Ninjas; foreign languages; NIMBY
Jun. 16th, 2004 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quislibet- The other night, thanks to the joys of channel-flipping with basic cable, J. and I watched "Ninja 3: Poseida." (That would be this movie, dubbed into Spanish.) I have to say that my ignorance of Spanish probably improved the movie for me. But man, what a dumb flick.
- For tomorrow in French class we're supposed to invent an imaginary persona and make a presentation in-character. We are encouraged to bring props and costumes.
- Yesterday I wrote a letter to the mayor of Salem and various City Councilors in response to a flyer being circulated in our neighborhood. It warns us that soon there will be a homeless shelter moving into the area unless we act now to save our property values and our children from this imminent danger.
Oh, dear!
Thing is, the shelter is moving from only a few hundred yards away. So even if all of the offensive stereotypes in the alarmist flyer were true, they'd be a problem for the neighborhood already. One might say that moving the shelter to better and larger facilities -- with, accordingly, an improved ability to help the homeless get off the streets -- could only help solve some of these problems. And I find walking through the crowds of townie kids hanging out in the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot a more frightening experience than passing the homeless shelter, which latter I do every time I go to the Y.
Interestingly, one City Councilor, a woman who is named in the flyer as a prime organizer of resistance to the shelter's move (and whose name always puts a song from "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in my head whenever I see one of her campaign signs), replied to my e-mail saying she sure wished she knew who was distributing the flyer, because they're using her name and she doesn't know them. (She didn't say whether they were misrepresenting her views, however.)
- For tomorrow in French class we're supposed to invent an imaginary persona and make a presentation in-character. We are encouraged to bring props and costumes.
- Yesterday I wrote a letter to the mayor of Salem and various City Councilors in response to a flyer being circulated in our neighborhood. It warns us that soon there will be a homeless shelter moving into the area unless we act now to save our property values and our children from this imminent danger.
Oh, dear!
Thing is, the shelter is moving from only a few hundred yards away. So even if all of the offensive stereotypes in the alarmist flyer were true, they'd be a problem for the neighborhood already. One might say that moving the shelter to better and larger facilities -- with, accordingly, an improved ability to help the homeless get off the streets -- could only help solve some of these problems. And I find walking through the crowds of townie kids hanging out in the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot a more frightening experience than passing the homeless shelter, which latter I do every time I go to the Y.
Interestingly, one City Councilor, a woman who is named in the flyer as a prime organizer of resistance to the shelter's move (and whose name always puts a song from "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in my head whenever I see one of her campaign signs), replied to my e-mail saying she sure wished she knew who was distributing the flyer, because they're using her name and she doesn't know them. (She didn't say whether they were misrepresenting her views, however.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 02:44 pm (UTC)You should go as a Spanish Ninja!! Who speaks French!!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-17 09:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-17 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-17 09:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 04:21 pm (UTC)yes, it sucks. but in such a good way!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-17 09:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-17 09:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 09:06 pm (UTC)It could be that distributing her views in a flyer necessarily distorts them. The act of writing is a fundamentally political act. (as I tell my students in every Plato class) If she didn't want to distribute a flyer, it already distorts her views to include them on it.
Or I'm just totally, totally corrupted by grad school.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-17 09:31 am (UTC)