My mom is probably just like yours. Over protective, looking out for you, wanting the best for you etc. But my mother goes too far. See, all my mother does is criticize me; "Sarah, you call this clean?", "What do I look like, your maid?", "Where the hell were you", "You owe me money, you better not forget", and the famous one: "Shut the hell up, no one cares!"
This hurts me, especially since my mother wants us to talk "like we used to." Yeah, well when we "used to" she was nicer. Talking to my mother is like telling a drill sargent that your feet hurt, it’s impossible.
My parents just got a divorce (mom’s idea, no less) and I am moving in with my dad for a year and then I live with my mom and choose who I wish to live with from there. Well, I have decided otherwise. My father and I have decided that I will live with him permanently. As much as I hate to hurt my mother, I can’t live with someone who doesn’t love me for me. The way I see it my mom sees my life as the chance to live her life over, and it shouldn’t be that way. It won’t be that way. I love my mother, but I love me more.
Good-bye mother, I hope you understand this.
Sarah
What is "The Cause"? I know the answer. It’s your crusade against "oppressiveness." I think it would be fair to say that you have opposition in this battle. You’ve stated several times in your Zine that you "do not discriminate"... On basis of identity, etc. BUT, right on the top of the "Feedback" web page on your web site, you say, "Do it for the Cause!" There, you are implying that submitted feedback or an article would be fighting against so-called oppressive authorities. I’m sorry to tell you, but there are those who do not agree with your goals. Those people, if they submitted feedback, etc, would not be "doing it for the cause." By putting this as the title for you page, you imply that this type of feedback is not welcome. You have truly made an image for yourself. You do not discriminate on basis of identity, race, gender, sexual preference, etc. You only discriminate on basis of belief.
Concerned Citizen
We would like to say "the cause" refers to the bringing of these issues into the open where they can be examined, discussed, etc. and nobody should have a problem contributing because of this "neutral" stance. But the fact remains that, although some may disagree, some people feel the publication is biased and someone with an opinion that conflicts with our "biased" views would be rejected. We hope to do our best to encourage feedback with a broad range of opinions, and because of that, "Do it for the Cause!" has been changed to "Feedback." Thank you for bringing this point to light!
In response to the article: New Century Hypocrisy
You sound like you have a reasonable complaint, I would suggest that you start with the district that your school is located in, call and make an appointment. Your best bet is to play the system you know, but make sure you REALLY understand how it works. Clean yourself up, pull back your hair if it’s long, don’t wear any earrings, and wear a suit or something REALLY clean cut. Go to this appointment, with a witness, and take all the info you have, make sure you get all the documentation of the expulsions, and suspensions. Go talk with the district board and see what happens. If they are just as ridiculious basically smile, say thank you for your time, and I’ll be intouch. Then go to the local paper and tell them you have a public interest story for them. Basically if they won’t listen when you try to talk to them in a polite and reasonable manner, blowing out of water! Public schools tend to really suck. You have to generally fight for whatever you want. I would also suggest that you get the parents involved if they won’t listen. Why? Because, they vote. Good luck!
Sonja
Last time we checked on Tim Hurley, he was bested by the man. Although he got encouraging feedback from the ACLU and many other individuals, he is not trying to get back into his old school. He attends community college at this moment.
Dear Oblivion Crew,
I’m new to Oly and picked up your zine downtown. I’m originally from Pennsylvania and have been writing my zine Bitchfield for three years.
For some reason Bitchfield escaped the high school police back home. My friend Sarah had a scandal in her Jr High cuz her zine mentioned the class president (it wasn’t even mean--it just pointed out how the school paper & morning announcementsalways gave cheerleader Danielle Fereth credit for the things Danielle Feranti did.) Then in the high school my friend Matt got a 5 day suspension for his zine that "promoted homosexuality" and "continued obscene material" according to the school board. Whatever...it was a photo of Eddie Vedder kissing Anthony Keidis...
