Wednesday, July 28, 2010

No Comment...or if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all

I'm baaaaccckkkk. Sorry, it's been awhile. Vacation will do that to you. Or is it really vacation if you spend the entire time at your in-laws, making your own bed, refereeing your children, doing laundry...it seems to me it's just same stuff, different location. I think I read once, "Same circus, different tent."

Anyway, I was avoiding cleaning and organizing the craft room for another day by trying to catch up on US news on the New York Times website. And it happened again, I read one tiny article (this one on the new movie starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore)...and spent the better part of an hour reading all the readers' commentary that followed. People are frightening. The hatred and vitriol that is spewed in these comments are awful.

Then, I was checking Facebook to see if my friends are doing more exciting and fun things than I am (which, of course, they are - people are on the Cape, snapping adorable pictures of their cute little munchkins while I am at home refereeing my children), when I saw a post from Lands' End announcing a "Design a Tshirt" contest for kids. Seems innocent enough, doesn't it? Yeah, you would think so. But, you would think wrong. Canadians are complaining because they aren't allowed to participate (and I join those complaints, silently of course, because it just doesn't seem right - I am still an American). Home schoolers are questioning what happens to the prize money if their cherub wins, since the prize is to be awarded to the art department of the child's school. Parents of younger children (age 2-3) complain because their children aren't eligible - this is direct quote: "There are some really smart and talented kids their age, too. It's amazing what having artistically talented and educated parents that are involved can do for a young child." - seriously, get over your artistically talented and educated self (and by the way, I'm not a grammar expert, but I think it should read "who" not "that"). Those over the age of 14 complain because they are too old to participate. And then there's the whole group of smarty pants who are quick to point out that penguins live in the ANTartic, not the Artic. Umm....people? it's a drawing contest for children. Have your little mini-Van Gogh whip out his/her Crayolas and draw a cute little picture and mail it in. Shut up already. If you have that much time on your hands, book a trip to the Gulf and go wash the oil off a couple of birds.

3 comments:

  1. Enjoyed this column greatly! I do like to read what folks are posting, but I don't want to be sucked into such negativity, so I move on. And yes, going out to do something positive would be a fine way for these folks to burn some extra righteousness.

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  2. My oh my, what a good topic! Shocking what people will type into a computer.

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