Sunday, April 26, 2015

Radicalized

I'm having a hard time watching the national network news.... 

again....

This time it's the word, radicalized. 

I was recently in Boston. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in the sentencing phase of his trial for the Boston bombing. 

As I listened to the news, I couldn't help but notice that the newscasters were talking about Tsarnaev being "radicalized" by his older brother, and perhaps that would impact the penalty phase of his trial. 

When someone is radicalized, it implies passivity. That somehow, over breakfast, someone was talked into something, pressured to hate people, and passively they became a hater. This term has had a major appearance in recent years with regards to ISIS and terrorism. Speaking about radicalization with regards to terrorism implies that the terrorists were somehow persuaded and are ultimately not responsible.

I started to think, this week was also the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. 

Did anyone ever talk about Timothy McVeigh, the bomber, being "radicalized?" Never.

Why can't we admit that "some people" do "bad things" and they are responsible for those bad things?  

What I learned from 3 days at a homeschool convention booth

I always enjoy people watching... all kinds of people watching. So when I was recently a vendor at a homeschool convention, I had the opportunity to learn some things....

  • I am noise intolerant. This was reinforced to me. There were crying babies everywhere. I'm so glad I wasn't lactating. Whoever sold those "bird callers," I hate you.

  • Ballet slippers (real ones) are not just for dancing.

  • Classification is important... hipsters, mennonites, christian, secular, unschool... most people lead the conversation with, "I am a ... ."

  • If you have more than 6 children, it's a "thing" to wear fluorescent matching t-shirts.

  • Smiling all day kinda hurts.