What's the Opposite of Civic Pride?

I had a conversation the other day with one of my teachers about the stark differences between the four schools that I work at. Three of my schools are located in a predominantly Latino town and one is in a very upscale predominantly white seaside town.

Of course there are going to be major differences in the cultural norms between them, one is incredibly affluent, the others are maybe a generation removed from the third world. One is rife with Mercedes Benz's, BMW's, Lexus' and Range Rovers, the other is rife with pimped up and out Hondas, dropped and chopped pick ups and gaudy blinged out lower end rides. There are expensive cars to be sure but they are likely owned by thugs and decked out in stupid shiny add-ons, an overloud stereo thumping crap music and the thug posture driver (where he sits halfway into the center of the car with his cupping his chin and his red or blue baseball cap pulled down low).

Anyway, lots of cultural differences. But one that just annoys the hell out of me is the seeming utter lack of civic pride in the Latino town. Graffiti scrawled everywhere, dogs that take a shit in the middle of the walking path and ignored by owners and litter. Litter is everywhere. I've witnessed people throw trash on the ground when they are less than fifty from a trash can.

And I do not get it, I do not understand why you would intentionally trash where you live. Even animals don't shit where they sleep. It depresses me to see trash blowing down the street, caught in the trees and piling up where the wind deposits it like a plastic and paper snowdrift.

Last week, when I was at this school I'm at today, I watched a young boy, about 8, peeling an orange and intentionally flinging the peels left and right. I stepped outside and told him to not throw his trash on the ground because there was a trash can nearly right in front of him. He glared at me like he'd just as soon stab me but he picked up the peels and then walked through the playground to a trash can a couple of hundred feet away. I stood and watched him the whole time and he kept looking back at me checking, glaring, and then he'd walk further and further away. He did eventually throw his orange peels in the garbage and then glared in my direction some more. He's not learning to disrespect his school in a vacuum, he's learning that from his parents, he's learning that from his friends, his older brothers and sisters. This attitude is being impressed upon him from without and he's learning that its okay to litter.

And it makes me sad really because the town is, basically, messy and dirty because of this attitude that throwing trash away is uncool and that tossing your garbage on the ground is acceptable.

At the affluent school there is a long standing program where each kid picks up five pieces of trash on the playground when they head in for recess. Many times they can't find five pieces of trash because they've done a good job of cleaning it up already. A teacher tried to do the same thing in the Latino town and got so much backtalk it was ridiculous, kids demanded to know why they were being asked to do the janitor's job, that they didn't put it there so why should they clean it up, that they were students and it was someone else's responsibility.

The attitude shows in how much trash there is all over the school grounds. I could go out in the playground area right now and pick up a couple of hundred bits and pieces of trash and barely make a dent. A dent that would be obliterated by the next recess and retrashing of the grounds.

Until this cultural mentality of civic dis-pride is overcome, the town will remain lower class, it will remain dirty and unwelcoming. Of course, the gang bangers and generalized jack-assery doesn't help either. But the trash thing just seems like such an intentional fuck you to authority and its really a fuck you to any sense of civic pride.

My First and Last Thoughts on the Beckham Invasion

Will the arrival of David Beckham onto the American soccer scene make the game more appealing to me? Nope. Soccer's nice and all but I just cannot get interested in watching it. I don't mind a highlight reel or some news coverage though.

Will the arrival of Victoria Beckham onto the American celebrity scene make the world more appealing to me? Nope. No wait, that's not entirely true. I can say with some positivity that she is NOT Paris Hilton and that's definitely something in her favor. From all accounts, her reality show about moving to America is completely unwatchable. The Gallery of the Absurd captures her quite well (and don't forget to look at the critters at the bottom of the picture).

They sure are pretty people and they've got loads and loads of money so I'm sure they'll do just fine.

Paying to Clear Your Conscience is a Mindtrick

I came across a site and service called CheatNeutral that attempts to do for infidelity what the carbon neutral folks are doing for pollution emissions. That is, cheaters can buy a clear conscience by paying someone else to be monogamous.

Yes, you read that right. Men or women who sleep around on their spouses can pay off their guilt.

To which I'm going to have to shout at the top of my lungs, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING?

