There’s an interesting phenomena that occurs in here
with regularity. Someone will get pissed off about some perceived injustice
and, like Martin Luther in front of the Wittenberg Cathedral, post his thesis
on the errors he has encountered. Unlike old Martin L, however, the writer
mangles his language into a mish mash of gibberish and then posts the memo
“anonymously.” Funny, it’s a lot like the folks who take shots at me on the
blog.
So,
the original memo gets posted – typically in the bathroom (after all, nothing
says “moving” words like a diatribe over the toilet!) – which leads to another
would-be Thoreau responding in kind. The memos all read the same:
“It’s
time you act like a grown ass man and do ____________.” The response is always
follows: “You don’t like it, be a grown ass man and fix it.” It’s always
crucial issues like flushing the urinal or cleaning out the sink, life or death
issues that require knowledge of philosophy, medicine, geography, and history.
O yeah – that’s right; they don’t.
I get
amused a good deal of the time especially as I notice that the writers
invaluably confuse homonyms: “to” for “too,” and the contraction “you’re” for
“your.” It takes away from whatever valid point was being made. Did I say
valid? The problem is, most of the issues involve basic behavior, you know the
things you should have learned growing up, things like: washing your hands,
picking up after yourself, being respectful of others.
And,
the “grown ass man” stuff? Guys say that ad nauseum in here. Problem is, with
few exceptions the majority of the men I’m doing time with (all of whom are
under age 35) have never had to live or do anything on their own. They’ve been
at home with their “mamas” who do their laundry, make their beds, feed them,
clothe them, do everything for them. They had no responsibility for anything.
Even the children they fathered aren’t their responsibility. The state provides
aid and their mothers – even grandmothers – raise the children.
Like
so much else in here, the words posted in the bathroom are meaningless … just
like so many of the lives meandering through this place.
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