A couple of weeks ago, some dude writes a letter to the Chronicle, panning the Dick Monologues. So I call him (his number is online) and ask if he's seen the show. No. Surprise, surprise.
Now, some guy is posting comments to my most recent Austinist post in which I discuss how I didn't appreciate Henry's high school principal's response to my concerns about a bullet Henry found in school. And how I also was alarmed to learn a gun was found a week later at the school. This guy claims to know me based on having worked at the same company as me ten years ago. I cannot for the life of me remember the guy and seriously doubt we ever had a conversation. But he felt it important to note this "connection" of ours, presumably to lend weight to his argument that I'm a nutcase using a bully pulpit to get Henry's absence excused.
Initially, I took his bait, responding to his first post. I know how stupid this is-- I've been online for about twelve years, used to run message boards for Prodigy, and, as I told the guy in yet another post I made, really one should never wrestle with the pigs, seeing as you both get dirty and the pigs love it. So I'm dirty now, because I wrestled with him not once, not twice, but three times.
Here's a guy with no experience as a parent, let alone the parent of a teenager, questioning my legitimate concerns for my child's well being and, in fact, for the well being of all the students in the school. Anyway, it's been a big bullshit tit for tat exchange and, as noted, I'm one muddy mother.
That said, oh bless the serendipitous universe, after I foolishly posted my last comment, as if this would bring sudden enlightenment to the guy, I headed off to the bank to make a deposit. At my bank, you don't see the tellers in real life, they pop up on little video screens. So I send my deposit up the tube chute thingie (wasn't that a ZZ Top song?) and after a bit my teller shows up on the screen and we have a conversation that goes a little like this:
Her: I have to ask you. Are you the blogger?
Me: I am. Which blog?
Her: The Austinist?
Me: Funny you mention that. I've been catching hell for my last post.
Her: About the school?
Me: Yeah.
Her: I was in high school when school shootings started happening. That is scary.
Me: Thanks.
Her: Sure. I'm just excited it's you! (makes "yeah" gesture with hand clenched while pulling elbow back.)
So yeah. There you go. The bank teller thinks guns are scary, too.
5 comments:
I was a high school junior in suburban St. Louis when Columbine happen. I can't speak for the rest of my classmates, but I was scared shitless.
Living in the times we live in, I wonder how people can be so nonchalant about guns and gun control.
It's been my experience that every single person who deploys the wrestling-with-pigs analogy thinks they're not the pig, and quite a few of them actually are.
Many folks, not just Seth, thought you were having the wool pulled over your eyes. I'm the parent of a 4-year old and the step-parent of a 14-year-old who took a writing class with you one summer, BTW. And I've linked to your blog from mine because I like your writing.
But I must just be a pig. Oink.
note to m1ek:
i tried to publish a comment at your blog, i registered and everything, but it won't allow me in. hmm. it's hard for me to tell if you're trying to be funny or serious or what. i know many folks think i have had the wool pulled over my eyes. that's their opinion. if i started bashing either of your kids, you might take issue as i have taken issue with accusations hurled at my son. my son has no reason to pull the wool over my eyes. if he doesn't want to go to school, he doesn't have to go. that's he choice and he knows the consequences if he doesn't attend. he doesn't need to come up with elaborate schemes involving bullets to take off one period, two periods, or an entire semester. that was not my point. i was pointing out that LIVE AMMO was found at his school, and then A GUN and that the principal is being very nonchalant about it. this concerns me. i am not alone in my concern. i mentioned the truancy as a starting off point-- he knows if he's truant, he has to deal with it. he wanted *me* to know why he was missing school so that i would be aware. i appreciated his communication with me. i appreciate that he communicates with me regularly, holds a job, is kind and compassionate and a great human. i couldn't ask for a better kid. as for pig wrestling-- seth has acted as if he knows me, which is pulling the wool over a lot of people's eyes. he purports to know my kid, which he doesn't. and he is hellbent on proving to the world my kid is full of shit, which he is not. i wish you well in your endeavors as a parent and i hope you'll pop by again in another three years and another thirteen years and let me know how you find parenting a seventeen year old. and i wish, sincerely, that you and your kids have as good a relationship as i have with my son. and i hope you never, ever have to deal with the issue of live ammo and guns in your kids' schools. you say you sent your teenager to my camp. if you picked your kid up one day and i casually informed you that we'd had a loaded gun at camp but i didn't think it was a big issue, i am really curious if you would come back for more camp.
I just checked, because quite often I get comments incorrectly marked as "junk" and never get notified, and there were 2 (from one of my regular commenters) but nothing from you. Sorry; looks like a typical typekey login/movable type mystery interaction (not the first time this has happened to me).
someone submitted the following comment anonymously. i attempted to publish it the correct way but encountered a system glitch. so i'm publishing it this way:
Read the other blog entry & comments. I am similarly middle aged with kids in AISD.
Reasonable people might disagree on the exact protocol a child/parent might follow in the situation,(*is* there protocol for finding ammo at school??), but 3 things seem clear to me:
1)the kid did the right thing (reporting find to school)
2)the parent did the right thing (following up with school and following their personal parenting instincts)
3)Live ammo, much less guns, don't belong on campus.
some people have too much time on their hands
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