Are you ready?” Klaus asked finally.
“No,” Sunny answered.
“Me neither,” Violet said, “but if we wait until we’re ready we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives, Let’s go.
“
—
Lemony Snicket, The Ersatz Elevator (via anikaanaki)
“ In August, 1968, the country was still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King four months earlier, and the race riots that followed on its heels. Nightly news showed burning cities, white flight, radicals and reactionaries snarling at each other across the cultural divide.
“A brand new children’s show out of Pittsburgh, which had gone national the previous year, took a different approach. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood introduced Officer Clemmons, a black police officer who was a kindly, responsible authority figure, kept his neighborhood safe, and was Mr. Roger’s equal, colleague and neighbor.
“Around the first anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death, Mr. Rogers invited Officer Clemmons to join him in soaking their tired feet in a plastic wading pool. And there they were, brown feet and pasty white feet, side by side in the water. Silently, contemplatively, without comment.
“25 years later, when the actor playing Officer Clemmons retired, his last scene on the show revisited that same wading pool, this time reminiscing. Officer Clemmons asked Mr. Rogers what he’d been thinking during their silent interlude a quarter century before. Fred Rogers’ answer was that he’d been thinking of the many ways people say “I love you.”
- Carl Aveni’s FB page
Mr Rogers was one of the good ones.
^^^^^
Considering the fraught and painful history of excluding black people from swimming pools in that era, there is no way this wasn’t a very pointed commentary to the people who were being exclusionary. This was a specifically chosen visual.
It’s not a fuck-you. Mr. Rogers didn’t do fuck-yous. But it was a clear, decisive, pointed statement. It was more than just showing inclusion; it was a deliberate response to what was going on in the world. This was him saying “you can do better. We can all do better. What you are doing is wrong.” This was a sweet, simple, and relatable thing to show little kids, to give them a view of a black man as kind and professional and a trusted adult – but also a lovely and strong statement to their parents and to the world.
It could have lost him his show, or at least his national distribution. It could have gotten him attacked both in the news and personally in person, but he did it anyway. I wish I knew if he ever talked about this, and how aware he and the show producers were of the statement this made.
So often, I hear a parent say “Don’t talk back to me!” when what they mean is “Don’t question me or voice any disagreement!”
Children are autonomous little humans with minds of their own. They’re going to want to know why they can’t have a chocolate bar or why they don’t have unlimited data or why they can’t stay out until midnight on the weekend.
Maybe instead of just demanding unquestioning acceptance of your authority, you should explain why your way is the best way.
TO ALL PARENTS.
As someone who’s parents do this every single day I can tell you that all this does is make your kids resent you. Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents, but they make it really hard to take them seriously when they never explain themselves and expect me to follow blindly. It makes it seem like they don’t actually have a good reason for anything they tell me to do and like they’re just taking advantage of the fact that they’re the parent and I’m the kid.
This is the major thing that confuses me about parenting–how so many people ACTIVELY train their kids to think that “no,” is an arbitrary thing people say for no reason except to flaunt power over you.
I just got back from hanging out with a family with kids, and fucking hell, the number of times that they just yell at the oldest to accept their decree without argument–I was grinding my teeth the entire time.
And the thing was, I WOULD explain stuff to her, and she started coming to me for questions instead of anybody else. And if my answer was, “I can explain in a sec, but I’m in the middle of figuring something out right now” SHE WAS TOTALLY COOL WITH THAT! She’d say ok, and then linger in the general vicinity until I was done and could answer her question.
I get that kids are different around people who aren’t their parents, but fuck, if their parents don’t escalate EVERY STUPID LITTLE MOMENT to a full-on screaming match or 10 minute lecture about why the child is failing as a person, then MAYBE THEIR KID WOULDN’T HAVE TO RESORT TO MANIPULATION TACTICS JUST TO GET SOME SIMPLE ANSWERS TO SIMPLE QUESTIONS!
As someone whose parents were actually very good about either explaining their reasons for things, or else letting me find out the hard way, it really does make a world of difference.
The problem is if you get to school and the teachers abide by the old philosophy.
The legend. The next generation. The unconventional trainer. Cars 3 speeds into theatres this June.
we now have 2 suspects for who killed lightning mcqueen
so I guess this shouldn’t really be News as such but is it fucking anyone else up that cars actually have, like, components and specs in this universe? like setting aside the troubling implications about how the cars reproduce, is there essentially a caste system of sorts where if you’re not a sports car you’re simply not going to be able to race no matter what. or is it the other way around where a tuk-tuk with enough determination and work ethic could hit it big and eventually save up enough money to have themselves remodeled into a compact limousine.
where is car consciousness housed. is it the engine or the chassis or like, is it the Gestalt, and if the latter does that mean that if they have to have components replaced they’re technically a new person now, similar to that one philosophical conundrum about teleportation? what if you made a new car out of parts salvaged from old, broken-down cars. would it be a functional Frankenstein or would it simply not run without the mysterious spark of life that grants these noble creatures sapience. What The Fuck Is Up With Cars, you guys.
i dont think anybody really wanted to know but here you go
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
