I don’t know if y’all know this, but Kayelee pretty much produces, directs and conceptualizes all of our YA Rebels videos. But she was busy this weekend so I did it! Check out my YA Rebels directorial, producing and writing debut AND support a fantastic charity by watching the video below. To comment or see the links, please go to the video’s YT page.
And yeah, I know I’m totally awkward next to my charming, articulate sister. I’m working on it!
A while back, a friend of mined posed this question to his Facebook friends: Have you ever unfriended someone due solely to something(s) they posted? If so, why?
I answered that I had unfriended one person I only knew through Student Government due to the vulgar and misogynistic nature of his posts. But what surprised me? What other people answered.
One girl said she unfriended people if they were “boring.” I sympathize with that (the other day one of my friends posted about how she had given her toddler just a little more cereal than usual but she ate it all and wasn’t she such a good girl? You’d think the kid had invented a perpetual motion machine or something) but I don’t understand removing them entirely from your network. Of course, I’m assuming these people are actually her friends so I’m wondering why you would cut off what is probably the only form of interaction with a person because everything they post doesn’t entertain you.
And here’s where I really start getting to the crux.
Another woman said she hid friends from view if they had different political views from her. That stopped me cold in my virtual tracks. I literally raised my hands and shouted “What?!” at my laptop. I’m fully aware that I’m more open-minded than most people, but I still can’t believe someone would choose to isolate themselves in this way. This is a slap in the face of democracy and it’s something I would expect only from cult members or extremists. I wanted to respond with so many snarky comments, but I don’t know her so I held back – and am posting my response here instead.
Do people really do this? I don’t know about y’all, but I welcome differing viewpoints. How else do you discover the difference between something you truly believe and something you were led to believe because you’re lacking insight? And if you don’t allow this difference of opinion in friends, what hope does that leave for intelligent political discourse between strangers and politicians? This is one of the things I think Facebook is good for – so long as both sides are open and peaceful (no name-calling). Maybe I’m overreacting, but this made me a little sick to my stomach. And it reminded me of this TED video that I hope everyone will watch.
(Now, it can be argued, and I know someone will, that maybe she only meant the type of people who are hateful and vulgar in the expression of their opinions. Like little wannabe pundits. But I’m pretty good at reading between the lines and I didn’t get that feeling from her, so we’re going to pretend this isn’t the case.)
Anyway, I’m not really sure what the point of my post is. I just want to encourage everybody to be open-minded and to welcome thoughtful, peaceful discourse on all divisive matters – no matter what side of the spectrum you fall on. Because where the discourse ends, that’s often where violence begins. And I think we’ve all seen enough of that lately.
Shelli over at Market My Words is doing a “Pay It Forward Contest.” if you write YA or MG and are looking for an agent, you might want to go check it out before 5pm EST today. Shelli has one of the coolest requirements I’ve seen in a blog contest: you must write your own “Pay it Forward” blog post talking about someone who has given back to you. I have so many people who have helped me out so I hope it’s ok if I talk about more than one.
And I really could keep going for a looooooong time, but I think you’d get bored with me eventually – if you’re still hanging around now, that is. I really am thankful for everyone who has helped me in my life – even if you’re not listed above. If you would stick with me for a few more minutes, I’d like to mention two more things:
So what about you? Do you have someone who has given back to you? Made your life a little better, a little easier? Leave your stories or – even better – blog links in the comments!
I thoroughly enjoyed TED month and I’ll (again) encourage you to check TED out if you haven’t already.
I’ve watched some good videos, some not so good videos – and then there are the other ones. The ones that claw deep into your gut and perform a hostile transformation. You see the description and you think, “Yeah, OK. That could maybe be interesting.” Next thing you know, you’re fighting back the sting of tears and your heart is aching with a physicality that shouldn’t be possible. The words of the speaker pierce the soul you weren’t entirely sure you had.
There’s a good chance you think I’m being over-dramatic. How could a fifteen to twenty minute video on the internet possibly have that kind of effect in a world where nothing is off limits to the television programmers? But I dare you to watch Zainab Salbi talk about the women on the “backlines” of war, and tell me you’re the same person you were before you started the video. (I’m entirely serious about this one. If you only watch ONE of these videos, make this the one.)
"How casually we treat casualties"
And if you’re heart isn’t broken enough, take a look at the images of the nearly-decimated Lakota tribe captured by Aaron Huey in his presentation: America’s Native Prisoners of War. For a different kind of experience, watch some of the most amazing African wildlife footage taken by Beverly and Dereck Joubert, who have lived fascinating lives. (And during the elephant scene: Trust me, it’s worth it to watch it through to the end.)
