A footnote to the unnamed subject briefly mentioned in the previous post – EBay is offering a latex Halloween mask in the likeness of Casey Anthony. The bidding price for the mask currently exceeds $25,000.
How much faith can one have in a court system that frees an Orlando, Florida woman, who by all evidence was partly or entirely responsible for the disappearance and subsequent murder of her own two year old child, then convicts a mother in the death of her 4 year old who was struck and killed as the mother jaywalked with her three children across a busy street while trying to get home?
Raquel Nelson, the 30 year old, Marietta, Georgia pedestrian was convicted of reckless conduct, improperly crossing a roadway and second-degree homicide by vehicle, while the driver of the van who killed Nelson’s son and injured the mother and another child, admitted that he had been drinking and using painkillers before getting behind the wheel got six months on a hit-and-run charge. What they hey???
After more than 125,000 people joined in an online petition campaign asking for mercy, Judge Kathryn Tanksley handed Nelson a year’s probation, ordered 40 hours of community service and offered her a new trial.
The suburban mother who appeared on NBC’s Today’s show twice this week said, “There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to go through this again,” then added that she is weighing her options.
I recently saw a movie titled, The Invention of Lying. Although it is classified as a comedy, I didn’t find much humor in the 2009 film. A few scenes made me chuckle, but overall I thought the movie was boring and just plain silly. In that film world no one ever lies. Everyone tells the truth and says exactly what they are thinking. When the main character, Mark, finds himself at wits ends after being fired from his job and watching his life slide downhill, he decides to do something different to improve his life. He tells a lie – the world’s first lie. Since no one in the universe is familiar with lying, people believe everything that Mark says and he soon begins taking advantage of his newly acquired skill. Nice stretch of the imagination, but the movie left me wondering how the real world would be if everyone told the truth all the time.
The film gave me cause (yet again) to think about the downside of political correctness, an apparent good idea run amok. Now it has become a game that no one wants to play anymore, but everyone is being forced to participate to avoid being tagged out. You frequently see the absurdity of PC exposed on live TV programs, you hear it from politicians at public forums, and you even feel it when you and your peers hesitate to candidly express your thoughts, because you don’t know what reaction you will receive if your thinking does not align with theirs.
A couple of days ago, I discovered on a blog that I just happened to visit, a quote that was attributed to me. What’s the problem you ask? The problem is those were not my words. I never made the statement. In fact, I had never even visited that blog before. Thank goodness it wasn’t a negative statement. And it would have been all right to be quoted if those had been my words, but they were not. Since I was not the author of the quote, why was it credited to me?
I know what you are thinking. Of course, I know full well that it is not unusual for several people to have the same name. Numerous people throughout the world share their name. So the quote could actually have been made by my namesake or it may have been made by someone impersonating me because she (or he) didn’t want to disclose her (or his) own identity.
As I have discovered, plenty of people have the same first name as I do, just as countless people share their name with Charles Smith, Kathryne Johnson, and William Jones. But come on, there are not a lot of people who share the same given name and the exact hyphenated surname. Are there? Raise your hand if you know them. Just as I thought.
Take Kathryne, for instance. And notice the unique spelling of her given name. Now let’s say that Kathryne’s last name is — we’ll use a hypothetical — Johnson. You could probably find women named Kathryne whose surname happens to be Johnson. You may even know one of them personally. But when Kathryne Johnson marries and becomes Kathyrne Johnson-Coleman that name becomes a little less common, as was the case when I combined my given name with my hyphenated surname. It became somewhat uncommon.
I’m not saying that it’s impossible for people to have the exact name. But if that is the case, I wish that person sharing my name when being quoted on a blog or some other public place would use a pseudonym. Jill Doe probably wouldn’t mind sharing her name. Do you think?
Just recently I encountered a Boomer pal who I haven’t seen in decades. We hugged and were both genuinely happy to see each other. Years and years ago, we went through grade school together, became best friends by our late teen years, and in our 20s and 30s we were partying and hanging out. We toasted at each other’s wedding, and our children were playmates, until eventually our life’s passages caused us to lose touch. Then, one day she and I bumped into each other on the street and began cheerfully reminiscing and catching up on old times.
Just before we parted from our brief reunion I pulled a slip of paper from my purse and said to her, “Let’s stay in touch this time. Give me your email address.” She replied, “I don’t have an email address.” And then added, “I don’t even have a computer, don’t know how to use one.”
I imagine that my surprised, lip-dropping, wide-eyed expression made me look like a hippie caught by police with a blunt in her mouth. I naïvely believed that all my Boomer buddies from bygone days were as ambitious as I was about keeping pace with things, so her admission that she was computer-challenged caught me off guard. Dumbfounded, the only thing I could think to say was “Oh.”
If we had more time I would have enjoyed telling her about the things she was missing, like the wonders of Web surfing. How she could handle her banking business and pay bills on line; apply for a job or social security, renew a driver’s license, make or cancel a doctor’s appointment and perform just about any task that previously required phone calls or physically traveling outside the home. How she could shop for groceries, books, clothing, furniture, practically buy or sell anything on line — like all of her ex’s stuff.
In fairness, I would also have cautioned her about some of the potential drawbacks of owning a home computer. Foremost, be wary of hackers and viruses; having your home computer conk out when you need it most can be a worse downer than learning that your favorite soap opera is being canceled. Furthermore, if you don’t have a close relative or friend willing to rapidly service your PC, thereby eliminating lengthy downtime and costly repairs, you might have an attack of PC withdrawal pains, which is a lot worse than a bout with arthritis.
But instead of me babbling like a computer junky, she and I exchanged phone numbers, ho-hum, and went our separate ways. And here I am still wondering what happened to her between then and now? We belong to the defiant, try-anything-once Baby Boomer generation of hippies, yippies and radicals. We have a reputation to uphold. Back in the day, I would have yelled after her, “Learn to use a computer. Tune in, turn on, get with it! And get an email account.” Instead I walk away humming My Generation by The Who, “I’m not trying to cause a big sensation. I’m just talking ‘bout my generation.”