This, That, and Then Some

It used to be that when we were children, you played games, got into fights, wrestled (or wrastled, depending on where you lived), fell down, got banged up, or just plain screaming and yelling and having fun playing games.

Now, all that is ending. Certain members of society are slowly banning normal childhood activities, removing fun and games, simply because little Johnny or Sarah isn’t always happy. Take this for example:

“It causes a lot of conflict on the playground,” said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school. An elementary school in Colorado Springs has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will.

Banned tag? You MUST be kidding? An age old game that millions of children have played is now taboo?

Here’s another story for ya…

About three years ago, my niece was at her grade school (grade 6) and she was playing on the school grounds with her friends. Her friends were acting out a scene and pretending a tree was her boyfriend in order to complete the scene. My niece walked over to the tree, slapped it and said “How dare you cheat on me!”

A school supervisor saw this, called her into the office where she was suspended for sexually harrassing a tree. How’s that for rational thought?
When a kid cannot be a kid, we open their world up to a whole set of problems that effect them for the rest of their lives. WIth all these new rules to prevent poor little junior from being upset by the simplest things, does this really prevent any future problems? Do we see our kids being better than before? Or are they acting out more problems because we are making them weaker by preventing them from experiencing a real childhood?

More and more there are reports of contaminated food, whether it’s food poisoning from a fast food restaurant to salmonella in your peanut butter. Huh? Salmonella in peanut butter? And now they recently recalled fresh spinach from California farms for testing positive with salmonella - again!

How is this happening? More importantly, why is this happening? Are workers in food processing facilities becoming lazy and not cleaning the equipment properly, or handling the food in a sanitary manner? Do they wash their hands after using the toilet? Is someone throwing dead chickens into the vats?

Let’s get back to the salmonella in the peanut butter issue. How in the world, does salmonella, a bacteria found in pork, chicken, and eggs as well as other fowl, find its way into a peanut processing plant? Peanuts aren’t chickens, so where does this come from? Maybe someone has a clue, because with all the technical advances and gadgetry, why does it sometimes feel as though we are living in a third world country, where food preparation is not properly accomplished and basic hygiene is not followed?

Either the people who are supposed to be regulating the restaurants and plants are way too busy to check on everyone or they are looking the other way. Something has to be done about the lack of health concerns when it comes to the food industries.

Hey I understand that once in a while it can happen - but salmonella in peanut butter?

What do you think should be done about it. Should we write letters to our Congress? Senator?

I recently read a rant by someone on MySpace regarding how fake online friends are, or, as they put it, how they are only interested in increasing their friends list. Of course!

I tend to use the term ‘friend’ not so loosely. There is a difference between a friend, and an acquaintance - now this isn’t to say you can have a meaningful acquaintance-ship with someone, but most likely you won’t tell this person(s) a lot of deeper details about yourself or your life, nor would these same people be inclined to be sympathetic, understanding, helpful and accept you for who you are.

It is possible to have online “relationships” - just not friendships. How can you truly trust a person you have never physically met and gotten to know one-on-one and not just in text? If a true friendship is meant to be, it will come about naturally and the person(s) you become friends with will meet up with you at some point and the friendship can begin.

So to those who get all butt-hurt because your MySpace “friends” don’t act like true friends, just remember; A community of online people are into networking, not making hard-earned friendships - although there are exceptions. don’t take it personal.