So today I joined my Step-Mom for a pre- 8th grade graduation presentation/lunch/board meeting thing for my brother. We were treated to a lovely cello performance by one of the students and a rendition of some religious "The Lord is King" type song by a group of girls. The entire time the girls were singing the words of Eddie Izzard kept running through my head:
"There is something phenomenally dreary about Christian singing...all those Christians religions [other than Gospel singers] (which is mainly Caucasian white people) with all the power and money - enough power and money to make Solomon blush ... they are the only group that can sing Hallelujah without making it sound like a Hallelujah." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuEuY4BUMfM
After that we got to watch all the parents whose 8th graders were their last kid in the school and would be leaving stand up and express their fondest memories of the place. So that was about 45 minutes of listening to people I'd never met before, knew nothing about, and would never see again. The parents put in PIP (dunno what it stands for but I'm guessing the p's are 'parents' and 'participation') hours - at least 20 per year. This involves going on school field trips, volunteering to cut out papers, sell ice cream every Friday outside the school - all sorts of helpful stuff. So I guess these parents (80% moms) spend a lot more time at the school then my mom and dad ever did - I went to public school - so in a way they feel like they are graduating too, I guess.
I should point out that my brother goes to a private Lutheran school. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. I definitely don't think that private religious schools shouldn't be around and everyone has a right to their beliefs and as far as I can I try to respect that. But if these are the people who are teaching my brother to be homophobic, then I'm not too keen on them. Last night I heard him say: "I'm kind of okay with gay people, but I don't think I'm okay with them getting married." This is the kid who uses the word 'gay' to describe everything from a situation to a colour. Last week he and his cousin kept yelling about the colour yellow being gay. I asked how a colour to could have a sexual orientation. One minute of silence later I got: "'Cause it can." Very clever boys. Very clever.
Now, my brother didn't use to be like this. To be fair I've been living in a different country than him for six years and have only seen him sparingly on summer visits, but I'm pretty sure this attitude began around the time he started going to this school. My other sister who goes to public school doesn't have any such notions. So private religious institution, I think I may have to blame you.
So now I have to decide how to handle this. Do I be the overbearing older sister who calls him out on his idiocy every time he brings it up? Or do I be the quite reserved one who tries to 'respect' his opinions and all that rot while subtly giving him things to think about like civil liberties and basic human decency? Hmmm... Lots to think about. All I know is that I love my family, but I wont be around bigatry and hate. It's not worth my time when there are so many other amazing people in the world that I can spend my life with.
Well to be fair, your sister used to have them too because I remember watching To Wong Foo with her, and she thought men dressing up as women was gross. We quickly told her what for, but I still remember her thinking homosexuality was weird.
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