Were The “Good Old days” That Good?

   Constantly as young people in this generation, we hear older people talk about how we‘re the worse generation yet, and it’s only getting worse. God is coming soon Christians would say this is all coming to an end soon. But people have been saying this for the last decade.

          Many of the people in my generation learn to hate their own generation like everyone else. However, the question I pose is were the “good old days” that good? I think the answer is no. There is an inevitable layer of corruption that won’t leave, it is the curse of the human race.

          From 1800s to 1920 Syphilis was as common as allergies and it infected and killed many. Everyone used to smoke cigarettes unaware of the health repercussions. Child labor used to be legal, alcohol was tearing families apart. There where times when black people had no rights, women  had no rights and lets not forget about the holocaust. Even all the way back to the witch trials when un-favored people in town were accused of witchcraft and hung.

          If you  don’t understand what im saying  look back at each generation and you won’t find one where some serious stuff  wasn’t going down. Our children are plugged up to computers etc and gas isn’t a nickel anymore. Corruption will be here to stay love it embrace it, and even hate it at the same time.

          

Pink and Blue Stamp

      As kids we most likely played with toys that were created for our gender. Unless you had super cool parents who bought what they thought would keep you quiet. It really sucks on Christmas when your brothers are opening chemistry sets and cars and all you have is Barbie after Barbie. 

      This isn't new passing the toy isles in toys R US you see that the only difference between these toys aren't just that some are pink and some are blue. Girl toys are more domestic play ovens and baby dolls Barbie dolls etc. Boy toys have war "action figures” toy guns, building blocks. Some people make a big stink about this and I agree it really sucks. But what we have to take into consideration is that these gender roles were put in place is because it kept the human race alive. Back in the nomadic times, women cooked and took care of the children. Men hunted for food, protected the family, and built shelters. This was because men were physically constructed to be stronger than women. Also the female and male brain both have their strengths and weaknesses that made certain jobs easier or more difficult.

    As time goes on the expectations of women become more than to be a caretaker. All these expectations are seen in children's toys. To look beautiful, keep a clean house, always have nice hair, wear nice close etc.

    These toys have also become a way of preparing children for jobs they might peruse later in life. However, a boy might want to be a hairdresser and a little girl might want to be a construction worker. Kids do not know any better; right now their brains are like sponges so they see this and think “Wow that's how it really goes." Stores stop color-coding your toys.

 

Poetry Hides

Poetry hides in the rough pages of the books

you promised to read but never did.

Poetry hides in the thoughts of a soft spoken man.

And lingers in the words of a child.

Writing hides in the dirty penny that always

finds it way back to you.

It hides in the pin size fruit fly that won't leave you be.

Poetry hides in the beautiful women who never smiles in photographs.

Poetry is in the art of your enemy, in the jealousy when it's better than yours.

Writing hides in the old copper wrist watch your grandfather gave you

that ticks a minute behind the rest.

Poetry hides in the old women across the street.

It swims in her spidery blue-green veins. 

It crouches in the grey field of hair like a gazelle hides from a lion.

Poetry is an intruder into your everyday life.

He hitchhikes on the memories you try to forget.

He's the snow flake that falls into your lashes.

the hick-up that doesn't budge.

he sits on your shelf of nick knacks in your living room waiting for you to notice him.

The F Word

 Lately I've been noticing feminism is becoming a hot topic in the younger generation. Most strongly support feminism, or strongly appose it. 

     You could say that standing for something has almost become fashionable. So naturally feminism has become a popular outlet. And frankly feminism annoys me; well what feminism has become annoys me. To many it's become another excuse to separate us. Campaigns for feminism show us tired old statistics of men getting payed more than women. How many women will be victims of domestic violence and how many men will grow up to be abusers. And if you don't believe it and you don't stamp the label on yourself then your a bigot, or an oblivious women.My understanding of feminism is solely to gain equality. However what I see is a lot of "us v.s them", and a lot of hostility. Very often new wave feminist are focused on the wrong thing. And more times then not, their inability to get past themselves and focus on real problem at hand is watering down feminism.

