Friday, April 03, 2009

Did You Really Just Compare Yourself to MLK Jr?

Okay - I wrote this much earlier today, and had planned on posting it when I got home. But obviously, things changed a bit with the shootings (if you haven't heard about this, you've obviously been hiding under a rock somewhere - check any major news site for the events in Binghamton, NY, or look at my post from earlier today). Anyway, here is the rant that was originally intended for today.

I came across this story on CNN today. As a quick run-down, a woman in California is upset because her kid's school district cancelled graduation - for eighth graders! So, as a form of protest, she's encouraging people to keep their kids out of school today. Apparently, the way things work there is the school district loses money for each day a student is absent. Her idea is to cost the district as much money as possible to draw attention to this action by the school district.

Fine. I personally think it's a rather stupid to get worked up over a "graduation" ceremony for fucking eighth graders, but she has every right to be an idiot.

My problem is how she justified this. According to the article, she said, "Peaceful civil disobedience has moved mountains in this country in the past, and the kids learn about Martin Luther King each year and this is exactly the example he set." WHAT THE FUCK!?! She's comparing making a petty protest about a fucking eighth grade graduation to Dr. King's work for racial equality and civil rights? I'm sorry lady, you're not honoring Dr. King's legacy with this shit; you're cheapening it. Let's face it, if your precious little yuppie larva doesn't get to sit in a hot auditorium for an hour only to receive a little slip of paper saying "Congratulations for finishing Middle School," the world isn't going to end. They will still go to high school. It's not like they're going to be checking for eighth grade graduation certificates at the door next year at the high school.

In my opinion, lady, you're not upset at the fact that they cancelled the graduation. Your upset at the fact that you no longer will have the chance to stand on display and brag about your kid and get the chance to say "Look at me! Look at how great I am because my kid finished middle school!" If you were really concerned about the impact the lack of a graduation ceremony is going to have on you kid, get together with a bunch of your kid's friend's parents and arrange a trip for this group of friends go out to a restaurant of their choice; maybe someplace like Dave and Busters.* I'm sure if you asked the kids, they would probably prefer a Saturday afternoon playing video games and hanging out with friends over sitting in that hot auditorium.


* For those of you who haven't heard of Dave and Busters, it's kind of like Chuck E. Cheeses, only not for little kids. It has real food and better games. Oh, and after 9:00 PM, they serve alcohol.

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