Post Four, 8-1-09

Let's talk tonight about a certain common saying/opinion I love to hate. First of all, if you don't get it yet, I'm not really what you'd call a "God-fearin' man," I have ex-wives but no children, and I ain't young. If you read my BS and WANT to do this, you can have your little funtime categorizing me in other conventional ways based upon what you believe you "hear" me say in these blogs; you know, like "Oh, he must be a Republican," or, "Oh, he MUST be a Liberal;" etc. I'm not all that into it -- I'm a "Popeyean:" I yam wat I yam!

Oh, yeah --- that "common saying/opinion" -- "You don't have (insert any noun here, like "kids," "a wife," "a house," "a 'real' job," "herpes;" whatever YOU have that makes you feel superior or more educated on the subject than I simply because I don't), so you can't understand/have no right to comment." Especially lately, this is one of my all-time faves. In fact, read yesterday's blog -- Mr. and Mrs. Wisconsin have kids. And didn't THEY just do a bang-up job of decision-making because of it? And, hey, let's just stick with the "kids" one anyway, for the sake of simplification. Nope, I have no children; so, no, for the most part, I haven't lived with the unknowns and worries and illnesses and dirty diapers and expectations and what have you. I have lived a somewhat varied life; I have loved a few people very deeply (losing MUCH sleep at any given time over their welfare, their whereabouts, their health, their happiness, their future, etc. and so on ... ooooh ... kinda like you parents, huh?) and, in turn, I have lost a few; I have a brain. Each and everyone of us who watches the news (or not), reads a newspaper (or not), and, most importantly, votes (or not) makes decisions and form opinions based upon our own thoughts, experiences, vanities and upbringing on any number of issues which we may or may have not actually lived through. That's how the world works, folks! I'm white, have never been homeless nor destitute nor on welfare, do not have any physical or (clinically discernible) mental handicap; does this mean I cannot have an opinion nor make decisions about nor vote for or against laws which will effect the lives of minorities or the poor or the infirm in greater part than they may effect my own life? If I'm on a jury for the trial of a Black man who is accused of murder, should I beg to be excused because I am not Black and cannot relate to what may have brought him to the point of murder living a life as a Black man? Well, of course not! That's NOT how it works, or at least not how it works once we stopped being quite as tribal as we were up until about the 17th century or so. So, here's MY thing:

I see you slapping your kid HARD upside the head in the grocery store because he won't stop crying, I DO have a right to tell you to STOP IT! If I KNOW you personally (especially, but not solely) and I see you doing something for or to your kid that I find ill-advised (like, let's say, letting your 12 y.o. son get his tongue pierced, or letting him hang out smoking at the Hess station with his other 12 y.o. buds at 2 AM), I have a right to ask you what the hell you are thinking about. If I keep hearing about teenage pregnancy and STDs running rampant in my neighborhood schools, I have the right to discuss, argue, vote, whatever about ways to educate, curb it and help it stop. And all this regardless of the fact that I didn't happen to pierce any ovum with my sperm in the last few decades.

One last semi-related thought: If you don't want people commenting on your opinions, if it just pisses you off no end that someone would have the AUDACITY to "encroach on a 'private exchange,'" DO NOT POST THEM ON A POPULAR PUBLIC FORUM!! Ciao.