First of all, "smh" is Facebook-ese for shaking my head. And if you spend as much time as I do on social media, you probably want to respond with "smh" far more often than the easily clicked on "like." I often end a FB session by swearing to myself that I need a break from the craziness. But the next day, or maybe within the next hour, I'm back on the Book. I can't help it; I just can't. So smh, here I am to talk about recent stories that make me crazy.
Alex Trebeck: Poor Alex. In the kids' Jeopardy competition, one young lady was eliminated from the final round. The look on her face clearly displayed her sense of shock when Alex waved bye-bye because one can't continue to a final round with a negative balance. Those are the rules of the game. The rules are explained to the contestants before the game. I'm sure the children and their parents signed a folder full of papers explaining and re-explaining the rules. But this kid was "traumatized" and her parents were pissed. They demanded the station refilm the ending in a kinder, gentler way with their precious child. Alex balked, as well he should have. The ending was not refilmed. However, Alex was so disturbed that he wanted to quit Jeopardy. Quit over one helicopter parent? One? Oh Alex, welcome to my world, the world of the public school teacher. What teacher hasn't had his/her job threatened by a parent whose child did not earn an "A"? If we walked out of the classroom every time we were attacked by an upset parent, there'd be a real crisis in education. No teachers.
School Takes Away Blind Boy's Cane : First of all, certified professional educators did NOT bully the kid and take away his cane. A bus driver took the cane because the boy was throwing it around as he was listening to music. It was dangerous. Why the driver gave him a pool noodle makes me smh, but my guess is that he wanted the kid to have something safe to use to tap along to the music. (Can someone tell me why he had a pool noodle on the bus?) Anyhow, after the bus driver was reprimanded, after school officials immediately returned the cane when they were notified of the situation, the mother decided she needed to inform the news media. Why? So this would never happen again? Or, so they could garner attention, public sympathy, and maybe even a few financial donations. People love to donate money when they see a story on FB that screams the world is unfair. Who knows? I just had to smh over this story.
A Joke Gone Wrong : One of my FB friends posted a story on her page, something about scientific proof that men's intelligence is inferior to women's. It was a joke. A joke. One person wrote a scathingly nasty comment to her about keeping "her hate" off his page. He wrote it to humiliate her and I guess prove his superior intelligence. I just had to smh. First of all, she didn't put anything on his page. The joke was on her feed. If he doesn't want it on his page, he has to remove it. It's so simple, just click on the upper right hand corner and poof the offending post is gone. No need to embarrass her. I just smh, because I'd already met that idiot on a comment thread where he told me to get off my high horse. I wanted to tell him I was riding a donkey and he could kiss my ass, but I simply responded that I liked my horse and wasn't getting off. But seriously, he wants me off my high horse, yet he is entitled to ride his? Are you shaking your head yet?
Merry Christmas vs Happy Holidays : These memes give me gas. Seriously, I have asked and have yet to receive an answer. WHO is waging war on Christians by denying them the right to say Merry Christmas? Who? I want names. Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Hanukkah! I hear them all this time of the year. Soon there will be Kwanzaa greetings being shared. I've seen Christmas trees, menorahs, and manger scenes in all kinds of secular buildings. Why make a mountain out of a molehill? What is gained by feeling attacked as a Christian because the Walmart cashier wished you a happy holiday? Whatever happened to returning the smile and the greeting. Christians are not being persecuted because store workers want to be inclusive of all the holidays celebrated in December. How ridiculous. So I shake my head and tell myself that next year I'm going to send Season's Greetings cards to these people and sign them Happy Holidays! Love, Jesus. No I'm not....but I thought about it while smh.
So there you have it. I smh at all of the nonsense, but I keep going back for more and more. We can all benefit from the wisdom of the immortal Taylor Swift, so I leave you with these words:
I gotta shake, shake, shake shake, shake it off
Shake, shake, shake shake, shake it off
Shake, shake, shake shake, shake it off
Shake, shake, shake shake, shake it off
