Sunday, April 04, 2004

Political Correctness Wins Out Again



"I've never cared much for princesses..."


The book made national news two weeks ago when a single set of concerned parents called the school to demand a response when their daughter brought the book home. Now a North Carolina school has decided that King & King will be "locked up," and from now on "be available only to adults in [the] elementary school's library."

It goes without saying, but it should be said: that one set of parents could make such a difference in a school's worth of children's lives is a condemnation of us all. It's not enough to stand by and click our tongues. If the total breadth of loving sexuality is to be truly normalized in society, then we cannot let the PC-mongers win. Tolerance is a halfway mark; what we're really going for is our due privacy in private, aren't we?

In this case, if love is to be love, and all sexualities equally natural and precious, then we cannot also go about pretending that heterosexual relationships should or could be any more or less threatening or explicit than homosexual relationships without being hypocritical. Period.

I'd give this book to my child, and gladly. But more, I want her to be able to pick it up as easily as any other book, goddam it. How dare you marginalize both my daughter's potential and my right to let her take it on herself?

Want to help? Buy this book, or advance order the even more highly recommended but not yet released Jack and Jim, and donate them to your local library now.

posted by boyhowdy | 3:28 AM |

Comments:
Post a Comment





About Boyhowdy
 
Cybersociologist.  Father. 
Teacher.  Poet.  Audiophile.

Pondering media, education,
communications, parenting,
culture, community and self
on the web since 2002.


ongoing
All the Concerts I've Ever Attended
a lifetime of music, updated regularly

a year ago
Becoming Santa

two years ago
Poor Sick Baby

three years ago
Road Trip

four years ago
Living In The Past

story of the year
The Ladybug Who Had No Spots

poem(s) of the month
Heat Sonnet
Today, A Sonnet
Warm Winter

rethinking media literacy
>What If He Is Right, Too?
>Spam A Lot
>Uncyclopedia: The Anti-Wiki
>The Bibliography As Medium
>Calendars As Mass Media
>The F Word In The Faculty Lounge
>On Documentary "Truth"
>Writing Media: That Extra Space
>On Teen Suffrage
>I M Fine
>Child As Medium
>Sign Of The Times
>Now That's Media Exposure
>Second Self / Second Self, Updated
>Muppets Go Global
>Missing Molly: On Virtual Absence
>Is PowerPoint The Devil?
>A Curricular Epiphany
>Rethinking Media Literacy: A Rant
>It's Pronounced peeps

blog as medium
>Bleached Blanket Blogosphere
>Blog, In A Nutshell
>Oblogatory
>Making Public The Lost Segue
>Grasping At Blogs
>A Definitive Definition
>Romancing The Blog
>The Dichotomies List
>You Know You're A Blogger When...
>Everyone Loves A Blog
>Deep Thoughts, Shallow Paragraphs


or Atom Feed
coming soon

12/31 New Year's Eve in Northfield
1/1 Last "Hangover Special" Breakfast for the Siblings in Newfane, VT

1/14 You Say It's Your Birthday (34 Isn't That Old, Is It?)

2/16 - 2/24 Bermuda!
now listening

tinyblog
aka remaindered linkstinyblog archive

boyhowdy's tinyblog is
powered by del.icio.us
+ javascripted by Alan Levine
archives

2002
november: 17 24
december: 01 08 15 22 29

2003
january: 05 12 19 26
february: 02 09 16 23
march: 02 09 16 23 30
april: 06 13 20 27
may: 04 11 18 25
june: 01 08 15 22 29
july: 06 13 20 27
august: 03 10 17 24 31
september: 07 14 21 28
october: 05 12 19 26
november: 02 09 16 23 30
december: 07 14 21 28

2004
january: 04 11 18 25
february: 01 08 15 22 29
march: 07 14 21 28
april: 04 11 18 25
may: 02 09 16 23 30
june: 06 13 20 27
july: 04 11 18 25
august: 01 08 15 22 29
september: 05 12 19 26
october: 03 10 17 24 31
november: 07 14 21 28
december: 05 12 19 26

2005
january: 02 09 16 23 30
february: 06 13 20 27
march: 06 13 20 27
april: 03 10 17 24
may: 01 08 15 22 29
june: 05 12 19 26
july: 03 10 17 24 31
august: 07 14 21 28
september: 04 11 18 25
october: 02 09 16 23 30
november: 06 13 20 27
december: 04 11 18 25

2006
january: 01 08 15 22 29
february: 05 12 19 26
march: 05 12 19 26
april: 02 09 16 23 30
may: 07 14 21 28
june: 04 11 18 25
july: 02 09 16 23 30
august: 06 13 20 27
september: 03 10 17 24
october: 01 08 15 22 29
november: 05 12 19 26
december: 03 10 17 24 03

