GEN:Humor: (LONG) Warning: Man oh man...!

["Earl J. Moniz" <earlj.moniz@MCI2000.COM>]

Do not take anything here as personal...

If you are easily offended, stop here...

Delete the message or skip over it and move

on if you absolutely, positively *have* to

read only politically correct messages and

opinions...

So, with an introduction like that, I should not

receive any negative responses ... if you read on

and get offended, the blame is yours ... kinda like

going to an XXX-rated site and then being offended

by what you see... don't do it!  Quit now!


Okay, y'all, I warned ya'!  8^)


Perhaps it is all a historical notion ... I'm like Ken,

I don't see anything wrong with using masculine forms

in writing and visuals - when we *know* we intend our

focus or topic to include everyone (both genders)...

BUT (and what a BIG BUTT it is!) we are men and so we

wouldn't see anything wrong with it (as the argument might

go)...  We *could* alternate our genders in each paragraph

we write and give the gender police something to do...if

they don't have enough already ... OR we could invent a

gender-neutral set of pronouns both singular and plural

to use in all our compositions. . .


I am sure that Ken encourages all his female students and

colleagues in the same fashion and in the same endeavors

as all of his male colleagues and students. . .just as I

encourage my students and colleagues to go for the gold!

regardless of their gender ... fourth grade boys who ask

for cookbooks and girls who want to know how planes fly

and is it hard to fly a helicopter? get the same

assistance as girl cooks and boy pilots. . .


I seem to recall a similar argument not in the too distant

past which involved an individual who made a statement and

before all the flaming was over, that person was dragged through

the dirt and told everything he had ever done in his 30+ years

in education was for nothing because of his attitude (which

really wasn't a poor attitude --- it was others who kept

reading poor attitudes into what he said and everything he

used to try to explain himself...).


So, we (librarians - the staunchest advocates of free speech!)

have progressed to oppressing free speech and thought

to the point of being politically correct ... not to worry,

Ken and I can become closet chauvinists and correspond to

each other on a man-to-man basis without fear of being

politically incorrect...


If we are expected to excuse poor behavior because of someones'

past experiences and deprived up-bringing, why can't an educated

person get the same courtesy for an occasional slip here and

there. . .? Perhaps because we are educated, we should be more

careful and less likely to offend - so the argument might go ...

but (and what big butt it is), if we do make a mistake here and

there, shouldn't we be a little more forgiving *because* we are

more educated than the average bear. . .?  I know many racists,

sexists, and ageists have used this same argument in the past,

but (and what a big butt it is!) just because others have used

the argument in the past isn't any reason to condemn me as a

sexist, racist, or ageist for using it now ... you'll have to

know me to find out what I believe and how I act toward others

for yourself...


If I am beginning to sound elistist, it is because I am...

Everything we do in our society should be to make things better

for ourselves, our families, and our communities...  I'm not

exhausting my energy and finances and ignoring my family

from time to time to just get an average job...I'm trying

to get ahead!  Ahead of whom?  Ahead of those who won't

send themselves to school to better themselves - but (and

what a big butt it is) who expect that their lifestyles *will*

improve as others around them better themselves and might

feel guilty about leaving them behind. . .if a person isn't

willing to help themselves, I say leave them behind...let them

have the minimum-wage jobs, but don't ask me to subsidize their

paychecks...  Government welfare is a recent phenomenon ...

a development in this century ... so we have proven that we

can live without it, and I think we can live without it again.

One of the major misgivings I have about people who advocate

big government is that one of the first concepts of any society

in history will show that there will always be a lower class ...

always, without a doubt ... in a capitalist society as well,

some will be a the top and very rich and some will be at the

bottom and very poor ... BUT (and what a big butt it is) they

all immediately forget that principle, concept, or truth and

try to convince the rest of us that there doesn't *have" to

be a poor class or bottom ... we can all live in the middle!

Wrong, wrong, wrong...  Read my lips...the bottom will always

be there ... always...so to tax me in order to eliminate

the bottom is futile, stifles my initiative, and creates

attitudes in others which provides them an avenue to *demand*

a free ride (learned helplessness - something we all desire to

eliminate in our children, but (and what a big butt it is) we

don't mind, and even go out of our way to excuse, in our adults)...


I'll help where I can and whom I can when the opportunity comes

around (just as my signature block explains), but (congregationally

now - "and what a big butt it is") it should be my decision to make,

not big brother's...


Wow! How did we get so far off topic here?  I really think the

actions of our government has really begun to change the way we

think ... in the final analysis, if one believes what a person

says is sexist, racist, ageist, or elitist, no amount of

explanation will change one's opinion ... and to point out

another person's shortcomings in public (or on a public listserv)

will only tend to make them all that more adamant in their

original position...


So, to those of you who read the warning about this message above

and continued to read anyway and are now offended, let me say this

- I didn't mean a word of it!  It was all just a devil's advocate

message and I do not believe anything I have written here...not

a single word...I was kidding..."April Fool!" a month early...!


If you read it completely and do agree with me, then great!

It is true that great minds think alike!  Where would the

world be without individuals like us to bring some stability

and sanity to this otherwise wild insanity which our society

seems to have stooped over the last few years...  The pendulum

is swinging to the apex of its extreme liberal extent and it

will come back to our viewpoint before long ... we just need

to withstand this politically correct ordeal just a little

while longer... Hang in there, baby!


Thanks for letting me vent a little...


Confusingly yours...and, oh man!, I almost forgot... aloha...



<center>earlj.moniz@mci2000.com

emoniz@nccu.edu

Earl J. Moniz

Self-Employed Librarian

"<bold>Doing what I can with what I have from where I am. . .</bold>"

Permission to use anything I type is granted . . .

I'm flattered you think some of what I said is worth repeating.

</center>

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