|
|
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
| |
12:51 am - I'm all out of words. Seriously
|
For updates go here: http://douglas-budget.com/articles/2008/08/06/opinions/editor/editor03.txt
Douglas needs to be more open-minded
Tuesday, August 5, 2008 10:42 PM Mountain
TO THE EDITOR:
Dear Douglas,
One of the most beautiful geographic locations God’s ever conjured and it’s rotting from the inside out with prejudice.
Do I have your attention?
I certainly hope so.
There are so many kinds of evil in this world, one form often overlooked is those who see evil and do nothing to stop it. I am certainly not acting as a self-appointed moral compass, only asking those of you who know right from wrong to take a stand against all of the bigotry and hate which have a stranglehold on this town.
If you don’t believe that our community has a problem with tolerance, I invite you to see if you can sit in any tavern in town for more than an hour and not hear a single derogatory remark or off-color joke. It’s not that these kinds of things are only muttered in bars; just that alcohol affords a social lubricant which lends people to be a little more upfront.
You can also peruse an archive of ignorance from your own home by venturing on to www.douglas-budget.com, where hometown heroes such as: To the Smeghead who regales all the world with such gems as: “I think you should move to a little less civilized place like the middle east or Africa.”
I’ll let you read the rest on your own accord, I don’t want to ruin the other surprises. I think you’ll find in the category of tolerance Douglas is comparable to any city from the South…pre-Civil War era.
The worst part of all of the bigotry afoot? It slides downhill and all over our younger generations. I was horrified when I moved back to Douglas last year and eaves dropped on a very serious conversation between a gaggle of high school girls at the public library. They were speaking very sincerely on their friend just coming out as homosexual. Unfortunately, their chosen vernacular for describing someone who is same sex oriented was absolutely appalling (think “D” words and “F” words.)
Once I determined these girls weren’t intentionally being hateful I intervened and taught them less-jawdropping terminology, although our conversation ended with the frightening revelation by one young lady that “That’s what my parents told me you call a gay.”
Yikes.
In the year since I have come back to my hometown, I have witnessed someone being doused with beer because someone else didn’t like how they were dressed, I have been out with my friends who were called explicit names because of the way they choose to present themselves and most recently a group of my friends and family were ejected from Chutes for "acting too gay."
Apparently "too gay" was dancing with people of the same sex and verbally defending their rights to do so against a group of freshly-minted graduates from the police academy after the new cops broke into a spirited chorus of obscenities. The employee who asked my friends to leave expressed concerns for their safety given the hateful climate the other patrons had created.
Thank you to all of you who had a hand in the aforementioned injustices.
Had you not chosen to flagrantly discriminate, maybe I wouldn’t have felt so impassioned to splay my frustration out for all to see. Maybe I wouldn’t be drawing attention to the critical flaw which toxifies our lives here in Douglas, Wyoming.
I'll ask you:
How much does it matter when a group of twenty-somethings gets thrown out of a bar?
How much does it matter when someone calls someone else a faggot?
How much does it matter when someone is beaten and left for dead, tied to a fence in Wyoming?
I’m not naïve enough to think I can change anyone else's opinion of a certain strata of our population. I'm only asking to exchange hate for apathy. It's okay to disagree with someone's lifestyle, but if they aren't hurting you, leave them alone.
Don’t be sensitive to some people because of what they are; be sensitive to everybody for who they are. We’re all humans, don’t encroach on anyone else’s rights just because you can.
At the very least, say what you want, just don’t say it to me. Thank you.
Kara T. Dalton,
Douglas
printable version e-mail this story
Comments
Comments are limited to 200 words or less.
