Drowning In The Mainstream

Last night I went to the KOP movie theatre and I was appalled by what I saw there. There was a group of girls, maybe 8 or 9 years old, and there were dressed like little whores. They had their ugg boots, their mini skirts, their cell phones, and their makeup... and it made me want to cry.
When I was little, my parents would have had heart attacks if I had even tried to go out in public dressed like that. Yet these kids were un-chaperoned in a VERY crowded movie theatre, and they were dressed as such.
I know alot of people who agree with me that the Main Line is not healthy. Ugg boots, revealing clothes, the latest technology: everywhere you look people are parading around their wealth. And yet, look a little harder, and you can also see the single parents struggling to get by with dead and jobs and raise their families. The children who wear hand-me-down clothing, who don't have cell phones or ipods, and who don't drive expensive cars as soon as they get their permits. They don't shop at Abercrombie or American Eagle, yet they are the ones who are truly grateful for the little they have.

But it goes further than just the clothes and the technology, the Main Line is living with blinders on. Ever see those buggies in Amish Country? With the horses who wear blinders so that they can only see what is directly in front of them: that is the way that so many of us are living, with blinders on. We live in our mc-mansions, refusing to look at the rest of the world that lives in poverty and disappear.
We try to keep to our conservative values, pushing everyone who doesn't fit our Wisteria Lane criteria under the rugs, into the corners, pretending that they don't exist. AIDS, HUNGER, EQUALITY... its like we don't really care just because it doesn't effect our day to day lives. But that is such a lie: because it does.
One of the things that really bothers me with Stoga is our pathetic attempt at a GSA [sorry Mr. Husband, and all members of the GSA, its not you're fault. let me elaborate on what i mean]. In most of the classrooms there is a laminated sheet of paper that says something about equal opportunities for everyone regardless of gender, religion, race, sexual orientation..... YEAH RIGHT! Stoga is not a very friendly place for people who are different in any way from the masses. We have a GSA, but the only true event that we have to go along with it is the Day Of Silence [a silent protest of the horrible treatment that the LGBT community has faced, held on 4-18. The Day Of Silence is something I encourage EVERYONE to do. There will be more on this later, because of how strongly I feel about the misuse of this day by people who see it as a free ticket not to participate in classes for one day]. I know people involved with Radnor's GSA. They have a freaking Coming Out Week.
I find that wonderful, and I think to myself: why don't we have one? I'll tell you what I think: I think we don't have one because of the atmosphere of Stoga. The fact that we can't allow anything that doesn't fit in with our conservative views to exist. We have our blinders on. When I was a freshman we had a motivational speaker come in and talk to us. To be honest with you, I am one of those students that doesn't pay 100% [or even 50%] attention to what most of these people have to say. But this lady captured my attention, and I found myself hanging onto her every word. She was telling us the usual stuff about how we shouldn't let high school get us down, that when we fall off the horse, we have to get back on. But there was something more to her, something that made all of it so genuine. Towards the end of her speech, she talked about her she and her partner of however many years had finally been able to get married under Mass. State Law.
Well, all of a sudden the assembly was over.
A few days later all of the students got letters to take home to their parents. Letters from the school apologizing for allowing the speaker to talk to us about such things. The speaker has never returned to our school.
WHY? Because she told us about her partner.
Because she was gay.

Blinders. If we don't have to look at it, if its not there in front of us, if we can pretend it doesn't exist... than it doesn't.
I am highly offended by this. This woman was the only motivational speaker who has ever made me give a crap about what he/she is saying. And yet I know that the school will never bring her back. We won't allow her to pass into our vision span again. We've gotta keep her on the other side of our blinders.

I know at this point I'm rambling, and I deeply thank the people who have actually read up to this point. Because the issue of the Main Line is one that I am very passionate about [obviously].

I know that when I grow up, you won't find me living in the Main Line. I don't want to grow up and have a 6 year old daughter wearing clothing that looks like she should star in a porno. But maybe that's just part of my insanity.

I'd like to think that I don't live with blinders on, but I know this isn't true. I think we all have something that we repress from ourselves. Something that we just can't bear to deal with in our society. My challenge for you is to deal with it. To look it straight in the eye, to acknowledge that it exists.

I'm a Christian, but I'd like to call myself a "Christ-follower" because I don't agree with everything that the Christian Church preaches. I don't agree with the marks of Catholicism. I don't agree with many interpretations of Christian lifestyles. For me, its simple: GOD IS LOVE. [BIG FAT FUCKING PERIOD, is i think how i described the tiny dot at the end of that sentence to April] The Bible tells Christians to keep kosher, how many Christians do you know that do that? Well, right next to that, in pretty much the same part of the Bible, it condemns acts of homosexuality. Why than, is homosexuality on the forefront of religion/political wars in our country? Where are the concerned people who are fighting to keep the Christian population kosher? Do they exist?
Someone, sometime ago pick and chose which parts of the Bible the modern Church was going to stick with. But can you really do that? Times change, translations of the Bible change. Today, most Christians believe in the idea of the Trinity [a term used ZERO times in the Bible], yet is a fundamental part of Christianity. I'm not saying that the Trinity is wrong, for I, myself, am a follower of such ideas. I'm merely pointing out one of the instances of the way the Bible has changed with the changing times.

Homosexuality is not among the 7 deadly sins, but lust is. Gluttony. Greed. Sloth. Wrath. Envy. Pride. Now to me, those are all pillars of... [drum roll please:] THE MAIN LINE. ::gasp::

Whats my point? Who knows...
Are Uggs and miniskirts the end of the world? No
But I think that blinders are. To live in the world, I think that you should be aware of the world. THE WHOLE WORLD

the good
the bad
and the ugly

Its up to use to chose which categories we put different things into. I've only given you my opinions of where I think some things should fall.

Shiny Masochism, over and out!

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