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All contents © 2001 by Ralph McGinnis unless otherwise indicated.
One of my great passions in life is education. I truly believe that the education that most Americans receive is responsible for our self-centeredness and inability to comprehend the existence of the outside world or even the people who live on the other side of town. It seems to me that the largest problem in American education is the emphasis on memorized "facts" that are overly simplified. Memorization is stressed, not creative problem solving. It is no wonder that with this mode of teaching, where original thought is frowned upon, that we can’t see much further than a hand held up to our noses. The lack of reading comprehension skills – the inability to process metaphor or analogy or EVEN adjectives and transitional phrases in most Americans is STUNNING! No wonder when you ask the average American the causes of the civil war their only answer is, "slavery."
Facts or reason don’t work on people who lack in reading comprehension skills. They’ll believe whatever is EASIEST to believe, or rather what is easiest to understand. Even when information is presented as plainly as possible, the majority will fail to understand what they are consuming. In this climate, What use are MY convictions – they take too long to explain. For some STRANGE reason I leave symbols OUT unless I’m writing prose; I suppose this is a mistake. What use is analysis to people who are justified to purpose by, "They are insane, evil madmen bent on destroying the shining beacon of American democracy!" For god sake – our ELECTED OFFICIALS communicate to us with this sort of language because that’s all most Americans can understand! It’s always scared the shit out of me – but right now it terrifies me more than ever.
George…I know you got all C’s back in college, so I doubt you read this book – but could you TRY to read it now. I know it’s got a lot of pages – but I think you have a GOOD chance of getting through most of it.
Read how the Bush financially supports the Taliban!
Hear how Grant Morrison chimes in on the recent WTC attacks.
In lesser news... I got the rollovers for the images on the left to work again.
Also... I HATE the word "dude."
I am not being anti-American when I criticize our country. I’m not anti-American because I think SLAVERY was fucked up. This country’s saving grace is that things CAN be changed through criticism. Well... sometimes. However it CAN’T be changed for the better with any kind of "love it or leave it" attitude. I am not anti-American; I am anti-patriotism. I view patriotism as a diversionary tactic. I love my home and my culture – not a disembodied media campaign. I didn’t sit in at high school football games yelling "GO TEAM" and I’m not going to do it NOW. I am not the best and greatest and WE are not the best and greatest nation on earth. Some things are great… some things not so great. We live here. We TRY to make our stay as PLEASANT as possible. But I have NO false pride over the living conditions. We HAVE to face that things aren’t so great and WE aren’t so great… and that they and we aren’t getting any better. And if we don’t face it, they and we most certainly WILL get worse.
Read some diverse perspectives on WTC attacks at Barbelith. Also check out Sticky Buffalo. For a very unpopular p.o.v, read this article from The Gaurdian (UK).
Three of my friends, one of whom had been a lover, were waiters at The Louisiana Pizza Kitchen in New Orleans and in 1996 had been executed after some ex-employees had robbed the restaurant. The killers were black, and there was NO doubt the murders were racially motivated. We were all stunned that someone could shoot three people in the head for $2,000.00 in cash. There was no fucking excuse. But there was racism in the city and CERTAINLY in the restaurant, where the entire wait staff was white and all the kitchen staff was black. It is NOT an excuse for the violence to acknowledge that the environment was SERIOUSLY deranged and helped fuel anger and resentment. The murderers should be fucking punished -- they ARE guilty -- BUT ALSO THE RACSISM AND OPPRESSION IN NEW ORLEANS SHOULD BE ACKNOWLEDGED AND DEFEATED!
The shooting was the most emotionally devastating event in my life. It was beyond comprehension. For me, The Louisiana Pizza Kitchen shootings and the TWC attacks draw remarkable parallels. It makes me look closer at how I deal with the world and relate to others in my personal life. It's not enough to punish those directly responsible.We HAVE to look at ourselves and acknowledge that what we do and say and IGNORE affects those around us. It’s important to ask WHY these people thought this was something to do. WHY do they hate us that MUCH? Americans ARE largely oblivious to how our government and industry affect the rest of the world. We DO need to become more aware of that, and we DO need to be more conscious of the world outside, as we need to be more conscious of the individuals around us who are affected by our behavior.
My friend Kenneth's answer to my "WHY!?!" back in 1996 was, "We are all responsible."
