And Speaking of Political Correctness...

Lots of grumbling out there this morning about Firefox. I like Firefox. But I like the First Amendment more.

Anywhooo...

A modern classic, wouldn't you say?

(James Finn Garner. Macmillan Publishing Company,  New York. 1994.)

When they were first written, the stories on which the following tales are based certainly served their purpose-- to entrench the patriarchy, to estrange people from their own natural impulses, to demonize "evil" and "reward" and "objective" "good." However much we might like to, we cannot blame the Brothers Grimm for their insensitivity to womyn's issues, minority cultures, and the environment. Likewise, in the self-righteous Copenhagen of Hans Christian Andersen, the inalienable rights of mermaid were hardly given a second thought.

Today, we have the opportunity-- and the obligation-- to rethink these "classic" stories so they reflect more enlightened times. To that effort I submit this humble book. 

We've taken to reading a story after supper just before we all go our separate ways for the evening.  

Call Me Up! (updated with citation)

From Whys and Wherefores, William Dodge Lewis and Albert Lindsay Rowland, The John C. Winston Company, Chicago &c., 1930.

You are in the 5th Grade. You have forgotten what the arithmetic assignment is. What can you do about it?

If you have a telephone... . Does this presume that if you do not have a telephone, you're screwed on your arithmetic assignment?

See. The makers of technology always want you to think you are screwed if you don't have their technology. If you don't have dictionary.com on your phone, you'd not have been able to pull up the definition of anathema and save A. Leland from making a definitional mistake. Therefore, having dictionary.com on your handheld or mobile device is necessary. False.

"This is Margaret speaking."

Ah yes. Those were the days.

Red hair.

Let's bring back courtesy to the pocket dial. "I'm ever so sorry to have intruded. It was a pocket dial. Good day!"

"The telephone companies prefers this." No kidding. And all the easier to record you.

"The Seven Best Colleges For Free Speech: 2012"

#3 That School Up North University of Mississippi*

#4 Mississippi State University

#1 James Madison University (Virginia)

#2 College of William and Mary (Virginia)

#5 University of Tennessee Knoxville

#6 University of Virginia

#7 University of Pennsylvania

From FIRE's the announcement at HuffPo:

Many readers also noted that the institutions on last year's list weren't evenly distributed across the country, and some folks suggested that the lack of perfect geographic balance undermined the credibility of the list. It doesn't. While we'd love to have a model institution for student speech from every state in the union, some states simply aren't living up to their end of the bargain! Take California, for example, which has exactly zero green light schools out of the 45 we review, and where the president of the University of California System is currently being asked to ban protected speech.

Again, we'd love every state to boast at least one college that seriously respects student speech. But the truth is that some states -- like Virginia, for example -- start with one college earning a green light, and then other campuses see how easy it is to protect students' First Amendment rights and decide to join in as well. The most recent example of this is Mississippi: Once the University of Mississippi received a green light rating, rival Mississippi State University followed closely on its heels. Given that general counsels of universities talk to each other, and that many policies apply throughout a state's entire public university system, it should probably be no surprise that some states have good policies with regard to free speech, while others don't. The good news is sometimes just one school's decision to repeal outdated and unlawful speech codes can trigger change across an entire state.

[my emphasis]

*When it comes to free speech I'll honor Ole Miss by using it's rightful name.

FIRE! (Updated with minor edits)

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has awarded Mississippi State University the 'Green Light' rating for MSU's free speech policies. I'm pleased to report that That School Up North also has a FIRE green light. So here in Mississippi we have two, of only 15 colleges and universities in the United States of America, which protect-- and dare I say? promote-- free speech. 

Keep reading to see the full list. Most surprising-- to me... .* 

Decoration Day

Red, white & blue

Rhode Island made Memorial Day-- not Decoration Day which was originally honored soldiers killed in the Civil War and was observed only in the northern states-- a legal holiday in 1874. By 1910 all states and territories had done likewise except Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. [According to my crappy old Encyclopedia Britannica (1962) whose entry for "Memorial Day" refers me to the entry on Decoration Day.]

Disobedience and Misbehavior

I am working on a post titled, "The Lesson of Obedience." The main inspiration comes from Book of Good Manners by Frederick H. Martens (1923). This will be another in a "series" of posts on manners and civility. Here are the previous posts:

The Lesson of Consideration

Mind your Manners

4-Way Civility vs. Roundabout Impoliteness

Meanwhile, I ran across two examples of human misbehavior in my morning travels around the world wide web. 

