These Are The People In Your Neighborhood

When California made major changes to its sex education curriculum earlier this year, people flipped out. Some — left-leaners, hippies and those with little rainbows next to their handles on the Twitter — did happy cartwheels and handsprings and generally bounced around like a bunch of wannabe Katelyn Ohashis.  Others — far-righters, conservatives and those who answer direct questions with Bible quotes — did angry summersaults, banging their heads on the floor as they ranted and raged.

With school back in session now, I’m wondering how long it will be until I start seeing posts by angry parents, frustrated and disgusted by what their precious spawn are being taught in school and threatening to move out of The Golden State in response. The issue? One of the primary ones is “the suggested use of gender-neutral and LGBTQ-inclusive language.” The curriculum covers grades K through 12 and many parents think kids in the lower grades are too young to start learning such stuff. The argument I saw most often on Facebook? “Just let kids be kids.” Continue reading →

Climb Aboard The Bandwagon!

BandwagonWhat is it about a bandwagon? People just can’t wait to jump on it. They may let one or two go by, pretend they don’t care about a bandwagon. But give it time. Eventually, you’ll see them going by, sitting there, pretty as you please, on some bandwagon or another.

I still know people who claim to be gluten-free. Are they gluten-intolerant? Probably not. Do they have celiac disease? Almost certainly not. Yet, they continue to avoid gluten. Because bandwagon. Continue reading →

Pardon My Stereotype

Eleven stories and 13,000 words into my thousand story odyssey and I haven’t yet run screaming into the night. Having 989 stories to go may seem overwhelming … because it is overwhelming. Which is why I’m counting little steps of progress as wins rather than focusing on the big (scary) picture.

Continue reading →

Haters Gonna Hate

gay jesusI find it very difficult to understand the level of anger and hatred some people have toward the gay community. I understand that there are folks who find the thought of two men or two women kissing icky or unpleasant (mostly two men, though … the public seems to have a strong fascination with most girl-on-girl activity). But I don’t see how that discomfort turns to rage and loathing. Some people find sushi distasteful, but they don’t hate sushi fans or want to beat them up or deny them rights because of the cuisine they enjoy. Continue reading →

Harvesting The Sticks

Is there anything worse than being unable to turn on the TV without having to endure some story or sound bite featuring Kim Davis or Donald Trump? Of course there is! There are literally thousands of things that are worse than idiots yammering away on the magic picture box. But, as my fellow entitled American friends can attest, any awareness of situations taking place beyond our immediate vicinity or circumstance is typically minimized or ignored altogether when we’re consumed with the myriad of catastrophic minor annoyances we face on a regular basis. Continue reading →