The Way of the Future

            I have to congratulate educators of our youth’s awareness of news media biases.  Kids these days pick up on the selling aspect of news broadcasting.  People enjoy watching conflicts and consider harmony boring, so news media delivers this product to its viewers with emphasis. Kids also understand the pictorial angle is important and that it can manipulate viewers.  Promotions with catchy tunes and coverage of daring reporters being filmed near the line of fire give stations an aura of ubiquitousness and foresight.  They also know journalists can sensationalize the most insignificant piece of news, creating controversy and drama.

            Let’s not forget to talk about the political biases we find in television and newspaper reporting.  News can never be reported in an unbiased manner because language itself can never be neutral.  So slants on words become a tool for news media to sublimely indoctrinate liberal or conservative views in the minds of their public.

            According to the Pew Research Center’s study which compared preferred news information sources in 2010, 65% of the population under 30 years of age cited the Internet as their main news outlet, a figure that has doubled since 2007.  One can hardly blame them for choosing the Internet as the favorite go-to place for news any more than one can criticize someone choosing to shop at Walmart rather than Macy’s.  One can find anything they need at Walmart; everything you want to know about is at your fingertips on the Internet.  You can personalize what news you want to watch and when you want to watch it, unlike television or newspaper news that airs at specific times during the day or goes to print at certain times at night.  Although all news sites have advertisements, they aren’t flung at you in such repetition as on TV and they don’t have to be manually sifted through to get to the rest of a story that might be buried somewhere in the second to last page of a section of a newspaper.  Perhaps the most salient feature that draws consumers to the Internet is the fact that it is free.

            Major news journalists will eventually have to find their niche on the cyber highway.  It doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult a task.  However, I don’t see this increasing the viewing of news in younger generations that much.  Our society leans very heavily on being visually entertained.  Reading for many is just too boring.  As the shift is made, as I believe it most certainly will to electronic news media, the potency of news broadcasting will diminish.  We will have later generations that don’t know what’s going on in the world from either a biased or unbiased point of view because reading the news won’t be the biggest reason for accessing the Internet.   And when it is, I fear that many will make judgments based on a single article that is read, without necessarily taking into account its sources or contradictory points of view.  Kind of the same scenario we have now, eh?

I'll Never Get It

            I am one of those that “just don’t get it.”  I do not understand how so many people continue to feel so disturbed over racial epithets.   I mean, isn’t the world much wiser now?  Can’t we recognize those that say these mean and hateful things are simply ignorant of the fact that we all are created equal?  Can’t we just inwardly refuse not to listen to these remarks? 

After some serious contemplation I have come to the conclusion that I can because I have never been the constant target of sexually perverse comments or racial epithets.  There has always been some sort of invisible force-field surrounding me.  I think it is called “being white and middle class.”  Yeah, I’m sure that is what has protected me from such verbal abuse.  As a member of the dominant group in American society I have unconsciously enjoyed this protection, all the while verbally denouncing the use of hate speech.  It kind of reminds me of the game Armchair Quarterback where you make the calls and assess the penalties of a football game broadcasted on television.  It’s easy to play the game in the comfort of your own living room, but put on a uniform and get down on the actual field and it’s a totally different story. 

Lakoff makes a relevant point when she mentions hate speech is only meaningful if its connotations have been maintained by repetition.  Perhaps this explains Naylor’s initial response to be called a “nigger.”  She had never heard someone being called this before and therefore could not make sense out of its meaning.  I distinctly remember being called a “PT” in high school and could not make sense of what it might have meant, even after my dad told me what the letters stood for.  “What’s a prick?” I had to ask.  It was a very embarrassing conversation, but at least I was aware of the term and how horrible it was to be called such a thing.  Obviously this term had endured over time as well.

I can’t help but disagree with the old saying “sticks and stones might break my bones, but words will never harm me” after reading our text this week.  The damage from verbal sexual assault and racial slurs goes far deeper than I could ever imagine; it is equivalent to wrongful physical actions and should be dealt with swiftly and punitively.

It is unfortunate that this sort of behavior has many of the same characteristics as a virus.  Somehow viruses find some point of penetration in the human body and invade cells to replicate over and over again.  There is no antibiotic available that effectively kills any virus that has been known to man.  And while our bodies wrestle with one virus, another is in the wings waiting to pounce.  I liken this battle to the problems of discrimination that our nation faces.  There will always be groups of individuals who value their culture or race more than others and make it known by words and actions.  We will try to combat the damage that comes with these attitudes, but we will never be completely free of them until we find a cure.  I just hope that we are seriously looking for one.

It's A No-Brainer, To Me

I have come to understand any conclusion regarding the debate about the value of happiness verses self-respect will vary depending at which stage of life one is currently in. 

