Out of the Box

I've been thinking a lot about what to post next and most of my thoughts have been in the form of rants. Right now, I hate everything! What is the reason for my discontent? Could it be the media attention to the Terri Schivo case? Tom deLay? The PTA at my kid's school? My kids? I'm just so angry at the world right now. No strike that, I'm angry at this country; the world is just too big a place and too diverse. It's allowed to be idiotic and inconsistent. But the US should get its act together, and I'm in no mood to put up with its bullshite anymore.

I've written recently about the Schivo case and my problems with DeLay. Borowitz hit it on the head today with his headline story, "1000's dead in Indonesian earthquake, but US media will stay with Schivo case until May sweeps." My college-age daughter, who is in a political science class right now, explains this way as "of more local importance and possibly precedence setting." But the media doesn't actually cover that part of the story. They focus on the sensationalism of the issue and the American people buy into that spin. What about the war in Iraq? That should have local interest, what with all the American soldiers dying, but it's old news now. And the precedent set is a bad one, involving both the executive and legislative branches in a muti-decided judicial issue.

Tom deLay,
could die today,
and I would just
shout hurray! Okay, not really, but the guy really pisses me off!

My youngest is mad at me because I won't support the fundraising at her school. She wants all the presents they give for heavy-gifters. This school, in the so-very-wealthy KISD, raises $100,000 annually to benefit the oh-so-privileged children, and yet they miss the very genuine opportunity to actually teach the uber-compassionate conservative lesson of giving. When I mention this fact to the powers that be, I'm told it would be much harder to raise matching-money from corporations if some of it were to be given away. The very companies, who don't want to pay more taxes for education of the underprivileged, gladly give money away to the wealthy, so long as it "stays in the family."

My final rant of the night is for all of us who think of ourselves as "free thinking"; liberal, progressive or independent. Look at your safety zone for a minute. Think of where you close the lid, the sides, the bottom of your personal box, and then open it up a little. Stretch, grow, reach towards the light. There are joys to be had by breaking your own rules; they are really more like guidelines anyway.