2007
january: current
about

oldwork
Northfield Mount Hermon School
>MED/SOC 221: Media Literacy
>HIS 321: Modern American Culture
>MED 05: Mass Media Messages
>MED 06: Ed Tech 101
>MED 08: Advanced Web Design

school
Marlboro College
>BA, Cyberstudies
>MAT, Teaching w/ Technology

play
Watermelon Pickle Poems (broken)
Rethinking Media Literacy
Reading The Future

see me / contact me / give me stuff

guestmap / hitcounter
links

loci
City Year
Boston Museum of Science
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival
The Iron Horse

highbrow
Kairos
Utne
McSweeney's
Daily Jigsaw Puzzle

nobrow
Fark
Boing Boing
American Feed
Customers Suck
The Onion / A.V. Club
blogs
+abraxas
+alex halavais
+alterego
+amish tech support
+amitai etzioni
+blogatron
+brokentype
+bumptious
+burnt toast
+dave barry
+don't link to us
+everyone shut up...
+fnord: essence of being
+i want to hug kafka
+life - listed chronologically
+liloia.com
+media yenta
+mrs_fezziwig
+next-to-last song
+parenting isn't pretty
+the shifted librarian
+there are no more tickets...
+tvtattle
+universal rule
+webraw
+zack, a livejournal


<< ? new england blogs # >>
<< ? edublog # >>
<< ? blogging mommies # >>
<< ? verbosity # >>
<< ? jewish bloggers # >>


-Anthroblog social anthropologist's blog on blogging
-Anti-Bloggies.com yearly blog awards with real prizes
-The Blog A Day Tour Lawrence posts in other people's blogs
-The Blogproject student research on blogs, cyberidentity, and hypertexts
-Blogger Unofficial FAQ blog fix blog problems
-Recently Changed Weblogs recently changed weblogs


=blogger bloghosting
=bravenet guestmap
=reinvigorate counter, hit-tracker
=enetation comments
=online bonsai icons tree




--> blogroll me

quotes

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson


And you know, when you study the semiotics of Through the Looking Glass or watch every episode of Star Trek, you've got to make it pay off, so you throw a lot of study references into whatever you do later in life.
- Matt Groening


She wrote secret web pages with gentle empty spaces where the universe could creep in and rest when it got overwhelmed.
- Robin Williams


Cable news networks...often act as if the best way to present information is to serve the viewer two opposing advocates battling it out. But in many instances, this ends up confusing rather than illuminating. Not every fact is debatable, not every opinion equal -- or worth equal time.
- David Corn


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- Arthur C. Clarke


This "telephone" has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no use to us.
- Western Union internal memo, 1876


The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?
- David Sarnoff's associates, in response to his urging for investment in radio, 1920s


Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
- Popular Mechanics, 1949


There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
- Ken Olson, President and founder of Digital, 1977
Subject: HIGH TECHNIQUE ELECTRICAL HOME APPLIANCES---COMPUTERIZE GAS KITCHEN
Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2002 08:53:27 +0000 (UTC)
From: "MRS WANG"
Organization: FUJIAN HUALI TECHNOLOGY CREATING CO,LTD

Do you like to comprehend a computer housemaid ? Do you like to own a blue soldier ? Today , SHIELD gives you the answer .

SHIELD is a computerize gas kitchen which is controlled automatically and intelligently. It is a world wide invention , is a new generation of the gas kitchen..

What is the benefits that SHIELD brings to us ? Firstly , it will relieve you out of the kitchen ,you shouldn't be in when you cook the food .Second ,it solved the problem that the food would be burned ,the soup be out and the gas be leaked .And it will make your family safer and healthier.

Do you want to understand much more merits about SHIELD? Please see the followings:

1. amounts and the kinds of food (boiling water, porridge, rice , soup ,fish ,meat ,medicine), SHIELD will regulate the temperature and time to cook automatically ,and the soap won't be out ,the food won't be burned .It will turn off the electric and gas source by itself ,and tell you by springing out the music .

2. when needing and you can set five times to light fire .

3. ,it will send out a big fire ,and when the temperature reached 100 ,it would change the flame .If the temperature is below 100 ,it will turn to be a big fire ,and keep the flame blue .The containing of CO is less than 0.04% of total .(standard :less than 0.05%) . And then it reduced the pollute .

4. B"CAutomatically limit the time of offering gas :It is 30 minutes that offering the gas. When cooking ,it won't be out whenever it is blew or watered .Because when the fire is out , it will light automatically. When the gas leaked ,the density reached up a level or the temperature of the platform is over 80 ,SHIELD will warn you and turn off the electric and gas source .

5. need ,it can set the temperature and heat the food by itself .

6. according to the container .

7. 70.51%(standard :higher than 55%).Comparing to the common gas kitchen ,it can save more than 40%source of total .

8. natural gas and marsh gas to cook , also can use many kinds of pans, such as iron pan ,aluminum pan and high pressured pan. SHIELD computerize gas kitchen is a housemaid , is a soldier .Is there anything more important than the safety and health of your family ?

Let us share more happy in our lives .Not to bore for the burned food, not to be sad for no time for cooking .For you love your family ,please begin with SHIELD .Possessing SHIELD is possessing love .

-Spam E-mail for a Home Appliance "published" at We Made Out In A Tree And This Old Guy Sat And Watched Us, submitted by Jeremy Sacco