you taklin' to me?

This morning I was cleaning the nursery when I heard people shouting outside, since I am nosey I went to go see why they were screaming. This was only one part nosey, quite a few crimes have been committed in my parking lot so this was two parts self preservation as well. One of the things being shouted was, �you�re a pussy, man!� I realized after a bit that it was the patrons of the methadone clinic, and one of them was showing around his new shirt �rehab is for quitters.� The screamer was not amused by this, I was. If I were in rehab, I would wear that shirt. I have bought that shirt for people in rehab, but I have no class.

What bothered me was the use of the word, �pussy� as an insult. In an argument I should not have been involved in with a kid who plays make believe that he�s in the Ivy League just by living in Boston, he thought he would �school� me on literary allusions by pointing out that female genitals are used as an allusion to human weakness while male genitalia is used to represent strength.

I have a degree in English; I know this. However, when you call someone a �pussy� or a �dick� you are not being �literary� or �intelligent,� you are being crude. There is a huge gulf between Song of Solomon and Diary Land Notes. I was called a �pussy� because I did not enjoy, or see the enlightened civil disobedience, in having a bottle broken over my head by �peace� activists in New York City during the Republican Convention. I blame all this on Golf Widow* (they saw her penguin button and became enraged) and do not tell my mother, she thought I just got pushed around by some punks. I am not ignorant of world literature, but even the most educated people do not try to pull that but the most educated people do not pretend they are people they are not.

It also reminded of when Madeline Albright told the Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations, upon being asked if she thought she had the �cojones� to be Secretary of State, she said the lack of �cojones� would probably make her a success. The rest, as they say, is a cigarette break.

I think when talking to people, even on Diary Land, that we can do it without being crude. We can disagree and be polite about it. Also, I would not equate womanhood with weakness, no matter what classical literature uses. I really do not think that organ that births humanity is weak, if that were an easy process men would do it too.

*Golf Widow is not responsible for this, I do not blame her. If anything, she tried to prevent this by urging me not to go to New York or to the Convention. My victimization is my own fault, I own it.