When I was young, my self-respect was derived from the behavior of my parents as they modeled this quality in all aspects of their lives.  This gave me the courage and resilience to keep myself from participating in actions that might have forced me to lose my self-respect and the respect of my family and others.  I was expected to live by these standards, which at the time seemed just and necessary if I was to be trusted.

            Then I moved 200 miles away to college.  And I was 18 years old.  For many young girls this is a scenario ripe for chaos and I did not disappoint.  Temptation, plus the added amenity of freedom, all but overwhelmed me.  But boy, I was happy; infinitely happy.  My parents did not find out about my “happiness” until I decided to drop out of college; this after they had paid tuition and room and board for 3.5 years.  A couple years later, after being married to a man that I came to despise with all my heart because of his physical and emotional abuse, I finally came to my senses and began to repent.  Yes, repent, although I had no god at the time.  I repented in hopes of discovering another dimensions of self-respect now that the other form had been forfeited.  I needed to find contentment in whom I was as a person, and establish a goal to work towards.  One way I figured this could be accomplished was knowing that I was trying to be the best person I could be, not because my parents or anyone else was demanding it of me, but because it is what my soul desired.  I knew it was possible, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it.  After all, self-respect is not something you can pull out of a drawer or buy off the shelf; it is an inner state of being.

            Becoming a parent is the one exception to my belief that self-respect is better than happiness.  Just knowing I could create life brought a sense of power in an acute way.  Giving birth and watching my children mature has made me very happy indeed.  It has been the happiest period in my life, thus far.

            Now I am set to finish something I began in all earnest back in 1974: to get a degree in teaching.  I am nine weeks away from this mark. (Everyone say, “Upsilamba!”)  My completion of college is not only necessary to meet the demands of our economy, but to show appreciation for what support my parents gave me as I entered adulthood.

            I could continue this narrative about how self-respect has empowered me to face the conflicts that come with motherhood, moving into a new neighborhood with discrimination running rampant, or returning to college after a long, long drought of classroom and technological inexperience.  However, what I choose to emphasize at this point is the importance of standing on the side of truth and admitting to oneself and others when wrong.  Perhaps this is the most under-preformed and underrated behavior today.  Failure to do so impacts our most intimate interactions as well as the decisions that affect society as a whole.

Self-respect is something that will out-perform and outlast happiness if we allow it to be the anchor of our words and actions.  Happiness, which is temporal at best, will naturally follow if self-respect leads.

It's Just Who I Am

The manner in which one carries themselves in public has much to do with two features of life: the personality that is acquired at the moment of conception and the experiences in life that act as forces to shape that personality as one matures.  I was fortunate to have parents that were both outgoing, yet conservative in nature.  Because my father was in the service I was provided the opportunity to experience different environments and various cultures as we moved every year and a half.  These factors were the basics of the context in which I learned how to function as a young girl and how I have adapted to my life as a mature adult. 

            I enjoyed very healthy relationships with my family and friends growing up.  Although my family was not wealthy, I lacked no physical, emotional, or spiritual nurturance and therefore was content.  I was smiled at and learned to smile a lot myself.  People liked being around me.  I gave off good vibrations; real positive and upbeat.  It is so sad that today’s female population can’t smile at just anyone for fear of being thought of as a freak or that they are loose.

            I have enjoyed very good health as well.  I have always been physically strong and very much an athlete.  If one were to observe me walking through campus it wouldn’t be difficult to recognize by my gait that I played some type of sport.  I admit I was a tomboy through and through.  Climbing trees was my fame and volleyball was my game.  And I am okay knowing the way I physically maneuver my body isn’t all that appealing to the opposite sex.  I like who I am and the things I can do and the people who appreciate me for all that I am.  Like my husband of 29 years.

            Of course, it should go without saying that I like to wear sweats and baggy jeans instead of leggings or pants that often show every inch of cellulite that I have acquired over time.  I do appreciate style though.  My idea of style is coordinating colors, tasteful contour of lines that accentuate my body instead of punctuating it, and reasonable heel height.  I assume by now that anyone reading this post would realize I am an older woman who is pretty much set in her ways.  All I know is that I need to feel comfortable with what I wear in order to be myself. 

            Moving from location to location definitely impacted my mental outlook on life. I was forced to adapt and grow in self-identity and self-concept or drown in inhibitions wherever my father was transferred.  I enjoyed every move we made; it presented challenges and compensation on my behalf if I was to succeed in school and in play.  I developed self-efficacy at a very young age.  And this belief in my own abilities is what has inspired me to return to college after redshirting for 37 years.  It is interesting though.  The students in face-to-face classes generally do not pick me for group work because of my age.  It’s a great feeling when I can see they wish they had.    

