Lament #0019 - Majority Report

I am dumbfounded. Dumbfounded, I tell you.

Browsing through my art community, I stumbled about a club promoting hetero orientation (aka being straight). Heigh-ho, I thought. About time we have one. That's the trouble with being part of a liberal arts community. Liberals tend to latch onto the name and take over. (Sorry, guys, liberal arts is something entirely different! Check out your nearby dictionary.)

The club promotes pride in being straight. And, yeah. They get massively flamed for it. The entire profile page is littered with profane comments accusing the administrators of bigotry and hatred. These flamers call the club "another homophobic group pretending that it is not."

But that wasn't the best comment of the lot. Try this on for size, quoted exactly as it's written:

"You don't understand the meaning of 'pride'. Just like saying 'white pride' is un-needed because it's the majority, theres no need to say straight pride- useless you're creating hate. As a black man i find this offensive, because the majority doesn't ever need to promote 'pride' since it's never subjected to hate, discrimination or bigotry."

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Back up, people! I happen to find the above quote highly hateful, discriminatory and bigoted. As a white woman, I'm offended. But wait, as a Caucasian, does that count for anything? I am a woman, too, so maybe the feminists will back me up. Ha!

A second comment backs the first:

"Gays have gay groups because they are a minority. Groups help them find each other and allow them to socialize. You, on the other hand, have created a group which touts your pride in being 'normal'. Call yourselves what you want, say you aren't about hate or bigotry, but we all know who and what you really are."

Once again, how is this not hateful and bigoted? I fail to understand how they can assume themselves immune from the tirade, when they seek out and then flame a Straight Club. Now, to be fair, I've never visited a Gay Club so I don't know if we heterosexuals ever traverse their domain and leave idiotic flames. If anyone does, stop. It only stirs up trouble. Persecution can only breed resentment and open rebellion.

Let's remember the Golden Rule, okay?

In closing, both quotes dictate that we in majority groups can't separate ourselves like that, because it discriminates against them. Uh, NO. If you can hang with your buddies, separating yourselves from us, we can have our own little hang spot for holidays, weekends, and art communities. It's honestly no different from religion- and fan-groups.

Seriously, people.

Lament #0016 - Written words paint too!

With March almost gone, I realized that my rants have been few and far between. This isn't because I'm suddenly taking anger management classes. It's only because I have had so many rants lately, I haven't known where to start. But today--! Today I have a few rants.

I belong to a creative arts community on the web, and I've attended classes offline as well. I've conversed with people many times on the definition of art, and heard it defined by "professionals". These people all agree, in general, that writing is among the Great Arts.

Really?

Then what's wrong with everyone? There is no regard for writers, where there is an abundant amount of support for charcoal or water-color artists.

Why? I wish I knew. Certainly it's not for lack of books in the world.

"What are you talking about? People recognize novels as art!"

As well they should. But here's the thing-- NO ONE wants to read a novel. Granted, viewing a painting or wood carving is much less time-consuming than, say, reading a five-hundred page manuscript. But think about it: THAT'S WHY READING IS GOING OUT. People are lazy. NOT busy, but LAZY. They lack both the drive and the focus to devour a book, yet they spend countless hours pursuing other somehow more fulfilling endeavors.

Then there are those who hear a writer's dream to become a novelist, and dare to scoff because, "At least I went to school, where I learned a respectable career as a dentist." How dare they? It sickens me to hear that in order to be good at something you must always and only attend a school where someone else, someone older, teaches you THEIR methods of doing something, claiming it is the only right way. (This one paragraph is a premise for a whole new rant, I think.)

A considerable amount of my anger is fueled toward those silly artists in particular who paint a picture, then turn around and say to writing artists, "Ha! Here's real artwork." The sheer ARROGANCE of these people is unbelievable! I'd like to see them TRY to write a five-hundred-page novel! (Do, indulge me!)

Can people not realize that writing is as much career as pulling teeth? That it is as much an art as cinematography, or anything you might find in an art gallery? That it is as much a hobby as quilting, scrapbooking or photography?

Considering that it falls under three distinctive categories, how can it not make sense that writing is a wonderful thing? Career, Art, Hobby. Hmmm.

If you have issues with writers, take them up with God. He wrote the first book.

Lament #0010 - How gullible ARE we?

There are moments when I really wonder about our mental state of mind. I'm not saying I don't believe in people, insofar as their ability to overcome and improve themselves. My issue is with those who don't and won't.

Take this for example:

Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student, gathered petitions to ban "DHMO" as the basis of his science project, titled "How Gullible Are We?"

In order to understand how this has any bearing, I will further demonstrate by referring you to an website which explains DHMO. Coalition to Ban Di hydrogen Monoxide. (Another informative website, more up-to-date, is found at DHMO.org, although the first link provides a concise example of what I wish to illustrate.)

Pretty severe sounding, right? Yeah, well. Di hydrogen Monoxide is only water. But there are thousands of people who don't know this, and who merely agree to sign a boy's petition without knowing the facts, because "it must be good to ban this, because a 14 year old boy asked me to!" Sorry. That's not a good enough reason to sign anything.

There's my issue. Humorous as the situation with DHMO is, I'm not amused by the consistent gullibility of the masses. How much effort would it take to type "Di hydrogen Monoxide" into Google, or to look it up in an encyclopedia to discover that, yes, water can kill you, and no, the odds aren't in favor of that. Assuming one has the sense to spell Di hydrogen Monoxide (but that's an issue for another lament).

And gullibility isn't always so harmless as signing a petition to stop water usage. Sometimes it has much more adverse effects.

Take, for example, the voting of Barack Obama into office. I'm not referring to his political standing, but rather those who voted for him for, say, a single act he promised to pass. My brother recently visited a neighbor who was among those who voted in favor of Obama, but now, mere hours after his official inauguration, they express the horror of voting without knowing all the facts. Or, in their own words, "We used to like Obama. Not so much now."

Oh, great. I feel so reassured that those who voted really knew where they stood.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

With the mentality of people like that, people who think they hear a good idea, and so jump at it, it's a wonder we have a person in office at all. They may as well have voted for those 300 roosters on Fox News, instead of Obama. It would have been just as consistent.

Whatever a person's political, religious, or other views, they ought to "look before they leap", think before they talk, watch before they stand. Unlike a computer art program, where we can simply "undo" our mistakes, the world at large doesn't in reality revolve around us (sorry, no, it doesn't) and life goes on after we've made our blunder. Whoops. Too late now.

In short, know where you stand now.

Yes, I know. Twenty-twenty hindsight. Easier said than done. But that's my point. If we know the facts, all the facts, before the issue, how much easier is it to know where you stand, what to say, how to vote? I've made decisions early in my life which still affect me today, whether adversely or not.

I believe in people, as they can be if they only take the time to try. I believe we have what it takes to make or break the world by acting on our convictions, rather than standing by, or signing our names on the dotted line because a young boy asked us to. Learn, evaluate, know yourself. At least then, when the smoke has cleared and you see the results of your actions, you can know for yourself that you did what you knew was best. There are less regrets that way. I can't see anything wrong with that. Can you?