Fuck the American flag and screw patriotism. One thing we DON'T need is national pride. It's the year 2001... we need to fucking move on, to evolve. We DON'T need to hold on to these outdated concepts of nation. Fuck these speeches about our amazing democracy and fighting for freedom and our way of life. PEOPLE DIED because other people believed the same things about their OWN goals! The lesson here is that we Americans are NOT the center of the fucking world, our way is not the best or the greatest! While we live our days oblivious to the rest of the world, our government is FUCKING the rest of the world. Instead of this grotesque national pride, and speeches about "evil," people should be asking themselves WHY people would be motivated to do something so heinous. We belong to each other... we need to believe we all live in ONE nation, one planet.
Jesus Christ. What can I say about this. The phone kept ringing while I lay in bed this morning. Finally, I thought something must be up, so I got up to check the messages. All these people were calling to see if Dan, who had been in Boston, was okay. One message quickly mentioned a plane from Boston crashing. "Oh, fuck. A plane crashed," I thought. I walked over to turn the TV on JUST as the 2nd tower collapsed. LIVE. At first I thought it MIGHT be a movie. But I see the news stripe at the bottom of the screen. No fucking way. I watched in a half asleep daze for an hour. Then I turned the TV up and went back to bed. I heard the news as I slept and dreamed every Image. They mentioned people jumping from the buildling and I saw them. It was horrible. I sat up, and for a second I actually did think it was a dream – but the news was still on. It sank in more and more as I sipped my coffee and flipped though the news channels.
I can’t fucking believe it. I’m disturbed by the event and fearful of the coming paranoia and the decisions our inept president will make.
Dear Dan,
Can I just say... YOU ARE THE BEST ROMMATE I COULD IMAGINE!! You're clean and neat, have good taste in furniture and decoration as well as in music, books and movies. AND YOU LIKE COMIC BOOKS!! MY GOD. Thank you for asking me to be your roommate... you (and let’s NOT forget the amazing apartment, a.k.a. The Rumpus Room) are FAR too good to be true. I am a LUCKY motherfucker. I mean REALLY. Hello. Seriously. Thanks pal...and happy goddamn birthday.
-Ralph
For those of you that care, I've de-clunked a lot of my site. So if ya feel like it, check it out -- tell me what ya think and report any bugs if ya get the urg, Sweet Thangs. R&S Front page.
WELL. Today was my first day of class. A cartooning workshop focusing on inking. It was mostly a talk day. But I just love my teacher, Sal, whom I've had before. He's a funny little Italian man who drew Archie comics in the 70's and most superheroes at DC Comics in the 70's and 80's. He's REALLY passionate about the appropriate way to cross hatch. He gets REALLY pissed, in a funny way, when referring to professional’s who do things the "stupid" way. Plus, actually – he knows what he’s talking about. I actually love his drawing. On the whole, when it comes to mainstream superhero artists, I prefer the older guys. He and I have bonded over our distaste for the likes of Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane. ICK. (Yes… in case any of you did not know… I’m a big ass comic nerd and cartoonist. Yes. Yes it’s true. However…….. I am STILL cooler than you.)
Some things get better with maturity... some things do not. It hurts me when I see my friends slowly shed their dreams. It seems so bizarre to me when people I've known for years tell me they don't write, or draw, or make music anymore. They get J-O-B's. I think back and remember how we bonded and did crazy fucked up shit. We imagined our first novels or albums or openings -- we believed in the future. We knew we had something special waiting for us. I worry about this in myself – and it bothers me to think I’ll ever stop working for my dreams. I worry that I may get too wrapped up in life and not enough in dreams – that I’ll become TOO adult, too normal, too ordinary. But I just can’t imagine ever NOT writing or drawing or singing – I can’t imagine it anymore than I could imagine chopping off a limb. This is who I am. I thought it was who they were too – and it’s like I never knew them at all. Somehow I feel tricked.
Finally I have all my stuff in ONE city. Wow. Anyway - I guess it's a website thing to do, so here are some pictures of me throughout history. Sigh... I used to be really thin. Not that I'm all huge and shit now. Ya Know. And Stuff. And also...things.
Oooooh.... HATE MAIL!! This came right before I went to London. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
From : Advent369@aol.com
To : ralph@rs-erections.com
Subject : (no subject)
Date : Wed, 1 Aug 2001 02:52:20 EDT
you are a stoopid moron...you always were, and obviously you still fuckin are. you should put a more recent photo of yourself on your site, cause youre now fat. if not, youre still stoopid and fugly. cheers you tired pansy.
Milky Elephant, my favorite flash site. Whip out the LSD.