....

We are becoming a people who love to insult, who love to call names, who love to throw invective---on our freeways, in our streets, in newspapers, in blogs, in our media.

And, the uglier the language, the better the press coverage! What inspires me to laugh is that those who throw around the ugliest of words are the first to take offense when the arrows head in their direction.

A certain mayor of a Californian seacoast town has taken exception to a fellow councilperson's recent public warning, "Beware of [my colleague]!" The mayor condemns his colleague's published remarks as "desparate name calling."

The man can't take the heat. He can't stand a challenge. He denigrates each and every opposing view as "silly."

And, what sickens me most of all is that this mayor is a buddy and, consequently, the mouthpiece for a local blogger who simply oozes hatred and racist filth in his published writings on the Net.

We all need to stop the name calling. We need to moderate our language. We need to return to reason!

We need to get to the polls and vote the B*%MS out!

Capistrano School District's Superintendent James Fleming is the latest sacrificial lamb of the priviledged parents' lobby in Orange County.

He was a star in the educational arena from Day One! In 1969, I attended UCI Extension to fulfill the requirements for a teaching credential and Jim Fleming was one of my instructors. Since he's a few years younger than I, he must have been in his late 20's. That's incredible: a university instructor at that young age.

I say "the latest" because over the years, I've witnessed a lot of educators, talented and fearless, get the ax, thanks to pushy parents.

Most recently, a colleague at San Clemente High was summarily fired as a direct result of parents' dissatisfaction. Students in this individual's classes threatened with "Just you wait. We're gonna get rid of you." The colleague ended up at a high school in San Jose and had a wonderfully successful school year. "I'm glad to have left Orange County. The atmosphere there is so negative. Northern California is much more cultured."

Two years ago, a colleague professor at UC-Irvine was raked over the proverbial coals by several students in a graduate seminar. They vowed to get rid of her. After some hefty debate, the university chose to support the professor. That experience, however, left a serious bad taste in the professor's mouth and hastened her retirement.

This year, I've been axed, too, thanks to a class of students who decided they didn't like/understand/appreciate my style of presenting learning materials. Of the four classes I taught this past school year at CSUF, three gave me raving reviews...but the one "class from hell" brought about a nasty departmental review process and, as a friend so sweetly stated, "You lost your gig."

The priviledged class seems to wield a lot of power around these parts. The parents in the Capistrano district acted out of small-minded meaness and spite. They are clueless regarding real education is all about.

In the long run, their kids are going to grow up with social "blinders" on. The kids will expect their world to genuflect when they so much as look sideways. The kids will have some really tough lessons to learn when Daddy and Mommy are gone.

A word to Jim Fleming--here's wishing you continued success in the world of education. As my high school class moto goes: "More beyond."

I'm reading that IPod, AKA Apple Computer, Inc., is profitting from slave labor: 200,000 workers who live in dorms, who are not permitted visitors, who work 15-hour days and who receive $50 a month.

According to an official, non-profit watchdog organization, these conditions are common, "very typical."

The same holds true for a variety of other US corporate giants that employ hundreds of thousands in sweatshops worldwide.

Is this our American dream? Is this what our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting for? Is this the vision of democracy we want to project to our neighbors in the international community?

Corporate America is exploiting laborers both from within (12 million "illegal, alien" workers) and from without.

The young woman who is currently taking care of my 91-year old mother (Mom 's been living with us for close to 8 months now.) tells me stories of her work in Bulgaria. She was a seamstress and would toil day after day after day hunched over a sewing machine and stitching hundreds of zippers into jeans or hundreds of sleeves into jackets. Her salary amounted to the equivalent of about $100 per month.

Thanks to winning a green card through the Lottery and coming to California, she now earns a nice $1850 a month for an average 5- hour day. Another perk in caring for Mom is that this young woman no longer suffers from horrible pain in her back and shoulders. She comes to our home with a smile.

The US is one of the wealthiest nations. Compared to other peoples, we are filthy rich. We need to put our money where our mouth is and share our gifts with less fortunate folks, not "steal" from them in order to pad our own wallets.

Hey, all you California voters! I've decided to reinvent history and cast a write-in vote in next week'd primary.

Remember Alfred E. Newman? Well, good news, folks! He's alive and well. And, don't you just find his devilish insouciance more appealing than any of the other candidates for governor?

Years ago, I ran for a local office: Costa Mesa Water Board. As a candidate, I attended a reception and witnessed some heavy-duty schmoozing and pressing of the flesh. What a bunch of sleaze.

After about an hour, I beat a hasty retreat back to my car. Awful! My first instinct was to go home and take a shower.

I decided to bow out of the "race" and tell all my neighbors and friends to vote for the most qualified, the fellow who ultimately won the position and is still serving in that capacity.

Politics is a dirty game, ugly and cutthroat. No wonder so few of us even bother to go out of our way to vote. Voting seems to have become an exercise in futility.

Election season is driving me nuts! Because of a foot injury, I've been sporting a nice, "basic-black-with-pearls" cast and have been hobbling around the house on crutches. Leaving the house in a wheelchair is a real chore...so...I've been watching quite a bit of television.

The campaign ads for Democratic nominee for governor in California are sickening. They are such negative attacks, so full of you-know-what, that I'm tempted to flip the proverbial finger at both major candidates, Angelides and Westly, and just skip the primary altogether.

Not only that, but I'm even thinking about nodding my head in Arnold's direction, come November. Now, that would be a first: this dyed-in-the-wool liberal graduate of UCBerkeley in the early sixties voting for a Republican governor.

But, you know what, Ahnold has been keeping his nose close to the grindstone. He's been working hard at tilling the middle ground and staying out of the political fray. The centrists he's added to his staff are smart cookies.

In the meantime, I suggest that you turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to Phil and Steve. They have morphed into the penultimate of negative antagonists---not a pretty sight!

Folks, it's time to get angry! It's time to tell your elected representatives, at all levels--from local to national--that the corruption, the taking of bribes, the licking of Big Business' boots--is destroying the average citizen's faith in government today.

As the bumper sticker so poignantly states: If You're Not Enraged, You Haven't Been Paying Attention.

Flomama