I remember when I was living in Chicago, I went to lunch with a good friend of mine DeWitt. He had lived in Chicago for a long time, and I of course was new there. Anyway, the place we went to lunch had one of those little 'What you should buy' little plastic triangles on the table and in one of them they had a little rainbow. Being the observant moron I am I looked around and noticed all the tables had them. Confused I asked "Why do all the tables have little rainbows on them?" He said "Because they are Gay friendly". "What?" I said "Come on". I didn't believe him! In fact, I left the restaraunt not beleving him. I really didn't know. Of course in my mind I didn't see any point in letting anyone know that they were "Friendly" about it.. why would they be UNFRIENDLY about it? I've probably even told you this story before, but they always remind me of that moment of personal innocence where you see the world before as a place that doesn't need rainbow indicators because nobody minds anyway.
Actually, you've never told me that story, but it is a beautiful one. You're right, there's something about innocence that is so refreshing and so beautiful, and it's such a shame when that visage of purity is shattered.
When I was a kid, I remember hearing about the forced-busing issue in Boston (when they bused kids to schools in other neighborhoods to make the schools more diverse) and not really comprehending the deal - since my school was pretty much entirely white and everyone I knew was white. And I always believed that was a 70s thing, you know? And then I came to Columbus and learned that there are distinct areas of town segregated by race, and this is 2004, and it is still going on.
As one of the kids who grew up in one of those Boston towns, I'll tell you it didn't work. All it did was help export rap music to the suburbs. The metco kids spent so much time avoiding interacting with everyone else, you sometimes forgot they were there at all.
Oh, of course it didn't work - it's really a terrible idea! (Perhaps restructuring the school districts would have worked a /little/ better...) But yeah... it just seems to have caused resentment all the way around, and hyped-up fear in the more affluent, White schools.
i posted this elsewhere, but i can't stop thinking/laughing about it. so the other day at the state house here in boston, there were thousands of people yelling assorted stuff. one guy was harassing one of the reporters covering the same-sex marriage debate(homostorm 2004 as my gf calls it), he was yelling, "gay marriage is gay!" over and over. niether side could figure out who he belonged to.
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timeasmymeasure
!@$!@#!@%)(*!@#
Date: 2004-02-14 05:24 am (UTC)Re: !@$!@#!@%)(*!@#
Date: 2004-02-14 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-14 12:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-14 02:24 pm (UTC)When I was a kid, I remember hearing about the forced-busing issue in Boston (when they bused kids to schools in other neighborhoods to make the schools more diverse) and not really comprehending the deal - since my school was pretty much entirely white and everyone I knew was white. And I always believed that was a 70s thing, you know? And then I came to Columbus and learned that there are distinct areas of town segregated by race, and this is 2004, and it is still going on.
Blows my mind.
Re: Bussing
Date: 2004-02-14 03:19 pm (UTC)Re: Bussing
Date: 2004-02-14 03:31 pm (UTC)stock up on water, the queers are coming.
Date: 2004-02-14 03:49 pm (UTC)Re: stock up on water, the queers are coming.
Date: 2004-02-19 04:16 pm (UTC)Must be why I like it!
(Whenever I'm annoyed with Jen, I always tell her she's "so gay." Yeah. I rule.)