So ... as I'm sitting at my desk, hand free set pressed to my ear, making notes, researching information, and all the while the customer who wants me to know how rich he is, is swearing at me calling me a liar, a customer whom I have never talked to before in my life, and have not yet since I answered the phone offered information to or have gotten in a single word to ... other than my name.
His words are making my ears want to bleed and I'm stop staring at the screen and I stare at the pen in my hand and think, if I jab this in both ears ... I will never ever have to hear such disgusting trash again. And for a few moments I am seriously considering this ... doing bodily harm to myself just to avoid the phone, to avoid having to ask another person on the end of the line ... "How may i be of service? Or how can I help you?"
And why? Well because quitting is for pussies.
But anyway the moment passes and I no longer want to harm myself but I want to yell back at this jerk of a customer so bad that I'm clenching my jaw until it hurts ... and I'm thinking this is crazy ... I'm taking this crap for a company that I don't even work for, (my company contracts to them) and whose services I don't subscribe to ... I don't even know what the customer's complaint is because he's spent the last 30 minutes of what in my company's policy is only supposed to be a 12 min call insulting me.
So why am I doing this? Because it's a job, I remind myself. And because there are people out there who want jobs and can't get one and so I'm should be thankful. And I tell myself this every night.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday, March 02, 2008
WHEN DOES IT END?
http://youtube.com/stream?s=1785069568
Join the Cyber-sit in at youtube.
In Rememberance of Lawrence King
On February 12th a young boy, Lawrence King was gunned down by another young boy, a fellow classmate .....
At approximately 8:15 a.m., an eighth grade 15-year-old boy, identified as Lawrence Fobes King ("Larry")[8] was shot in the head by the suspect, Brandon McInerney, in a computer lab classroom.[9] King was transported to St. John's Regional Medical Center and was listed in serious condition. Examiners had declared King brain dead.[10] King was kept on life support until February 15, 2008, so his organs could be donated.[11] It was reported that King was shot because he was openly gay and sometimes dressed in a "feminine" manner. Prosecutors have discussed charging the 14-year-old shooter with premeditated murder with enhancements for the use of a firearm and commission of a hate crime.[12]
Wikipedia feed.
Fron VH1 news
15-year-old Lawrence "Larry" King was shot in the head at the E.O. Green School in Oxnard, California, reportedly for being gay. He was in the eighth grade.
Three days after the shooting, on February 15, King was taken off life support and pronounced dead.
King's killer, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, apparently targeted the student because he was openly gay and sometimes dressed in women's clothes. King also wore makeup and jewelry to class on occasion. It's possible that McInerney, who has been charged with murder and the commission of a hate crime, will be tried as an adult, which means he could face 50 years to life in prison if convicted.
King's death came 10 years after the brutal murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was also killed because of his sexual orientation. But for some reason, King's murder generated just a fraction of the media coverage that follows most school-shooting incidents. In fact, most of the initial reports about the killing were turned out by local news agencies, and the national media didn't catch up until several days later.
A series of candlelight vigils have been held throughout the U.S. in the wake of the student's death (an estimated 1,000 people marched in Oxnard the weekend following the murder), in an effort to raise awareness of what many feel was a largely underreported case. MTV News attended one such vigil on Friday night, just outside of Los Angeles, where dozens gathered — not with candles but glowsticks — to remember King.
I never knew Lawrence King or his teen-aged murderer Brandon McInerney. But I do know that two lives were destroyed in a senseless act of violence. And I can't help but mourn them both: The out and proud child who wasn't afraid of who he was and the child so filled with hate for and fear of diversity, he felt the only way to combat that fear was through murder.
It's ironic, considering I told myself I wouldn't do it any more, blog anything other than posting my original or fan fiction.
After all why should anyone listen to the voice of one woman. One black lesbian woman.
What could I possibly say that anyone would want to hear, or read that isn't entertainment?
So maybe you won't hear it.
Or read it.
But I'm gonna say it anyway.
Aren't you tired? Aren't you pissed off!? Sad!? Outrage!?
This battle rages on and we're still dying and bleeding and this war is taking our young.
And the political and religious right-wing enemy makes it okay for the world to treat us like animals to beat down. Makes it okay for us to live in fear, that holding hands in public, flying the rainbow flag, or an affectionate peck on the cheek might be met with more than just a simple snide remark, but slashed tires, loss of employment or loss of life.
So we have to keep it straight in public. Smile while listening to co-workers share home life anecdotes about wives, husbands, and children, with our lips pressed tight and the joys of home life we want to share waiting to be shouted.
Fear of harassment holds our tongue and fear of ostracization keeps us chained.
And it's nothing new. Because that's just the way things are. Right?
We know this story and maybe some of us have grown used to it. Have learned to take it in stride like the dog kept on the leash in the backyard. He doesn't bark anymore, doesn't demand attention or growl at the neighbors because that leash...
