Halloween Cartoons

Happy Halloween!

Boo!

Do we really need anti-bully laws?

http://www.milkboys.org/article/gay-teen-beaten-in-classroom/

So?  Is it necessary to add anti-bullying laws to the state books?  Some, like this baffoon, http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/09/19/322730/ca-christian-coalition-bullying/ believe that the bully is just a part of growing up.  And, he's right.  Bullies are a part of growing up.  And, dealing with the bully in childhood teaches us how to deal with the bully in adult life.  The Christian Coalition is quite correct in stating that these things happen.  There is evil in the world, and passing laws to curb evil is not likely to change that.

 
Where are the teachers?!?  Where are the police?!?  Where are the authorities?!? 

  I can hear the questions screaming from your minds.  But, I tell you, they were there.  Oh, you don't see them?  If we look closely at this video, we notice that there are a number of people standing about, waiting on this to occur.  And, given the presumption that most didn't know, we see that even still there was no one standing up to stop this event from happening.

  But, those are students, you say.  Those are other kids.  Those aren't adults.  Those aren't the police.

  Well, that, my friends, is the role of bullies in the world.  Lost you, didn't I.  Sorry.  Here, let's try again....Mister Newman of the above link is quite correct, the Christian Coalition is quite correct.  Yep, they are.  Bullies are part of the world.  Evil is here.  And, no law, no rule, no little piece of paper is going to change that.  You see, the Christians...the REAL Christians, knew that.  That was the point of Christ....the laws of the Old Testament weren't actually working.   

  You're still not getting me, are you.  Ok....here's the end point:  The laws are "we the people".  The police are "we the people..".  The teachers are "We The People..."  And, WE THE PEOPLE OF THAT CLASSROOM SAT THERE AND WATCHED THAT HAPPEN.

Sorry.  Got off my philosophical post a bit.  My great friend tells me "the only thing necessary for evil to succeed in this world is for good people to do nothing".  That bully....he needs his come-uppance.  It will come, and life will likely put one right to the nads for him sometime soon.  The real shame, the real crime, was committed by those other kids who stood there and did nothing while another was attacked, beaten, unable to defend himself.  They lost the opportunity to stop evil.  They don't understand that the love and morality, the decency and the very pursuit  of a real adult in a real civilization  is not to simply sit by and allow the evil of the world to invade.  The definition of  a real man is to stand up and say 'NO'.  The bully is a bully.  He just is.  The others are the ones who need to be suspended.  And, the school administration needs to be expelled.  They are the ones who committed the greatest crime in failing to teach this very necessary lesson.

What do they mean...

 Coming back to the post of yesterday.....  I have been wondering about symbols and words and the things that people live, love, hope and die to create and maintain.  A great example is the current day icon of Steve Jobs.  How will one who has had his hands on the very growth of the technological age be viewed in years to come?  What would change if his legacy, his very name-sake items, become obsolete and trash due to some sort of odd snafu that really has nothing to do with him?  Will his image then be one only to bring about negativity?
  I think on the beginnings of the Republican party.  A party once created in the fight against slavery and seperation, now seems to be one that would consider it again.  Would they?  Of course not.  Their image, though... that is another story.  And, similarly, look at how corporations have divided the populous of the country and seem to be creating a life of their own.  Religions, what should be a safe haven, are repeatedly being subjected to the baser drives of their leadership. 
  Where is this all going to lead us in the future?  What sort of preperation do we consider? 

My post yesterday was not about Nazis.  It was not about the atrocities they committed.  It was about the symbols they took to show themselves one way and created a whole new definition for that symbol.  It was  lead by the previous post about how we judge a book by our expectations....and how those very expectations can so easily change over time.

  What strikes me lately is that we are in a cultural shift where the news of things from around the world effects our daily lives.  Who cheered when learning of M. Quadaffi's death?  Who shrugged?  But we all knew.  How is it that we can know these things?  What forms do our minds put upon the information we learn from around the world?
  What concerns me is not that we have a world news hour, but that we as a creature have a tendency to lump information into mangeable chunks.  Those chunks often have a label on the front, and can be difficult to change.  If we are not careful we allow the symbols of media smart people to manipulate our thinking and very important things can be decimated behind the scenes with our seeming support.

A rose by any other name...

Bear with me, folks....I'm trying to make a point here. 

The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika - "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix.
Until the Nazis used this symbol, the swastika was used by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun, power, strength, and good luck.
Even in the early twentieth century, the swastika was still a symbol with positive connotations. For instance, the swastika was a common decoration that often adorned cigarette cases, postcards, coins, and buildings. During World War I, the swastika could even be found on the shoulder patches of the American 45th Division and on the Finnish air force until after World War II.
http://history1900s.about.com/cs/swastika/a/swastikahistory.htm

  Ok, shock effect over.  Here is my point:

  Some time back, a DJ from my one time home town lost his job for using what has become known as the "n-word".  His context was in a following comment conversation in which he noted that all groups have some "lower class" who seem to have their own name and culture within that race, even sometimes taking on that designation like armor.  He noted the white folks have the so-called "trailer trash" and/or "red necks", the Mexicans/Latin Americans have..., and the black folks have....    So, in the process of making a point, he found that - perhaps like me - he'd just offended some people without having any intention of doing so.  He lost his job.
  In the recent past, there was a cowboy phrase "you'd better smile when you say that".  And, that particular phrase has been taken to higher and higher circles, finding a position in the way we see each other and the manner in which we deal with other cultures and countries.  Our politically correct culture, our simplicity of politics that have little concern with taking one man's rights so that another can be comfortable, and in the process of it all having the temerity to not only lie to each other but to prefer it to the ugly truth.  The words are precise, polite, but the intent...
  So, now we actually come to my point of the post:  Intent.  There is a great field of psychology and even into other fields centering on Symbology.  What do symbols mean?  What sort of importance do they hold in the culture?  Do some symbols change over time?   And, the answer to that last is Of Course!  Of course the symbols change because the importance to the people seeing that symbol differs by distance and experience.  For instance, the symbol I used above for catching all of our attentions will have an effect on my friend Miles and on Nikki that is likely much greater than upon myself,  and  incredibly different to a person of the prior century.
  So what?  you say.  Well, this:  the video below really brought this to my thoughts last night.  Our looks create a 'judging the book by its cover' phenomenon, but so do our words.  We hear the words - of our politicians, our preachers, our neighbors, and even ourselves - but do we really hear the intent.

  A rose smells just as sweet because it is a rose.  It is what it is.

      Truth.  It isn't because it is a flower.  This to the right is also a flower, and just as the rose, it is what it is....and it stinks like you wouldn't believe.  Pretty, interesting, colorful....and gives a stench of rotten meat.  And, unless it is trying to present itself as a rose, it is just fine being its own creation.      The truth of this is that it is what it is.  That doesn't make it bad, it doesn't make it good.  It just is.  It is my hope in life that I can be so wise as to look at one presenting itself as a rose and hear correctly the buzz of the bumble bee or the bottle fly.