SOAP BOX!

In response to Kelly's post on book censorship:
I can't teach Huckleberry Finn to a class of middle class high schoolers, based upon its racial content... But I can play "Nigga Please" at prom so the prom king and queen can booty dance?

This isn't PC, its fuckin retarded!

WELCOME TO HELL. I am seldom one to get out my soapbox as far as politics and American lifestyles, but here we go, some things are just pissing me off.

1. Bush said "no atheist can ever be a patriot" This country was founded by agnostics seeking to free themselves of the theocratic Church of England and its tax structure based upon tithing. There is no word to describe any person who has died in defense of this country other than patriot... Regardless of our opinions of their faith.
2. Boss Tweed is dead, Tammany (sp?) hall does not need to be recreated every time congress convenes. Votes are not the property of the highest bidder, and subject to public auction. If you want to see who did what, voting records for congress can be accessed at http://www.opensecrets.org/. I don't give a good god-damn if your candidate is better than mine, they are most likely all corrupt. Special interest, is just that, people who are interested in special ways to screw the average citizen.
3. I don't want to hear another person, who comes from a household that made over the poverty line, complain about growing up poor. I understand it is tough, and the grass is always greener... However bad your life was, the future is still unwritten; shape your life, and don't dwell on the past. I mean no offense to those who truly did struggle and will most likely still struggle, I simply think we are in the only country that allows you to shape your own destiny; and this is not to be trivialized by our families roots.
4. Gay marriage doesn't belong in the constitution... It is a civil law, dealing soley with proprietal issues. Sexual discrimination, however does belong in the constitution. Denying gays the right to marry, regardless of the "moral consequences" is un-constitutional. If you wish to legally discriminate against homosexuality, the only way is to pass inheritance laws that soley recognize heterosexual partners. (This simply ignores the discrimination issue, using primogeniture to replace the wishes of the deceased). It would be "American" and not unconstitutional; just cowardly and wrong.
5. Lastly I, really don't like that straight ticket party voting is an option. It's bad enough that the voting system in America is so screwed up a chimpanzee with a graphing calculator could hack in to the voting records un-noticed... We shouldn't complicate the problems we have by giving an office to any incompetent jackass who can stick a elephant or donkey next to their name on a bumper-sticker. The whole straight ticket voting principle, is the very reason a vast majority of American high schoolers believe America was created as a two party system, and that a third party would be un-constitutional.

This should be enough to encourage some debate... Bear in mind, just cuz you can do the wrong things the right way, doesn't make you a better person.

-Shannon