Eric B. wrote on Aug 7, 2008 4:51 AM:
" Stay in Texas home of steers and queers. Between your letter and the other one who apparently works for the Dougals Lies now, and thinks we are all hicks here drinking out of jar in Wyoming. **&(#&$(#&$( stupid paper, and Kara you probly dont even know what a smeghead is if you were kicked out for being to GAY. "
Kristin Dalton wrote on Aug 7, 2008 4:16 AM:
" I applaud Kara for her well written and revealing glimpse into a problem that is not only plaguing Douglas but this entire country of ours. If you want to change the world, you must start with your own community. I hope that everyone who was privileged enough to read this letter will take it seriously and not try to throw a blanket of ignorance over it. As for any of the comments concerning Janice Truitt- The fact remains that Janice takes the time to check our local paper, she still cares about our community, & it was once her community too. At least she has the gusto to sign her own name when she states her opinion; it's much easier to hide! I'm proud to see somebody in/from this town stand up for their beliefs, I would never censor my opinion for anybody and neither should she. If you want to close your eyes and ignore problems plaguing this town/world go ahead. Our government's foreign policy reflects its citizen’s discomfort in dealing with "other people’s problems", i.e. Darfur, Sri Lanka, and Sudan. Let's open our eyes and create a more tolerant environment in our community! "
Macaad wrote on Aug 7, 2008 2:00 AM:
" Rock on Kara!! After reading your letter it gives me hope that there are good people in this world!! "
JuDee wrote on Aug 7, 2008 1:51 AM:
" Ok let me see if i get all the correct words that have been used in the last few weeks..... Ok i am proud to be a wal-mart rude circus shopping freak with my own cockeyed redneck opinions who was told to not think highly of myself and proud to live in the backstabbing village of DOUGLAS WYOMING where i actually do reside and not some other state. "
jweisstruitt wrote on Aug 6, 2008 11:37 PM:
" dear 'backbiter' (how aptly you have named yourself)...you are absolutely right..i concede...i will take my big TEXAS nose elsewhere...you know why..i DONT care about what happens in douglas...i didnt care back in 1965 when i left it for BIGGER AND BETTER things..i love fort worth...it has the opera, a symphony orchestra, beautiful buildings, NON-judgemental people who accept you JUST the way you are...after looking at your mean, petty self in the mirror tonight, you may go to sleep knowing that every single day since the day i left in the fall of 1965, i have thanked god i DONT live there any more...PS...i really fail to see why my NOT living there disqualifies me from opining..would you have told my grandparents who emigrated up there in the early 1920's, whoboth ended up making huge overall contributions to douglas, to take their BIG TEXAS NOSES back to nocona...thank you... "
backbiter wrote on Aug 6, 2008 9:52 PM:
" ok first oh my god janice stop already no one cares about your thoughts of this town.you must care about this town because you seem to have the need to write about everything that is goin on in this here town.i cant wait till walmart wheels it self in,thank you!And it is NOT your town any more, you left so you should not care any more. i dont care what happens to the town i lived in that is getting more hotels and more truckstops,oh well!And i think that it is about time you get that BIG texas nose out of douglas and what is going on with it.Build a bridge and get over it "
Vicki B wrote on Aug 6, 2008 8:56 PM:
" RIGHT ON! Kara Dalton, love ya forever and for always "
jweisstruitt wrote on Aug 6, 2008 7:43 PM:
" DEAR zach...the only thing i have to say is 'sweep before your own door'...you have not let me down one iota in my opinion of SOME residents of douglas with your letter...if you will read it again, with care, you might have the blinders lifted from your eyes just long enough to see that you are perpetuating all the things you seem to judge me as being...whether you LIKE it or not, MY HOMETOWN IS douglas, wyoming...and even from FORT WORTH TEXAS or MARS my opinions are surely worth at least as much as yours...>:( "
janiceweisstruitt wrote on Aug 6, 2008 7:31 PM:
" zach....first of all, as i have stated again and again...douglas, wyoming is MY town too...i was BORN there, LIVED there, went to SCHOOL there...i guess you could say YOUR opinion is from one who obviously doesnt care anything about his HOME TOWN any more...i did NOT call wal mart employees 'trash'..i am totally open to you giving me that direct quote...as to the breed (PIT BULL) i dont like them, your comment wont make me like them, and it is a PROVEN fact that they have killed and maimed hundreds of people all over the united states...so, i guess i (who is what is considered a 'breed', being part american indian)am a racist, bigot, dog hater..guess what...im too old to change...whether you like it or not, i am NOT negative-just truthful...too bad the people of douglas continue to be so close minded that they refuse to look at themselves as others view them...has been that way since douglas was invented.... "
Zach wrote on Aug 6, 2008 6:46 PM:
" I swear Janice Truitt you just don't stop. Every time I look to see what new letters are out concerning my town I see your comments cutting down, and degrating the people of Douglas. I imagine you need to find a constructive hobby besides typing negative letters to a paper in a town you don't live in. I am going to be as polite as possible when saying we don't care about your opinions or views. I would think Fort Worth being a large city would have alot of people who would love to hear your concerns and negativity. You tend to contradict yourself talking about how we are bigots, and racists. Just a couple weeks ago you were animal racist towards a breed, and I think I remember you saying something about all Wal-Mart employees are trash. You are quick to judge but hate to be judged. "
I Support You wrote on Aug 6, 2008 4:47 PM:
" Excellent job, Kara.