Well that's just the way things are.
And it's that leash that affords us no protection. And we are defenseless like Lawrence King, Mathew Shepard, Brandon Tina and those before and after. Because the law and the law makers do not recognize our right to live. Our right to individuality. Our right to walk down the streets, to work at our jobs without fear.
We have to make the change. We have to break the leash. Until we do, we are defenseless.
http://youtube.com/stream?s=1785069568
Join the Cyber Sit-in at youtube.
Leave the stream open even as you go about your day. It's a small thing to do .... but it says so much. And there is so much more we can do ... to tell the world.
We have had enough. To protect ourselves. To protect our young.
Join the Cyber-sit in at youtube.
In Rememberance of Lawrence King
On February 12th a young boy, Lawrence King was gunned down by another young boy, a fellow classmate .....
At approximately 8:15 a.m., an eighth grade 15-year-old boy, identified as Lawrence Fobes King ("Larry")[8] was shot in the head by the suspect, Brandon McInerney, in a computer lab classroom.[9] King was transported to St. John's Regional Medical Center and was listed in serious condition. Examiners had declared King brain dead.[10] King was kept on life support until February 15, 2008, so his organs could be donated.[11] It was reported that King was shot because he was openly gay and sometimes dressed in a "feminine" manner. Prosecutors have discussed charging the 14-year-old shooter with premeditated murder with enhancements for the use of a firearm and commission of a hate crime.[12]
Wikipedia feed.
Fron VH1 news
15-year-old Lawrence "Larry" King was shot in the head at the E.O. Green School in Oxnard, California, reportedly for being gay. He was in the eighth grade.
Three days after the shooting, on February 15, King was taken off life support and pronounced dead.
King's killer, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, apparently targeted the student because he was openly gay and sometimes dressed in women's clothes. King also wore makeup and jewelry to class on occasion. It's possible that McInerney, who has been charged with murder and the commission of a hate crime, will be tried as an adult, which means he could face 50 years to life in prison if convicted.
King's death came 10 years after the brutal murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was also killed because of his sexual orientation. But for some reason, King's murder generated just a fraction of the media coverage that follows most school-shooting incidents. In fact, most of the initial reports about the killing were turned out by local news agencies, and the national media didn't catch up until several days later.
A series of candlelight vigils have been held throughout the U.S. in the wake of the student's death (an estimated 1,000 people marched in Oxnard the weekend following the murder), in an effort to raise awareness of what many feel was a largely underreported case. MTV News attended one such vigil on Friday night, just outside of Los Angeles, where dozens gathered — not with candles but glowsticks — to remember King.
I never knew Lawrence King or his teen-aged murderer Brandon McInerney. But I do know that two lives were destroyed in a senseless act of violence. And I can't help but mourn them both: The out and proud child who wasn't afraid of who he was and the child so filled with hate for and fear of diversity, he felt the only way to combat that fear was through murder.
It's ironic, considering I told myself I wouldn't do it any more, blog anything other than posting my original or fan fiction.
After all why should anyone listen to the voice of one woman. One black lesbian woman.
What could I possibly say that anyone would want to hear, or read that isn't entertainment?
So maybe you won't hear it.
Or read it.
But I'm gonna say it anyway.
Aren't you tired? Aren't you pissed off!? Sad!? Outrage!?
This battle rages on and we're still dying and bleeding and this war is taking our young.
And the political and religious right-wing enemy makes it okay for the world to treat us like animals to beat down. Makes it okay for us to live in fear, that holding hands in public, flying the rainbow flag, or an affectionate peck on the cheek might be met with more than just a simple snide remark, but slashed tires, loss of employment or loss of life.
So we have to keep it straight in public. Smile while listening to co-workers share home life anecdotes about wives, husbands, and children, with our lips pressed tight and the joys of home life we want to share waiting to be shouted.
Fear of harassment holds our tongue and fear of ostracization keeps us chained.
And it's nothing new. Because that's just the way things are. Right?
We know this story and maybe some of us have grown used to it. Have learned to take it in stride like the dog kept on the leash in the backyard. He doesn't bark anymore, doesn't demand attention or growl at the neighbors because that leash...
Well that's just the way things are.
And it's that leash that affords us no protection. And we are defenseless like Lawrence King, Mathew Shepard, Brandon Tina and those before and after. Because the law and the law makers do not recognize our right to live. Our right to individuality. Our right to walk down the streets, to work at our jobs without fear.
We have to make the change. We have to break the leash. Until we do, we are defenseless.
http://youtube.com/stream?s=1785069568
Join the Cyber Sit-in at youtube.
Leave the stream open even as you go about your day. It's a small thing to do .... but it says so much. And there is so much more we can do ... to tell the world.
We have had enough. To protect ourselves. To protect our young.
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