Tip of the hat to Kris at Shout First, Ask Questions Later-- whose subtitle is "Politics and one mother with a keyboard. Because in front of every informed voter is a frightened politician"-- for the first example. It is a video shot by the mother of two young boys who have thrown/are throwing a five pound bag of flour all around the living room. 

Some questions come to mind. Why is she video taping this instead of disciplining them? Did she already have the camera or did she allow them to continue while she went to fetch it? When is she going to start stopping them? And why-- why??-- would she put this video on-line? This is the equivalent of me catching Rocky doing something unacceptable in the living room, taping him, and then uploading it. "Look! I can't teach Rocky not to poop inside! Aren't I cute? Oh no! Poop. What am I going to do?"

The second story takes us into a future where the two boys, above, have grown up* to become staffers for Mississippi Congressman Steve Palazzo. (H/t Majority in Mississippi) The boys and their fellows throw

a two-night party in Annapolis and tried to impersonate the Congressman after getting a call from local police.

Occupy the Condominium. From the Roll Call (at The Hill) account:

Mind your manners

As has been noted on the World Wide Web recently, we in The South-- especially The Rural South-- are a well-mannered bunch. There's the farmer wave, the "hey" to strangers, the "yes, sirs" and " no ma'ams," the hierarchical door opening/holding, and of course, the civilized behavior at 4-way stops. It's all very pleasant. (Sure, there are individual exceptions, but they are not the rule.)

I've been reading through the early chapters of  The Book of Good Manners by Frederick H. Martens, published in 1928 by Social Culture Publications (New York). What a delight.  

Parents of the "occupiers" of various cities should have read this crappy old book  20-30-40 years ago. 

Representative American parents, who have the best interests of their children at heart-- and for whom this book has been written-- will not undervalue the advantages of an environment of true gentility and culture where their child is concerned. (p.16)

 Ah. But 20-30-40 years ago we were so modern. Our children were finding themselves. We couldn't be bothered making them mind their manners. Messing with the food on their plates, talking with their mouths full, banging their spoon and fork together, reaching across others, and "chattering incessantly" were our little dears' ways of expressing themselves. Aren't they just adorable?!

Self-expression of the part on the child is one of the cardinal education principles in the child-training of our day but, as a rule, the table is not the place for it. The child is really an intellectual minor: it cannot expect to share the table-talk of its elders as an equal. (p.21).

Intellectual minor! It's so inferior to its elders that it doesn't even get a gender-specific pronoun yet.

Sadly, the "Main Essentials of Good Child Manners"-- 

respect, obedience, and regard for the rights of others, the virtue generally known as "fair play"-- (p.22) [my emphasis]

were cast aside by many parents 20-30-40 years ago. It's a shame, and it shows.

~~
There's more, but this seems like a good place to stop for now.

A little story

Retold by Alan Benjamin; Illustrated by Jeffrey Severn; Published by Western Publishing Company, Racine, Wisconsin

Those of a certain age may remember this little story of two friends who live in very different worlds. "A city mouse was once invited to visit a friend who lived in the country."

The city mouse was curious about country life. Simply curious. Apparently, she had no preconceptions about country life. Or if she had, she was keeping an open mind.

She found country life rather pleasant, until she and the country mouse sat down to a meager supper of "nuts and berries and a few stalks of wheat." (We hope the country mouse was not gluten intolerant.) Although she found the meal boring, she was polite and ate just enough so her friend's feelings would not be hurt. 

After supper the two went for a walk. The country mouse was "all ears" as the city mouse told her of the fine home and delicious food city life offers. 

The city mouse had a hard time falling asleep because of the unfamiliar-- and scary-- country night sounds. "The country mouse, on the other hand, was peacefully dreaming of all the things her friend had told her about life in the city."

The next morning the city mouse saw more nuts and berries and wheat on her breakfast plate and had "had just about enough of country life."

We must give the city mouse some credit here. She gave country life a shot. She seems to have enjoyed the company of her friend. It's the country life style she objected to. When she invited the country mouse to the city for a few days, she didn't preface her invitation with slurs about the country. And she certainly didn't mock her friend's style of dress or rustic home. If she had opinions about her friend's habit of going to church, or carrying a mouse-sized .357 magnum in her apron pocket, she kept them to herself. 

The city mouse respects her country friend.