     There is always gonna be that asshole who doesn't believe in or want to hear what you have to say.Therefore beating the crap out of them won't change this. "Why would a women be against feminism?" you might ask? Honestly I believe this could be due to the fact the new age feminist have distorted the mission of feminism and turned it into something shallow. The real feminists have come and gone. Gender equality isn't a reality yet, and the way things are going I don't believe we are anywhere close. In a perfect world we would be working towards something that our society is in dire need of. Unfortunately ignorance and arrogance has made a mockery of what I believe is an important subject. Either way when I hear the word feminism all I see is a label. Labels are only excuses to separate humans.

Here is an example of why new feminism solves nothing.

                                         

WTF Reality TV?

    Reality TV is shown on every channel we may not even notice it but it has completely taken over television. From the housewives of New Jersey, black ink crew, mob wives, bad girls club, keeping up with the Kardashians they even have a show about freaking Honey boo boo. I wouldn’t have a problem with reality TV if it was real. The idea of a show that exhibits real people going through real life situations is a brilliant idea, and some shows pull this off. Many are all superficial soap operas with characters that are the farthest from real. The women in some of these shows are Barbie doll bimbo types that don’t do anything but start drama and of course look gorgeous. (or so they think) The men are macho jerks who try to bang every thing that moves. And of course the stereotypes, most of these shows display a black girl that is extremely vulgar and violent, or a gay guy is incredibly flamboyant. This is just the tip of the iceberg they have white trash families and a black character that’s in trouble with the law often.

I’m not going to lie I’ve watched my fair share of reality tv, but by now I know better than to take these shows seriously. Some of the young minds that are still developing and absorbing information don’t know better. Most of these young minds watch this crap and think this is the way life really goes. They learn about stereotypes and poor, impulsive decision making, and soon they’ll make up the population of ignorant assholes in the world.(we already have enough of them) If this doesn’t upset you think of all the wonderful, creative screenwriters who lose jobs to fast talking money-hunger reality show producers.

       

A Picture in Perspective

    Nineteen-year-old local Pittsford teen Charlie Tan was accused of shooting his father. Charlie Tan and his family were victims of domestic violence, but is this an explanation? While watching the news and Charlie’s friends and classmates were crying and talking about how nice of a person he was, and how he doesn’t deserve this. A fund raiser was made to donate money for Tan for defense. This website has raised $45,000 and the numbers are growing by the day. Lisa Donlon killed her husband in his sleep Oct 7 2012. After being held against her will and tortured for three days.

          Yes, these are both tragic situations but that is not what the news is reporting. The story that is being reported is the story of the promising kid who is graduating from Cornell who was saving his family. Lisa Donlon was a killer who was explained as an emotionally unstable housewife. Her situation being more extreme than Tans Donlon's story was focused on the act of murder. Little information about Charlie murdering his father was given and more about how good of a person he was.
       Though I hope, all goes well for Charlie Tan. I wish we would also look closer at the picture of the situation. Instead of the sometimes-misleading picture, we see of the person behind the gun. Yes, abuse is abuse, but murder is murder if no one remembers it’s also wrong.

                                                         



                                                            Works Cited

"Lisa Donlon Acquitted Of Murdering Husband..." HuffingtonPost.com. HPMG News, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 

     2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/ 

     lisa-donlon-acquitted-murdering-husband-alaska_n_3008619.html>. 

MacIntyre-Yee, Tina. "Neighbors: Pittsford homicide suspect polite." democratandchronicle.com. N.p., 

     11 Feb. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2015. <http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2015/02/10/ 

     man-charged-with-killing-his-father-in-pittsford/23162077/>. 

https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/5mp7/the-charlie-tan-support-fund?utm_source=facebook

I finally finished Age of Miracles.