Sunday, August 24, 2008

Long but still worth it

I remember in 8th grade I had this Humanities class that I loved. A mixture of American history, creative writing, and an amazing teacher, it was my favorite class. At one point in the writing part of this class we had to write an advertisement for an item. I chose to write about a superior jacket that was perfect for sports. I used a variety of adjectives to create a deep feeling about said jacket, making the ad come alive. But in the end, it was still a jacket.

This next story I will tell you about reminds me of my article because the description of such a silly thing is far too elaborate for the subject. From The Seattle Times, Leonard Pitts, Jr. wrote about the mini-movie Katrina’s Children which is a movie that will never make it to the big screens but apparently it is online. The description of the movie, particularly about the little girl, had me laughing very hard.

“There are many wrenching scenes in Katrina’s Children but arguably the most wrenching is not the girl crying because the hurricane left her so fearful of water she can no longer swim, or the boys touring the wreckage that was once home, or the children recalling how corpses floated by, writhing with maggots. No, the most wrenching scene comes when Tyronieshia tries to read”

Are you laughing yet or is it just me being insensitive? Here is one of the most deadly, damaging hurricanes to hit the USA and the author is depressed over a kid who can’t read—and blames it on society. Read on.

“Ten years old and she was already on the way to illiteracy and the life of don’t-have and can’t-get that usually comes with it. You realize, here is a child who was failed by her school, failed by her community, failed by her family. Then three years ago this week, the storm came and she was failed by everything else.”

Are you kidding me? What have I always stressed about in these blogs? Accountability. Plain and simple. This is the dangerous victim-mentality our society has come to which feeds on entitlement-mindset. Illiteracy is not society’s fault, but the families fault alone. Parents need to follow up on education.

The author continues on about how children silence their fears but we can hear them if we just take the time to listen. And perhaps the funniest part of the article is next.

“We cry out as the famous-for-nothing live their train-wreck lives or the ballplayer runs for daylight or the TV news tells us about this week’s missing coed, but we fail to hear the quiet, painful sound of Tyronieshia trying to read.”

Then the author speaks of little ten year old Erica who tells her story about how she watched babies die in the convention center’s heat and stench. But not without first blaming the right-wing politics. Reading on, he makes a particular blasphemous statement about little Erica.

“Maybe you take that as a cue to circle your wagons of race or politics. Well, Erica, who saw babies die, sees an imperative beyond that. She drew a picture, a mosaic of faces in rainbow colors, combining into a single image. A single destiny. With a little one’s gift for clarifying and purifying that which stymies and stupefies adults, she calls her drawing All In One.

And the prophet was right. A little child shall lead them.”

The first part of the article I found amusing but this part was disturbing. The libs are obsessed with finding messianic qualities in regular people. First they described Al Gore as a prophet with his Global Warming hype, then Obama is their Messiah with his Hope and Change, now this child is possessing Jesus-like qualities for clarity and purity? The bible does say a child shall lead them but that verse was meant for Jesus. (I’ll have to get back to you with the exact verse.) Jesus Christ is the only clear and pure being, not the child who can make a pretty picture.

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