The idealist in me wants to believe this letter will make a difference. "
jweisstruitt wrote on Aug 6, 2008 1:17 AM:
" kara...all i can say is GOOD LUCK in changing the opinion of anyone that lives in douglas any more...all i can say is that they must have drifted in with the wind and brought all their cockeyed opinions with them...lately some of the finer examples of womanhood have been lambasting me (born, raised, educated in the douglas area way back in 1947, before most of the dissenting chorus was invented)..in spite of their best efforts to tell me (who now dares to live in fort worth) that i am crazy, and basically get my texas nose out of their business...douglas..aaaah, douglas...hasnt changed its backbiting little self even here in the 21st century...unfortunately, all the bigots, racists and generally mis-informed live under the cloak of red neck respectibility and will probably never change...i have been told to move back to douglas to stick my 2 cents in..you are kidding, right...i have lived all over this planet, and believe me, DOUGLAS is still just DOUGLAS...still a one-horse town with visions of grandeur who thinks it will be the 'king of infinite space' when wal-mart wheels in and finally destroys the last vestiges of douglas's 'quaint rural-ness'....oh, well.... "
Name:
Email: (optional)
Comments:
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, March 31st, 2006
| |
12:01 am - if i believed in Karma
|
then Monday morning was my comeuppance for my lack of object integrity...or it's just a classic testament to what a frikkin bonehead I am.
Nevertheless, my Monday morning was the suck.
So yeah, I have a big, bad, crush on my vintage eyewear. They are fashion, function, and damn original. I like my glasses probably way more than normal people....and Monday morning I learned just how far I would go for a pair of wayward specs.
It goes like this:
Sunday night Mikillah called to let me that she would be snowed in in Cheyenne. I figured that I would be cool and to do a little impromptu straightening of our shared space. I didn't do the floors or anything, but I did just enough to say "Look! I maintained homeostasis...and I'm sorry I ate all of your cookies."
After my obligacleansing, I went off to my room to embark upon a four-hour homework bender. I took a break to smoke and watch some Vh1 then somehow time warped to 2:30 on the couch snoring. My contacts were stuck to bottom lids so I dragged ass into the bathroom and went fumbling for my glasses only to notice that they weren't in their neat little red case where they're supposed to be living. They were nowhere to be fn found.
It's 2:30 in the morning and I'm tearing through the freshly 'straightened' apartment looking for my glasses, which are seemed to have vaporized. By the time 3 rolls in around my brain starts to fire off crazy scenarios, Could they have fallen down the drain? Could I have been wearing them all along and not realized it? Could someone have broken in and stolen only my glasses?
Then something makes perfect sense…
They would have had to have thrown themselves into the bathroom thrashcan. It sits right at the edge of the sink, it was easily a great explanation. They were in the bathroom trash...that I just escorted to the dumpster...in a dark alley...where it has been snowing for 10 hours since...fuck.
Monday morning I woke up around 7:00 and tried to think of how I could dumpster dive solo without dying. Or actually having to do it.
I went to shake off my car (which was under about four inches of snow) and prepared to initiate trasher sequence.
I just kind of reasoned that there was no way to look cool dumpster-diving. If I wanted my specs back I was going to have to fn do it. All connotations about skinny girls in cars with broken windshields in Felony Flats driving up to strange dumpsters aside.
So anyway, I don't know if it was because I was standing on top of my car and used an ice scraper instead of diving face first into the squish, or if it was because I looked like a snoopy little ninja in my hood and shades, but I managed to upset my a couple of my neighbors.
Some Mom's were out starting their cars and stared at me then one of them returned with a strapping fellow of whom I figured would be sympathetic to my predicament. I wasn't so lucky. Mr. Alleyafficiando swaggers up to me on my car perch and says "Soooo uhhh whuddoo we got goin on here?"
I tried to be as charming as I could given the circumstances and made up a sentence that contained "glasses" "garbage" and "mistake."
He leaned over to take a peek at the lipstick tubes and kleenex that I was stirring with my ice scraper while holding the dumpster lid open with my other hand, balancing on the edge of wet car hood, looking like the cherry on top of a white trash salad, and says: "Huh. I don't seem 'em."
Yeah. Me either.
I found my glasses in the windowsill right after I got out of the shower.
Everything else about my week has been rad...nothing like sacrificing yourself on the alter of humility.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Thursday, March 2nd, 2006
| |
2:34 pm - I'm not even f'in joking about this...
|
I'm REALLY REALLY thinking about trying to organize either a scrabble tournament or a cutting edge book club.
I dont think anyone would be interested either way though.
Oh well such is my life.
In other news...I spent fucking $600 shopping on the internet the other nite.
But I dont feel bad because it's my birthday on saturday. Wanna know what's funny about it being my birthday on saturday? My parents are buying me A GUN for my 22nd birthday. Thats right. A real live gun. Like one that kills people.
Although killing people will not be on my agenda. Just at targets for my own leisure. Wow. I think that's very Wes Anderson movie...I dont know why I think that.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
stillifewkarate's journal