Soapboxy Goodness

So we’ve been himing and hawing about taking a roadtrip in May. We need to clear the dust off the tires and get away from Jersey and our day to day responsibilities for a couple days. We were originally going to go to Dollywood. The place looks really fun and campy which ofcourse is right up our alley. After talking about it publicly a few times and getting a few reactions like “oh God, those mountain people will kill ya”… We’re deciding to put Dollywood on the back burner for now and instead going to DC for a couple days. We’ve been wanting to get down to the museums forever and do the touristy thing. We’re really looking forward to it. I’ve been reading a lot about the Kobe Bryant gay slur thing. I really find the whole story fascinating. What’s most interesting to me is when you read this story on any news website, the comments from readers are just horrible. Most of the wanna-be tough guys on there spout off their hateful rhetoric and crying out in support for this man who did nothing except use a gay slur in a moment of anger, teaching millions of kids and young adults watching that this is acceptable behavior. I call them “wanna-be” tough guys because most of them would never speak up like that publicly. Kobe Bryant makes millions of dollars and whether he wants to be or not, is infact a role model for youth. He has a responsibility to behave like a role model should. Aside from all that… an athlete on the court is at WORK… Imagine a teacher using a slur like this is a classroom… or a waitress in the middle of a restaurant. You are working and need to be held accountable for your actions. For that full story click here: http://www.cnn.com/2011/SPORT/04/13/bryant.nba.fine/index.html Another story that has interested me recently is the J Crew ad in which a mother is painting her sons nails pink. Now if you haven’t heard about this, the little boy begged his mom to paint his nails and it was photographed as kindof a “it’s ok to be yourself” commentary. The photo was then used as J Crew ad which is where the mother works. The conservative and Christian communities were immediately outraged calling this child abuse and judging this poor boy and his mom for their decision. It kills me to think that something so trivial is such a big deal to so many people in this world. #1, don’t you have more important things to worry about in your life? And #2 we (most of us) try to teach kids to accept other peoples’ differences and to respect them and here we have a situation of a little boy wanting to express himself and “adults” are attacking him. I call them bullies. And when young people all over this world kill themselves for feeling different and persecuted for being different (in any way) it’s because of people like them. Why is it acceptable in our society for girls to display ‘masculinity’ (supposed masculinity) but if a boy shows the slightest bit of femininity, he is persecuted. It’s crazy. For a blurb on that read: http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/13/shocking-pink-mom-paints-boys-toenails-in-j-crew-ad/?iref=allsearch Anyway… Off my soapbox for now. Later gators.