Friday, June 30, 2006

Let's make them all bubble boys/girls

You have probably heard of the absurd attempts by educators, administrators, psychologists, parents, and trial lawyers to protect children from ever experiencing pain; both physical and mental. This has manifested itself in the infamous banning of dodgeball, along with other games. Now, in the face of increasing ridicule, the campaign to save children from their childhoods is actually beginning to widen. Playground equipment is on the chopping block, along with the whole idea of recess itself.

I think of some of the games that we played when I was in elementary school in the 1980s. I LOVED dodgeball, and our teacher would often have us play it (and would participate as well) during our daily P.E. Yes, I said daily P.E. Kids in elementary school today are lucky to get P.E. once a week. During recess, some of the other boys and I would play Smear the Queer. It was an extremely simple and fun game with a rather unfortunate name. If you have never played it, here are the rules: You have a group of boys. A ball - preferably the football variety - is thrown in the air. Once it lands, one of the boys takes it upon himself to pick it up and run like hell. That is because he is now the queer, and it is the job of the other boys to catch him and take him down. Once the queer is tackled. The ball is thrown up again, and a new boy takes it upon himself to pick up the ball and evade being tackled. It was loads of fun to cut, dodge, and sprint as I tried to keep from being dogpiled. Did I get hurt sometimes? Yes. Did I heal? Yes. Did I have a rip-roaring good time? Yes.

The problem is that there is a group of people in this world, and especially in this country, that have a slight quirk: They are scared to death that someone, somewhere is having fun. The goal of these nabobs of negativism is to put a stop to that. These busybodies must be stopped.

Good Day to You, Sir

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