I have two rants to vent today. The first is silly and the second isn’t and will involve adult language to illustrate my point.
Books are a passion. Words and language I geek out about. When I see what I consider an error, I like to let authors know. I received a newsletter from an author. In it was an example from one of her books which included the following sentence (similar don’t want to infringe on her copyright):
She kneeled down in front of her friend.
Kneel is a regular verb but when you make it past tense, it is an irregular verb – meaning it doesn’t typically add the -ed at the end of it. Instead it become knelt.
I wrote the author a note to point this out to her – my thought was if I had something like that in one of my books, I’d appreciate someone pointing it out to me. I never expected an answer but instead got one and was surprised by it.
She said the irregular verb was no longer being used – it was old fashioned. She said the Brits use it but Americans don’t. In a way, she was somewhat snotty about it. I did a google search, discovered it is starting to be acceptable in America.
My response – if you’re going to write like that it’s going to jerk me out of the story – which it did with the excerpt – and I’m going to be unhappy. If you do it a lot I’m going to be unhappy with your book and stop buying your books. I wrote her back, gave my opinion and didn’t get a response – not a surprise.
To me this is a dumbing down of America. It’s okay if we have a good reason for making change but to me this just seems like someone couldn’t remember to use an irregular verb.
On to my other rant. Again – this one is going to have strong language and unpleasant language I normally would not use. You’ve been warned.
Trolling through Facebook, I came across a Proctor & Gable (here’s a link to where it is P&G The Talk ). I found it moving and disturbing. I posted it on my page because I wanted to talk about why this kind of talk is needed by a race. I related to it as a female in our culture where we are treated like property and parents have the talk with their daughters about not going out alone etc.
On my Facebook page there was some discussion – a lot of discussion – about the video. Some of the discussion was heated, some was discussion and debate which is what is needed to raise awareness. And then it happened.
I have a lot of friends on Facebook and use it to promote my writing. Generally, I’m pretty laid back about what people say and try not to get involved. If you know me, you know I cuss – a lot. My favorite cuss word is Fuck – FUCK FUCK fuckity fuck fuck.
Unfortunately, I dealt with some extreme unpleasantness. A male (not a gentlemen by any standard) posted Fuck you and the name of one of the people in the discussion. Now I know people say this in jest. I was annoyed but wasn’t going to respond or remove the post. But he didn’t stop there. He went on to say things like he looked forward to the day when the minorities (note the plural) were all wiped out and the European descended people could rejoice over their annihilation. And there he stepped so far beyond my line for tolerance, I deleted all of his hate speech. I looked for a way to report him but couldn’t find one. I unfriended him.
On the discussion, I stated I wanted open discussion and wanted the debate but would not tolerate the hate he spewed. He then messaged me, called me a stupid cunt and told me I should go kill myself.
I deleted his message. Everyone has a right to free speech (though there are definitely limits on this) however, everyone also has the right to not hear the garbage this person was spewing. I chose not to hear him, not to give him power over me with his hate and intolerance. I chose to ignore his idiocy and not engage with him because there is no reasoning with an insane person.
By beliefs are simple. If we know the individual – regardless of race, sexual preference, religion or any other stupid way you want to classify a person – if we KNOW – trully know an individual you will find the core beliefs are going to be close. In general (yes, I’m aware we should avoid generalities) people want to have a good life, safe place to live, freedom to live their life their way, safety for their children or the children in their lives, they want love.
If we get to know the individual and look past those classifications, if we step away from generalities, we’re going to find someone similar to us in a lot of ways. If we find those similarities, we can then accept the differences between us. Not just accept but embrace them. If we were all the same, believed all the same, looked all the same, felt all the same it would be boring and tedious. We are enough alike to connect and enough different to enjoy those differences.
As for the male who spewed his hate, if he thinks he hurt me, he didn’t. In truth, he pissed me off. I wanted to reach through my phone and give him a piece of my mind for his small minded idiocy. Words like he said, his truth – fine – but I don’t have to accept or agree with them. I don’t have to allow him to spew his hate on my feed or in my messages. In fact, his words are like he yelled fire in a crowded room – not acceptable and I think (though I’m not a lawyer) able to be prosecuted for spewing them. I’m fairly certain I saw a news story where a woman was being prosecuted for telling her boyfriend to kill himself – and he did.
If you don’t like what I’ve got on my feed – flip by it. There will be something shallow or ridiculous in the next post. Move on and get the hell over it.