I’ve been watching these videos all month. I’ve blogged about some and tweeted about some, but I wanted to put them all in one place – both because I want to share them with you and because I want to be able to have them in one easily accessible location for myself. :-)
♥ = my favorites
Let me know if you watch/watched any of these and what you think!
I’m approximately 20,000 words behind on NaNoWriMo and it’s the week of Thanksgiving. One of these is why I’m phoning it in with a short (but GOOD!) post for Two For Tuesday.
What is Two For Tuesday? You post two of anything. Doesn’t matter what it is, they don’t have to be related. And since I’m apparently incapable of sharing only two things with you, I’m going to call this one (Two for Tuesday)^2.
Good News. Times Two.
These days, spending about 45 seconds on any news site is enough to send you reaching for the Prozac. Sometimes, you may need reminding that there is good stuff happening too. I know I do. I recommend these sites:
Cool Project. Times Two
So there you have it. It seemed I was getting nothing but bad news and everybody was in a bad mood, so I wanted to do a 100% happy post.
What are some of your favorite websites when you need to be cheered up and/or have your faith in humanity restored?
My skin, especially on my head, constantly itches. Every time you see me, every time I tweet, every time I blog, know that my head is itching and I’m barely containing the urge to scratch it.
That may not sound too bad to you – and it’s not for a little while – but it’s a constant companion, every day, every hour, for four years now. It’s like Chinese Water Torture.
And that itching? Not only does it leave little white flakes everywhere I go, it portends of a far worse future. A future where my immune system will start attacking my cartilage in addition to my skin. Where I’m far more susceptible to heart attacks and strokes. Where any children I have will probably suffer the same fate.
What’s even worse? Despite the 7 MILLION AMERICANS who suffer from the same disease, nobody else seems to know about Psoriasis. Pay attention, I didn’t say cirrhosis. It’s not a skin disease, it’s an immune disease. You can’t catch it by swimming in the same water, breathing the same air, or touching us. In fact, if you weren’t born with it, it doesn’t affect you at all; which is part of the problem.
We’re tired of being treated like lepers. We’re tired of wearing pants and long sleeves in 97 degree weather to keep you from staring. We’re tired of paying too much money to try treatments that don’t work anyway and might give us cancer. We’re tired of our kids being bullied. We’re tired of being misdiagnosed by doctors who should know better. We’re tired of being kicked out of public pools, daycares, sports teams and even jobs. We’re tired of having to have a doctor’s note to prove we’re safe to be around.
The National Psoriasis Foundation not only funds research that will one day find a cure, they have fantastic educational and advocacy programs that make life easier for psoriasis sufferers. They are, quite frankly, the sole reason I have the courage to write this post, the guts to discuss my red scaly lesions with complete strangers.
Tomorrow, I’ll be participating in the Tampa Walk to Cure Psoriasis to raise both funds and awareness. Please, check out my personal walk page to read more. And if you can spare a few bucks, I’d appreciate your support.
I’d also like to thank the following people who have already donated in support of our team on the walk:
Hey everyone! I talked about this a few months ago, but the Walk to Cure Psoriasis is just a week away!
Please go to my personal Walk site to read more about my experience with psoriasis.
Over SEVEN MILLION Americans are affected by this disease, which has no cure – yet.
If you can spare the time, I’d love if you would join me at the walk in Tampa next Saturday. And if you can spare a few bucks, please donate using the link above.
I didn’t think I’d have the time, but I managed to read two books last week for Banned Books Week.
The first, as you know, was Go Ask Alice. It’s about a girl in the 70s whose life took several turns for the worst after she was unknowingly slipped LSD at a party. It’s supposed to be an Anonymous diary (as in non-fiction), but there’s much speculation that it was actually written by the “editor,” who edited several such books in a short period of time.
This book has been banned for drug and sex activity, but anyone who thinks it promotes drug use may be on something themselves. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture.
While I don’t think this book should be banned, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to anyone – but not because of the themes. Because it’s poorly written – which makes sense if it’s supposed to be from a drug-addicted teen. But still, it was kind of annoying. In fact, for writers, it serves best as an example of how weak adjectives/adverbs can cripple your writing.
The second was Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which I thought was fantastic. I honestly couldn’t figure out why this was on the list, so I had to look it up: The protagonist discusses masturbation.