Me and My Dad: How We Communicated

I’ll never forget.  Every evening when my dad got home from work he would give my mom a kiss and sit himself on the end barstool and begin taking off his tie.  He did this very slowly as he waited for her to start talking about her day playing bridge at the women’s club and how dumb it was that Mae chose to trump some card instead of going down on some other… To me is sounded as if she had spent the day making a spaceship with these women.  (Oh, for sure she tried to teach me the game, but after several lessons I still had no clue what I was supposed to do, so she at last gave up on me.  Whew!)  She would go on for what seemed an eternity discussing the game’s strategies that weren’t played properly while my dad actually listened to her.  It was after he had given her time to vent about all the important matters of her day that he would go upstairs, change clothes, and return downstairs to read the newspaper and finish his third pack of Salem Lights.

            My dad was a man of few words, but when he spoke I wanted to listen.  I always knew when I asked for advice he would hear me out fully, inquiring into parts of my discussion he didn’t quite understand.  He would formulate his answers only if he knew what he said was relevant and trustworthy information to share.  He wouldn’t offer too much information, just enough to answer my questions, unless I pressed him for more. I do not believe he did this for any other reason than he wasn’t impressed by the sound of his own voice.  It wasn’t in his nature to impress others with his knowledge, which he seemed to have an abundance of.

            Holmes talked about how silent participants can be the most powerful players in conversations.  I can speak for my older siblings when I say his presence was enough to keep your mouth in line.  It wasn’t because he was a prude or that he would call me out when I expressed my opinions either.  All he had to do was sort of snort and I knew he didn’t agree with me.  My opinion was always valid in his eyes as it was my opinion.  He simply knew he didn’t have to rant and rave that I was wrong even though he might strongly believe I was.

            My dad never brought work home, something my mom resents to this day.  He rarely initiated conversations about just any old thing, but would engage in those discussions he was invited into.  To some it might seem as though he was some sort of recluse or introvert, but that was hardly the case.  His humor was always timely and appropriate for the audience he addressed.  He also lived by the Ten Commandments although he never spoke of them or set foot in church the entire twenty-six years I knew him except when he led me down the aisle.  Above all else, he treated everyone with quiet respect.

            I often wish I had initiated more conversations with my dad while he was alive.  But I, like my dad, was content just being with someone I loved and trusted, feeling comfortable with few words spoken.  Perhaps this sort of communication is the most sincere of all.

The Globalization of English

Prior to the onslaught of current twentieth century technologies that now enable world communities to communicate with each other in a matter of milliseconds, the evolution of English had been contingent upon the nature of ecological factors present in a particular setting.

The compromise of idiolects and dialects in America was slowly but surely influenced by other languages that it came in contact with via immigration and migration. Communication demands forced adaptations of our language for the sake of commerce and co-existence. Linguistic variations depended very much on the interaction of individuals and cultures, much to the chagrin of past and present prescriptionists.

            Simplified versions of English are rearing their ugly or inevitable heads, depending on how one embraces the evolution of the English language, in most corners of our society. I have just learned there are several subsets of English contrived to facilitate the limited vocabulary of nonfluent speakers. One of these tools, Special English, has roughly 1,500 words that it uses to broadcast news and special features to its millions of listeners worldwide. It would, however, seem apparent that such manifestations of English are restricted to social class and have become the vernacular of an underground English movement that has been in existence for over forty years.   Other examples of English transformation are seen in business, medicine, science and technology, navigation and academia. As people have come to be increasingly mobile, both physically and electronically, English has become the most populous language spoken in the world, second only to Mandarin, largely due to U.S. military and economic prowess. It is the lingua francas used in most economic and political arenas as well as cultural venues. This integration of world’s societies, known as globalization, is mainly the result of one technological advance in communication: the Internet.

            The Internet originated in English speaking countries and uses programs with key words based on the English language. It is reported that there exists as much as an 80% bias towards all web content written and stored in English. Perhaps the main reason English has become such a dominant language in the economic and political world is its ability to be shaped and sliced and redefined by its speakers, much the same way America has been redefined by its members since WWII. The globalization of English lends itself, therefore, to the emergence of ‘Englishes’, or hybrid varieties of English, with the possibility of its native speakers one day acknowledging they speak just another version of its form.

            Because of its contact with different users in different geographical areas of the world, the perpetuance of Standard English as the unifying language of the universe has long since passed into the night. As these groups learn to communicate outside their own elite spheres of influence they will create and conform their own language according to their individual needs. As more and more countries are insisting their children learn English to be internationally competitive in our global society, it would seem prescriptionists will have to do their best to preserve the English language with all its complex rules as an art form while at the same time closing their eyes and ears to the reality that language is a dynamic beast of its own that cannot be constrained by any human force on earth.