Re: Sagging pants & Twinkies

[JeffKirkpatrick <jeffkirk@SNI.NET>]

Hi, gang:
        Poor choice of words?
        I pray not.
        You see, I understand the FEARS associated with so-called "gang"
activities.  Hearkens back to the old Red scare of the '50s, to me.  Ah,
but the threat of gangs is real, eh?  Well, it serves no good purpose for
me to sound harsh or condescending, so I won't offer comments suggesting we
ought to know better, by now.
        And quite obviously we do not know better.
        All right.
        Still, it makes me want to cry--personally--to realize that we are
suckering for our own fears, once more, and the result is that we are
sacrificing our ability to lead and to model tolerance and understanding,
indeed our ability to teach, when we succumb to these fears and do
ourselves start "tagging"--labeling--others as so-called "gang" affiliates.
        A gentle reminder, then, for what it is worth.  It has been my
experience that the more we fear, the more we have to fear.  The more we
trust ourselves and our world, the more we know to give and to share.  The
more we may teach.
        I had a student approach me after a class I was subbing for one
day.  He suggested in so many words that he could/might kill me.  I
responded with what is basically a "so what" attitude.  I said "the world
does not NEED Jeff Kirkpatrick.  The world needs people to try to get
along."
        He smiled.
        And thereafter, when I subbed in that school, if that confused and
searching teen (who only wanted help finding his path) would see me in the
halls, he would point me out and proclaim loudly to anyone who would
listen, "Hey, he's cool!"
        Yeah, it was embarrassing.
        We're all cool.  So what.
        It's not my pants that are sagging, but neither is it my faith.
        Thanks for considering my words, here, gang.

        Take care.  I wish you well.


P.S. Does this help?

                        Thoughts of a Simple Twinkie

        At base, nature is binary.
        One is either the diner or the dinner.
        Black and white.
        Basic. Logical. Necessary.
        Black may neither vanquish white any more than white may vanquish
black.  Theirs is a reciprocal, symbiotic relationship.  They NEED each
other, to be.
        For, neither dinner nor diner (neither black nor white) may be
completely eliminated unless BOTH be eliminated, through a process which
congeals the living and the dead--the diner and the dinner--into an inert,
gray mass; a rock or stone.
        We, the living, represent a roiling cauldron--an arena, if you
will--of life.  We vie, together, in unending conquest, only through which
life persists.
        Life begets life, in eternal regenerative cycles.
        "Death" is a misnomer.  It does not exist, save in flawed thinking.
Life merely changes form, not substance, so long as we continue to strive.
        I do not fear you.  I welcome you, in trust.  For Reason tells me
you will be both my dinner and my diner, in time (indeed, have been both,
innumerable times, already, I trust).
        And ever the dance continues.
        Have fun!

*****
        The individual or institution which fails to honor and support
viable libraries is simply not credible.  For, a library, as a society, is
people, sharing in trust, for their mutual benefit and edification.  The
naive who fail libraries fail themselves.
        'Nuff said.

Jeffrey E. Kirkpatrick
Profession:teacher/learner
Present occupation: Tape "librarian" +QC
Employer: Arcus Data Staffing
Worksite: Galileo International (Denver Tech Center)
e-mail address: jeffkirk@sni.net