my mind is orderly and clean
I feel as though my head is going to explode. Boom! There she blows. It seems recently that my mind is always buzzing. There are so many thoughts I am very aware are floating around, sometimes peeking around the corner of my brain tissue and occasionally giving the temple above my right eye a nice hard poke. There are of course the usual thoughts swimming around like me taking notice to the fact that my toenails seem to be growing at a tremendous rate these days, or thought number 4,132 who is keeping count of how many times Jackie says "Ah Honestly". I would like to point out now, that none of these thoughts are "random"--I happen to know for a fact that my brain is a perfectly organized filing cabinet(..the only problem is, I forgot to label the files). But among these regular thoughts however there are the always the thought files that are brought out suddenly from a storage room somewhere that I thought I lost the key to. So now that you know how my mind works, please to NOT consider it random as I go on a spiel on the Day of Silence and Earth Day:
Every year, there are always at least a couple of students who walk into class holding the little signs announcing that they would not be speaking that day in order to create awareness of the silent suffering gay students endure. Inevitably, someone asks what it's all about, prompting the teacher to explain. And in their explanation, they have to make crystal clear that no one is to harass or otherwise demean the participants in any way. This is the responsibility of a teacher and one with which I agree. However, it is this very scenario that those who promote the homosexual agenda in the schools have in mind. Teachers, no matter what their views on homosexuality, have to stand before the class and give sermons on the evils of gay bashing. Some will even go further and preach the acceptance of the gay lifestyle. As a result, the National Day of Silence succeeds in creating a perception of unity among school faculties on the issue of Gay Rights.
How should it be? Call me crazy, but the job of the teacher is to teach the subject he, she or it has been hired to teach. Interrupting my lesson on the Marshall Plan with a ten to twenty minute explanation and discussion of the "silence" does nothing to help my retention challenged students learn about the reconstruction of post World War II Europe and its impact on the Cold War. Here's an idea: punish students who, for whatever reason, harass or otherwise demean fellow students. Do so in the effort to create a safe, secure learning environment for all students, not to imply approval of the Gay Rights agenda. No special day is needed to achieve this goal--just caring, competent teachers.
As for Earth Day, most people believe environmental conditions are only fair to poor. And the President of the United States feels obligated to tout his environmental record every April 22. I doubt, however, if very many are inspired enough by the day to go out and hug a tree or to put the environment at the top of their list of reasons to vote for their favorite candidate.
While they are telling me the earth is not, at the least I know my mind is.