Once again Santa Maria, you’re demonstrating why we can’t have nice things. Sometime over the weekend of May 14 and 15 someone stole artificial turf from the Jimenez Elementary School playground. The turf provided an area for kids to sit and read, work on projects, and have lunch, but someone thought they needed it more.
The school’s principal, Richard Ruiz, said they won’t be replacing the turf because for one, it would cost between $10,000 and $15,000 to replace, and two, there had been previous attempts to steal the turf. Multiple attempts? Geez people come on. It’s for the kids!
Don’t worry. The kids will get tables and benches in the area instead of the turf. However, Ruiz said that the students are taught to have pride in their school and to keep it beautiful. He called it sad when the other side wins.
That’s a bit how people are feeling right now about one hot button topic that involves making inroads toward equality.
Let’s take a minute to talk about potties, sex, and genitals. Did you just bristle at that? A good percentage of you probably did. I know this because the interwebs have been on fire with debate about which bathroom certain portions of our population uses. From online forums to social media like Facebook, the discussion is becoming heated with many commenters even threating violence.
Personally I don’t understand what the fuss is all about. There are other countries that have unisex bathrooms, so it’s nothing new. The main concern people assert is that their little girls are at risk when they use the bathroom and a “dude in a dress” walks in.
Oh, how I shake my little birdie head at this.
First of all, why aren’t these parents watching their children? Second, they are equating transgendered people with pedophiles. Third, are they not afraid of their boys being molested in the boys’ bathroom by a man?
The other argument I’ve heard is that it would be a very confusing thing for children to see. However, I guess it wouldn’t be confusing for a child in the men’s bathroom to see a “man” dressed in women’s clothing forced to use the men’s bathroom because that bathroom matches the sex she was assigned at birth?
Though I’m female, I’m only a bird and don’t have to think about these things. Personally though, if I was a female human I’d be more afraid of a heterosexual man, with a man’s patriarchal attitude of entitlement and the mentality that society has ingrained into him that he can flex his power and have what he wants. And if I was a man, I guess I’d be afraid of … of what? New ideas?
The Canary loves it when people open their minds. Giver her a piece of yours at canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 19-26, 2016.