Monday, July 2, 2012

Commentary Conversations

Let's face it, the sad truth is that I blog because ... well, because I like hearing what people have to say in response to what I write.  It's fascinating, it helps me learn and grow as a writer, plus I've developed some good friendships with people via the blogosphere.

In addition to this, my personal blog, I also write for a site called Zelda Lily.  Blog readership in general waxes and wanes like the moon, and ZL is in kind of a comment slump at the moment (the conversations over there used to be utterly remarkable and really guided the directions that we writers chose to go in).

Instead of writing a post here today, I am going to give short descriptors of some pieces with links over to stuff I've written at ZL.  It is all work that I am very proud of, writing that I believe is capable of generating some amazing conversations.  It is my hope that you'll feel compelled to comment over at ZL, because it's only with a lot of comments that those amazing conversations can happen (and I don't get paid for this ... I write because I enjoy it).

*  This past spring, a drug task force went to a home in New Hampshire to serve papers.  The homeowner killed a police chief and injured several other officers.  He also killed a young woman in the house with him, a young woman whose mother spoke out in defense of her daughter's character ... until her daughter's own involvement in a life of crime came out.

*  A mother forced her 7-year-old daughter to lose weight for a Vogue photo shoot.  If the poor kid makes it to adulthood without an eating disorder, no one will be more shocked than me :-(

*  Henry and I watched the Super Bowl at a cigar bar.  It was, obviously, quite an adventure ... and I felt shockingly out of place.  Quite an experience!

*  Winterguard is a sport (well, I think it's a sport) that incorporates dancing with flag and sabre tosses.  Addie started doing winterguard when she was a junior, and it got me thinking about what defines the word "sport" ... and if winterguard does, in fact, qualify.

*  A high school cheerleader was sexually assaulted by several classmates ... yet SHE was punished for refusing to cheer for them at a sporting event.  As you may know, rape is a very serious and personal issue to me, and I couldn't get over how disgusting it was that a victim of rape had the guts to come forward and was summarily dismissed.  Horrible!    

*  A middle school girl was suspended from school for five days for posting on Facebook that she wished Osama bin Laden had killed her math teacher.  This opens up a really interesting discussion, actually, because it gets into some very dicey territory--it wasn't done at school during school hours, so SHOULD she have been consequenced at school?

Anyway, my internet is being incredibly slow, so I guess that's all I'm going to put.  I do hope you read and enjoy these pieces and, if you're so compelled, get some discussion going.

I will be joining in :-)

1 comment:

  1. I remember the story about the cheerleader and boy was I outraged at that. She was raped by a member of the squad, I don't blame her at all for refusing to cheer for him, and then she got punished! It sounds like you write a lot of good things over there, so I will probably have to check it out :) I seem to be in a bit of a comment getting slump myself :(

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