any day now

the relief of The Paper being done is still lingering. i'm just glad i don't have to worry about twenty-pages of writing looming in front of me for a while, though i do have two more to work on (both due at the beginning of december).

any day now connecticut camp is going to call me and either say "yay" or "nay" and my nerves are starting to wear a little thin. i keep telling myself that if i don't get the job it'll be fine and i'll find something else to do for the summer. i keep telling myself that i won't get angry or cry. i keep telling myself all these things for no reason at all because it's not working in the slightest.

i'm going with a large group to see harry potter and the goblet of fire for the midnight showing on thursday. best part is the fact it's showing on IMAX. it'll be very much a harry potter overload, but then i remind myself that there's no such thing.

speaking of harry potter, i asked the sixth graders i observe if they liked the books/movies and the majority said their parents won't let them read them or watch the movies.what. the. hell.is it wrong that i'm appalled that parents are keeping these books away from their kids because it "promotes magic?" and don't try to say that's not the reason, because what else would it be? the books are too long? it's too corporate? reading is destroying children's lives? because whatever excuse or justification parents use to keep these books away from their children are bogus. one of the boys told me that he wants to read them, but his mom would get mad at him if he asked about it.

if people still believe that these books encourage children to become deviant, join cults, channel satan, or whathave you, then it's because they are ignorant. the sole reason people are opposed to anything different is because they don't understand it. they take it at face value and create their own ideas about something before they give it a chance. i remember when a lot of parents were in the news opposing the harry potter franchise and they hadn't even read the books! how can you be opposed to something you don't know anything about?

i seriously want to tell these kids to screw their parents and read what they want to read. it's not even about harry potter anymore-- it's about every book that society has put down just because it's outside of the norm or contains too much "difficult" information and ideas for close-minded people the handle. books are constantly taken off of school curriculum for profanity or pornographic issues, like the perks of being a wallflower because it deals with homosexuality and has "offensive language." this is one of my favorite books and i think everyone should read it, mainly because it's about a boy growing up and dealing with these issues around him.

the idea that families and children can be 'protected' against content such as violence, anti-relgious ideas, and racism by banning or opposing books is ridiculous. look out your windows people, it's everywhere you go. it's at work, it's in your child's school, it's in the news. i would have my child read the adventures of huckleberry finn and learn what the n-word means than have them hear it in real life. at least that way the context of the word would be clear and they would know that people who use that word are ignorant bastards who are scared of change. they would understand that books that deal with controversial issues should always be read in the context in which it was written. i've never wanted to tell these kids to disobey their parents before. i want to buy them all a copy of the harry potter books and tell them how to keep it secret. i want to talk to these parents and make them understand that they should ban books from their children, not when it's about growing up and learning about right versus wrong, good versus evil.

sigh. i understand that people think they are doing the right thing. they think they are protecting their children and their families and you know what? maybe in some small way they are, and i agree that some books should be read later rather than sooner, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be given a chance at all.

wow. this post definitely took a direction i wasn't expecting...