I'm sure they are doing a brisk business though since guilt is an even easier sell lever to pull than impulse or impotence. Guilt sells more flowers and chocolates than joyous sentiment (actually it probably doesn't but I'm feeling cynical so bear with me). Guilt makes the purchaser feel better, like they are cleansing themselves of the reason they should feel guilty.

So purchased clear consciences for morally bankrupt people who sleep around behind their spouses back makes perfect, albeit nauseating, sense.

Here's a tip for any cheaters who happen to be reading this. If you want a clear conscience (pay attention now) then stop screwing someone you're not supposed to be screwing.

Purchasing guilt removal like this won't resolve your guilt, it'll just lighten your wallet and you'll still be a piece of shit cheating scumbag. Also, if you charge it to your credit card and your cheatee spouse sees it then you are sooooo totally busted.

[Update: Easy and his investigative team have revealed that the site is a farce and is really a big joke. Actually, he just read the site. I have eggs on my face but I'm headed into the shower now so I'm not overly worried. It is a pretty good mock up job. Check it out, Cheat Neutral.

Manners Reflect Poorly on the Parents Most

The first thing I think of when I meet a child or kid with notably good or notably bad manners is that their parents did it. They either raised a kid with good manners or they raised a kid without good manners. The majority, lately it seems, were raised without even an idea of what manners are.

CostCo on Memorial Day Sunday is like exposing one's backside to a weedwhacker, it is gonna hurt.

And the sheer number of people who behave as if they are the only ones there is absolutely fucking annoying. When you're right behind someone and they just stop and abandon their shopping cart, blocking you in the process, and then dart across the aisle, blocking your ability to go around and keep moving, eventually you just want to start dropping elbows. Oh yeah, excuse me doesn't seem to do a thing.

But don't you dare touch their cart. Oh no, no, no. They rush right back to them and shoot daggers at you with their eyes. And haastily push away down the aisle. Only to resume their annoying and self absorbed behaviour almost immediately. It's like a merry go round, only without the music, brass rings or ponies. Or fun. And the ride costs a helluva lot more than fifty cents.

But the prizes are much better, if you do well. The most exciting thing I got at CostCo today was an eight pack of chili, good chili but chili nonetheless, no four pack of Super Soakers with laser aiming for me today. And I also got another firm reminder that, no matter what else, my two children will say "please", "thank you" and "excuse me" loudly and regularly. And only a little bit because I don't want other parents to look at me and judge me a bad parent because my kid's are rude little buggers.

If you've got kids or you are planning on having kids then I would appreciate it if you did the same. The world needs manners, they are all that separate us from the animals.

By the way, on that note, swing by my pals at The Mint for a refreshing dose of the capricious and often very cool nature of nature.

If You Want To Believe...

Look through the photos and read the short blubs along with them at the International Herald Tribune's Socially Responsible Design. Just when I think that maybe humanity really has nothing but darkness and depravity in store for the future, something like this comes along and recharges my Faith-in-Humanity batteries at double speed as well as reminding just how ingenius we really are.

Particular favorites are #3, #4, #5, #7,#8 and #9. Did I mention that I really liked this?
via.

A Moment of Life Here

Grady and I went to the store earlier tonight to pick up some sugar so my lovely wife could mix up a batch of the surprisingly excellent chocolate zucchini muffins she's made many times before. The trip was mostly uneventful, if you can call chasing a 3 year old around a store uneventful, and yes, I did put him in a cart so we could actually get the shopping done.

Anyway, on the way out, I've got my son held in one hand and two bags of groceries in the other. We're in the crosswalk to the parking lot and I actually even made eye contact with the idiot bitch in the SUV as she saw us and, rather than stop so we could cross safely, CUT HER CORNER MORE SHARPLY to cut in front of us so she didn't have to stop.

It was made all the better for that fleeting eye contact with the totally implied "Fuck you" as she just drove right on by. I had a mind to chase her down and smack her upside the head but I doubt that would have gotten any sense in that thick skull.

Should I give her the benefit of the doubt that she really didn't see me? Maybe but I'm pretty damned sick and fucking tired of giving people here the benefit of the doubt. Rarely has that benefitted doubt resulted in them being stand up people, they pretty much always seem to turn out to be morons or just rude assholes.

Yep, pretty goddamned sick of living here again. Even if I did get my lawns mowed today.