Anyway--let me know if you have anything out past #2. As for cheaper copies - my friend Lisa says the copier at the Evergreen Library is 5¢ a side.
XOXO Courtney
High School can suck sometimes. Well, let’s not try to hide it...most of the time it fucking sucks. To make things worse, when you finally find something you enjoy doing, some bastard tries to crush you.
Five cents a side, eh? Guess what? There’s a place downtown across from the old capitol building that sells copies for two and a half cents a side. Yippee! At least it’s not Kinkos.
I’ve read your "Zine" and I have come to a few (hopefully constructive) conclusions. The first is that I find it to be wholly one-sided. Do you truly believe that "oppressive figures" act the way they do just to flaunt their dominance over you? Your articles are entirely fallacious if this is your belief. If any writers of your paper here have seriously done any sort of debate or even argument, you should realize that examining your antagonists’ viewpoint would not be detrimental to your "cause," but would actually add validity to your argument.
My second point is that if you truly do want to be "excepted," then you really should learn to use proper spelling and grammar. I realize that your articles are sent in by independant authors, but the lack of "mad" English skills is astoundingly clear and spread throughout every piece of your newsletter. It seems you feel that you are "priveledged" members of society, but, seriously, to be taken seriously you need to try harder than spelling "astromony." You need to keep some standards.
Of course, I realize that this is negative feedback which does not correlate with "the cause," so I assume it will be thrown out without its points even being considered. However, I am not writing this for my own benefit, but yours.
Anonymous Reader
Just because you have yet to experience situations like those of our writers, it doesn’t mean they don’t happen. I often wonder why "oppressive figures" act the way they do. Regardless of motive, many actions can not be justified.
To address your second point, nearly everyone has an original writing style. If you’re on the Internet, you might notice that the ellipsis (...) is used a lot and generally accepted although it may not be "proper." Some people don’t capitalize the beginning of sentences because they feel it is unnecessary and time consuming. Some people recognize a difference between "John Doe" and "john doe," while some do not. There are many different forms of writing that may be in accordance with your perception of "proper English" and many that may not. Because the writer of a certain article knows best what they want written and how, we do not change their words. Even you lack "mad" English skills. "If any writers of your paper here have seriously done any sort of debate or even argument, you should realize..." -- you say that if any of the writers have done any debating, that I should realize. That’s a shift in person! Some errors may be unintentional, and "astromony" was certainly one of those.
About the last statement. There is no need to "dare" us to print your letter. Regardless of what you meant by it, that’s how it was perceived. We appreciate all feedback, whether it be good or bad. After reading this reply, we don’t want people to think we lash out at any "negative" feedback we get. It’s just that we don’t agree with most of your points.
Hi,
I really like Oblivion a lot. I graduated from high school in June 94, and trust me, mine was pretty damned similar to New Century High. When I was a senior, my friends and I got really angry when we discovered that at graduation, the guys would have to wear green gowns, and the girls would have to wear yellow. Okay, so this isn't exactly the kind of issue that books are written about, but it is clearly a matter of gender differences being enforced for no good reason. We complained and had to go through a series of stupid meetings with the graduation committe, which was complete crap, adn finally all got yelled at by the evil assistant principal who told me I was agitating just to make trouble and that nobody in their right minds cared about dumb stuff like what color gowns we had to wear. They told us if we didn't like it we could just stay home on graduation day. Yeah, my parents would *love* that. Anyway, the upshot was that the principal, who was retiring and evidently didn't care at all about this issue, read some stupid statement about gender equality at graduation. Maybe if the school hadn't been overtly sexist, racist, and homophobic that would have meant more to me. This is the one incident that sticks out in my mind, but there are many more. Keep in mind that high school is basically just a way to keep youth controlled, to kill their creative intelligent impulses, and try to run them into the ground. Lovely, isn't it?
alice
Thanks for the letter! The old "quit rocking the boat" rhetoric is used quite often in situations were people have no valid argument. Could the students be that much smarter than the administration?