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Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008I’m going to ask you a question. Before you answer it, I want you to read the rest of this blog while thinking about it.
The question is this: What is your ethnicity?
It might seem like a simple enough question. I bet an answer popped into your head as soon as you finsihed reading it. It may be the correct answer. However, I want you to think about it for a moment.
What defines ethnicity? Is it the color of your skin? Is it where you live? Is it what language you speak? Is it where your ancestors are from? Is it something else?
It could be any of those. I guess it is really up to the individual to define the term for his or herself. I’ve been thinking about this question since I was involved in a discussion yesterday evening about this very topic.
My great-grandparents came over to the United States from Poland. They continued to speak the language when they arrived, and had children who spoke Polish. But those children also learned English which became their primary language.
As time went on, and generations were born to my family, the use of Polish diminished as did the Polish customs that the family had brought with them from their homeland. Soon, my generation was born any trace of the “old country” was all but gone. I suppose you can say that the family was “Americanized.”
So, here’s my second question: Am I Polish? Am I Polish-American? Or am I just American?
At what point does “American” become an ethnicity?
Those who come from Italy are italian. Those from France are French. Germans come from Germany. But, who are the people that come from America? Why do we put our ancestors’ ethnicities in front of “American” when we say who we are?
If I were to move to Italy and become a citizen, would I be considered American-Italian? Or Polish-Italian?
Where do we draw the line?
If I were to go back to Poland I would realize just how Polish I’m not. The same for an African-American who’s never been to Africa (not to mention that Africa’s aa continent, not a country so I’ve never understood the term African-American as it seems to apply to all blacks. Not every black person in America has roots in Africa.) How about an Asian American who’s never left the continental United States? Are they of the American ethnicity? Keep in mind, I’m talking ethnicity and not race.
It’s a good question to ask yourself, and I’m curious to hear opinions on this.
We’re All Winners!!
Monday, April 21st, 2008I read somewhere recently that a principal at some midwestern school has outlawed the game of tag. I believe she described it as a “game of intense aggression,” and is therefore unsuitable for the children of her school.
Along with this, dodgeball has been outlawed in many schools. Apparently it’s too violent as well.
In many parts of the country, little leagues have stopped keeping score.
I’m getting sick and tired of hearing this “every kid’s a winner” bullshit. Every kid is not a winner. Every kid should not be treated as a winner. If you want your kid to be a winner, teach him how to win.
You can’t expect children to grow up to be functioning adults if you coddle them until they’re 18. Can you imagine what a skewed sense of the world they’ll have? As soon as they leave their parents home, the world is going to crush them because they haven’t been properly taught how to succeed in it.
We’re being way too easy on children. We walk on eggshells with them because we’re afraid their feeling will get hurt and they’ll grow up with problems. It’s our generation of 30-somethings that’s doing this, too. For some reason we don’t want our children to have the same difficulties in school that we did. We want everything to be easy for them, everything handed to them on a silver platter.
I’m sorry, but the world doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to fail. You’ve got to lose. You’ve got to embarass yourself once in awhile in order to really know how to win. That’s life. You have to expose children to the harsh realities that await them someday so that they can actually handle it.
Let your kid lose once in awhile. It’s good for him.
You Don’t Know Jack…..
Friday, January 18th, 2008….but you should. Jack McLellan is a self-admitted pedophile working his evil in California and Washington state.
Jack was recently featured twice on ‘The Steve Wilkos Show’ admitting to the world that he was sexually attracted to children. Apparently he’s admitted it publicly in other forums as well, not metely on ‘Steve’ because he has his own website which guides peophiles to places where they can easily find children. He even rates these places by how attractive the children are that can be found there.
Yet he claims he’s never done anything illegal. The ‘worst’ he’s done is to lure children away from their parents and give them ‘hugs.’
McLellan is still operating his website. I’ll post the link to it here as soon as I can find it. Never having trolled the internet for sites relating to pedophilia, I really don’t know where to look. Wilkos actually asked the question as to what kind of a person would want to visit his site. I give Steve this answer: Any person who wants to protect children. One way of beating the pedophiles is to know where they operate and how they do it. By knowing which places McLellan is promoting, we can know to be extra careful when in those places.
McLellan also argues that having this website isn’t violating any laws since he’s not directly promoting the molestation of children. Wilkos asked him about this as well, stating that if something illegal was done to a child based on information gotten through his website, he is partly responsible and should be held as an accomplice.
I agree.
I think Jack McLellan should be locked up. He’s already a ‘person of interest’ in the murder of a young girl at one of the locations that his website promotes. He also refused to submit to a DNA test at the Wilkos show to clear his name. What does that tell you? The way he was fidgeting around onstage made him look guilty in my eyes.
Here’s an interview done with McLellan:
Tom Cruisin’
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008Earlier I wrote a little blurb on Scientology frontman Tom Cruise. Well, there’s a video circulating around the net that the Scientologists don’t want you to see, and they’ve pressured YouTube and Gawker.net to remove it in it’s entirety.
Well, I found part of it on You Tube and decided to link it here for your viewing pleasure. Maybe that British Scientologist who was following me around Buffalo after the Beast article will see it and move out here to Chicago to stalk me some more.
And who knows how long this will be allowed to remain on the site, so I apologize if by the time you read this it’s been taken down.
Scientology Revisited
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008Back in 2004, Chuck and I paid a visit to the new Church of Scientology building in Buffalo. It was their grand-opening Gala, and for some reason they invited us. We were at the time, freelance writers working mostly for the Buffalo Beast, and independent newspaper circulating in the city. A lot of talk of Scientology has happened recently, what with Tom Cruise showing his true colors to the world and Katie Holmes turning into a robot, as seen in a recent guest appearance on ‘Regis and Kelly.’ There’s also a new unauthorized biography of Cruise that states that his and Holmes’ daughter, Suri, is the spawn of bad Sci-Fi writer L. Ron Hubbard himself. The author of the book goes so far to compare her birth to ”Rosemary’s Baby.”
A few years back, the boys from South Park did an episode about Scientology that starred Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Galactic Overlord Xenu. Non-surprisingly it was blocked by Mr. Jerry Maguire himself, and now can only be found in various places around the internet.
With this newfound fascination with Scientology, I’ve decided to re-open my interest in this goofy religion. Following is the article Chuck and I wrote, which appeared originally in The Buffalo Beast. This time, though - the punctuation is there and a spell check has been run so it’ll be a much better read:
The Beast Goes Scientological
By Rob Gerke and Chuck Notaro
It’s been said that there are two sides to every story. I’ve found this to be true in almost everything I’ve experienced or thought about. The case of Scientology is no different. It has its supporters and its detractors. I, myself, have never given much credibility to a religion that was founded by a science fiction writer. I’m not even much of a Sci-Fi reader any longer. But I’ve never been one to openly express an opinion about something unless its an informed one, which is the reason I paid a visit to Buffalo’s new Church of Scientology this past Sunday when it celebrated its grand opening.
I’ll admit, I knew next to nothing about Scientology before I attended the opening ceremony, and honestly, I’m not sure it’s any clearer to me now.
Let’s start with the basic question: What is Scientology? In founder Lafayette Ron Hubbard’s words, Scientology is an “applied religious philosophy.” Does that clear things up for you? If not, Hubbard goes on to say that it is the “study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes and other life.”
Scientologists believe it to be a path to enlightenment gained through auditing. This is where an upper-level Scientologist evaluates you, and through certain scientific method, helps you gain control of your true self. Your inner spirit. Your “Thetan,” as the Scientologists call it.
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