You Are Not Forgotten

I’m not the best at expressing my thoughts on topics that are emotional or important to me, particularly in writing.  I instinctively feel that any words and formations that I come up with aren’t precisely what I feel.  So for me to fall short on Veteran’s Day isn’t surprising, and it’s monumentally frustrating. But what I will do is to simply thank everyone who has fought and who continues to fight for freedom in the world. They’ve sacrificed so much to make sure I sleep at night untroubled, and so I don’t have to make those sacrifices myself.

And I want to say a personal thanks to all of the soliders in my life. Knowing you makes me proud.

David, Aaron, and Matthew Suhr
Samuel Jackson
Victoria Ferguson
Remmington Vandergriff
Kenneth Finney
Edward Tirado
Davis Aurini
Danielo Di Julio
Krista Logan
Douglas Clark
David Sides
Zachary Parsons-Wright
James Boatfield
Robert Overmeyer
Jonathon Hermann
Timothy Terell
Ray Bondy
Lainn Goddard
Erik Uriatte
*If I’ve forgotten anyone on this list, please let me know and I’ll update the roster.

I wish I could write something moving and poignant that’d make you all choke up a bit and maybe shed a tear. But if you’re not already a little full of patriotic spirit (or at the very least emotional remembrance), then nothing I could write, no matter how eloquent, would move you.  Just do me a favour and buy a poppy or donate to veterans’ charities.  Show the soldiers in your life that you appreciate what they do for us – say thank you.

Edited: November 11th, 2009

Banned Books Week

September 28 – October 3 is Banned Books Week in North America [I know, I know, it's practically over.  My site exploded, gimme a break!]. It’s a great time to reflect on the reasons great literature is attacked and what it says about us as a society. There are at least 400 challenges made to literature every year, largely by parents (57%) and against schools (70%), most of them for language and “age inappropriateness” (fun charts here).

The official 2009 tallies aren’t in yet, but here’s the list of challenged books from 2008 and the reasons for their status:

  1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell (anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group)
  2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman (political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence)
  3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle (offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group)
  4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz (occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence)
  5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya (occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence)
  6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group)
  7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar (offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group)
  8. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen (homosexuality and unsuited to age group)
  9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group)
  10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper (sexually explicit and unsuited to age group)

If you’re not familiar with those challenged titles, perhaps you’re familiar with some of these, all of which have either been challenged or outright banned at various points throughout history:

Ban attempts get librarians, academics, and booklovers hotter than anything else (and not in a good way) because it reflects the willful ignorance of a society and its attempts to put blinders on our children. We want to “protect” people from “harmful” ideas. Which is a total crock of horseshit.

My mother has a button that she would wear to school when she taught middle school English. It proudly encouraged others to “READ BANNED BOOKS”. Do you, have you, will you?

Take a look at this list of the most commonly challenged books of the 20th century and see how many you’ve read [I’ve read 18 of them]. Aren’t you glad you did?

smallsignature

Edited: October 2nd, 2009

National Punctuation Day: Sticklers Celebrate

I edit people’s writing for a living and go through hundreds of pages of terrible spelling and completely illogical sentence structures per month. And punctuation. Oh, gawd, don’t get me started on punctuation.

Thus, it’s with great, evil enjoyment that I bring you National Punctuation Day! Grammarians and all those irritating bastards that correct erroneous signs out loud can let unfurl their natural prolicivity to remove the apostrophes from every instance of “lot’s” that they can find.

And don’t forget the world of internet punctuation offenders. Let Mr. Period tell you all about it! (As well as give a quick lesson on capitalization and synonym usage).

Image courtesy of Penny Arcade

So, happy National Punctuation Day! Take the opportunity to revel in the holiday and learn to use a semicolon, would you? I’ll be over here making sure to give those papers a particularly thorough comma-harassment.

smallsignature

Edited: September 24th, 2009