OK, I guess. Once. But – if we’re being honest with each other – what teenage boy doesn’t? It makes him real, helps the reader (especially if he’s a teenage boy, which aren’t huge readers to begin with) connect with the character.
This book is about a kid who makes great sacrifices for one thing: to get a better education. He loses his best friend, occasionally walks 22 miles to school, suffers the hatred of (almost) his entire reservation, soldiers on through a string of deaths in the family – all because he doesn’t want to end up an alcoholic and far below the poverty line like everyone else around him.
People want to silence this brave message because of a few lines discussing something that every high-school freshman already knows about?
♥
Banned Books Week is over now, but I hope that doesn’t end the discussion.
My message to book banners:
What did you read in honor of Banned Books Week?
TH Mafi and The Rejectionist are running a celebration of Banned Books Week and asking everyone to blog about their favorite banned book.
In most cases, you can just blog about your favorite book – because it’s a good chance someone’s tried to ban it.
My favorite book is The Giver. But it’s already been eloquently celebrated by TH Mafi herself and The League of Extraordinary Writers, so I’ll defer to them and talk about another of my favorites:
Despite the fact I can never remember how to spell it, I love talking about it in the context of banned books. Unlike most people, I never read this in school. I didn’t even really know what it was about, until a scene from the West Wing, where a school-boy-aged President Bartlett got in trouble because he challenged the teacher at his prep school who was trying to restrict his students’ reading.
I clearly remember (the gist of) what he said to his father:
That intrigued me. So I read it.
OK, well I…. um… how do I say this… I promise I wasn’t trying to be ironic…
I listened to it in audio format. (I had a drive to work that was one hour each way at that time, so I listened to A LOT of audio books in those four months. Tangent: Brendan Frasier and James Marsden are the best audio book performers I’ve ever heard!)
What’s really awesome (and by awesome, I mean horrifying, ironic and head-bang-against-desk inducing) about people trying to ban this book is some of the reasons they give:
More than a few have objected to the scene were a Bible was burned.
Um, yeah. Congratulations, you got it. It’s a bad thing… THAT’S THE POINT. I mean, really? I have no words to describe how stupid this is. But that’s ok, because you’d probably try to ban them anyway.
It uses the words “hell” and “damn.”
Oh, how I love when parents want to ban a book because it has a bad word in it (as if your kid isn’t saying thirteen far worse things – that he probably learned from you – before lunch time), but in this case, it’s almost funny. The world in Fahrenheit 451 is a bad, BAD place. Books that promote independent thought are banned. Do you expect them to be intellectual, eloquent and say “gosh” when they get angry?
•
Ray Bradbury showed us just how dangerous censorship is and this book serves as a warning to a society that is sometimes a little too quick to give up their freedoms – or give up the freedoms of others – when they’re scared. The message is clear:
The fact that people want to ban a book that’s about banning books that make people uncomfortable because it makes them uncomfortable, feels like a cosmic joke.
I guess I’m missing the punch line.
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!
And I have the perfect gift in mind:
Read a banned book!
Banned Books Week starts tomorrow, and in light of the recent Speak controversy, I’m encouraging everyone I know to read a banned book! If you can afford to purchase one, that would be ideal, but if not… your local library is just as good.
What constitutes a banned book? Any book that has been challenged based on content. Whether it was removed from a school curriculum, removed from libraries, burned, protested, placed in a separate restricted section, etc.
There are plenty of resources on the internet for Banned Books Week with lists of books the banners love to hate, discussions on why censorship is so dangerous, and lists of blogs dealing with the subject directly, so I’m just going to content myself with linking to some of them.
I may not agree with the message(s) in all of these banned books, but I disagree with censorship even more. I think this issue is most prevalent (and dangerous) in books for children and teens, but it’s important to remember that every child is different. Just because a person thinks a book isn’t right for their child, doesn’t mean it’s not right for every other child. Parents who are concerned about what their kids may be reading should get involved – with their child, not with the school board or library board.
If you can’t decide on a banned book (sadly, there are SO MANY to choose from), may I offer some recommendations?
Fahrenheit 451 – When I heard this book was banned, it was like IRONY became a heavy-weight boxer, reached out and slapped me in the face. Banning a book that’s about banning books? Is this a joke? It’s not very funny.
Speak – A heartbreaking, healing, lovely book by Laurie Halse Anderson that follows a high-school girl dealing with the after-effects of being raped.
As a final thought, I’ll leave you with this picture, stolen from Laurie Halse Anderson’s blog:
