June 13, 2011
--Symbolism
It's very difficult to eliminate the color red from the world; that's one reason why I wrote about that this morning. The point about symbols is how you use them; for example, language is symbolic, and the inflection that you give it determines its meaning.
What I've always said about the various symbols is that the thing to do is to use them in context, and to ask yourself the questions "What are my intentions?" and "What is the result?" If your intention is to be harmful, that will be obvious in lot of cases. If your intention is to be helpful, that can be obvious, too. You can also have a neutral intention, or be unable to avoid a certain word, image, number or color.
I've also said that, most of the time, there's no need for people to go out of their way to do or say certain things. It seems as if what happened last year when I first noticed the pedophilic imagery and insinuations happening, and protested it, is that most if not all of the entertainment industry ridiculed my concerns and did things such as make sure to put scenes of kids in pools and with sprinklers and other kinds of things. I think that that wasn't the right thing to do; now the entire situation has escalated and everything that I said about what was going to happen has happened.
The point is for there to be more freedom for positive and productive activity in the world, not less. There's nothing positive about the issues I've described.
--Nasty Librarian School
I think that maybe some of the female librarians in this part of the world went to Nasty Librarian School for Middle-Aged and Old Ladies. I hadn't been in the library in Montpelier and visible for more than a few minutes when a Nasty, Middle-Aged, Female Librarian said to a patron of the library, loudly "It's not raining out, so that's good," in that hateful, sing-song voice that women often use to be nasty in a manipulative, passive-aggressive way.
I've never done anything to her, just as I've never done anything at all to the vast percentage of people who go out of their way to be nasty to me and about me.
--Inappropriate uses of my love life
I don't think that my love life, lack thereof, or anything about it should be used to determine world events. The distortion of stories by the media is bad under any circumstances; for anything about my personal life to be used to say "such and such a country should get aid," is a bad idea.
At the very least, I'm protesting that happening. I feel as if much of this past year has involved me attempting, over and over again, to encourage people to be rational about the biggest issues. I make mistakes, but I don't run the world.
I feel as if I'm in the at times unhappy and overly stressful situation of being visible to a lot of people who make big decisions. While I think that I often have the right idea about things, I'm sure that there are a lot of people who share my general views and who are much better educated and more knowledgeable about things such as the Middle East who could give specific and good direction for how to deal with issues of that magnitude. Those people may not have my visibility or access; I wish they did.
--Are you kidding? A Hero Complex? I want to go back to the mall! I was happy being a dumb American, as a lot of people are.
I've said, many times, that very little of what I've spent my energy on over the past year is something that I wanted to be doing, and that I only did it because I thought it was important. I've said, many times, "Could the people who are officially in charge please take on their responsibilities in a positive way so that I can stop spending all of my time and energy trying to halt the effects of their destructive behavior on the world?"
At times over the past month or so, I've seen some people with an emblem on their websites that says "Hero Complex." I don't think I have a Hero Complex; do those people perhaps have a Villain Complex?
--The Good Samaritan Shelter
A recent addition to the decor at the Good Samaritan shelter, where I've been staying, consists of 2 cases of Price Chopper spring water sitting on the floor in the kitchen.
The morning after all of the residents of the shelter had been evacuated to the auditorium to be away from the flood, and come back to the shelter, the manager walked up to me and told me that I could wash all the blankets that the residents had brought to the auditorium and used for the night. She didn't push me when I said "I'm no Cinderella," but she had in fact walked up to me out of nowhere and told me that I could do that.
There's been an ongoing issue, also, with one of the cleaning ladies there; this morning, she walked over to where I was and put a "Wet Floor" sign on the rug in front of the front door, where I couldn't miss it.
I'm not sure what her continuing problem is; I think that perhaps during the time when there might have been some confusion about whether or not I supported pedophilia, she became extra aggressive. During that time, I tried to talk to her on the street as she was walking into work one morning; I wasn't offensive or meaning to be offensive, but she started yelling at me "I WILL F--- you up!"
I indicated to someone on the board of directors who was at the house at the time that I didn't think that staff at a shelter should be threatening the residents.
Hopefully by now, I have dissipated any misunderstanding that there might have been about my feelings about pedophilia; I don't support it at all, I think it's terrible.
I have been an exemplary guest at that shelter, as I've said before. The only conflicts that occur happen because I defend myself from being abused.
I don't think that a shelter should be encouraging abuse of any of its residents, for any reason. I think that the symbolism used in that place has been decidedly malignant.
There's no excuse for any staff at that shelter to be sexually abusive toward me, which is what all of the harassment is, or for any staff to encourage me to be abused by other residents. It's the job of a shelter to provide shelter.
No matter how sarcastic or even degrading I get in moments when I'm angry or exasperated, I NEVER try to systematically degrade people in a specifically sexual way that is directed AT their genitals or genital functions.
@ 2:52 p.m.
--The Vermont State Employees Credit Union
I went to the VSECU last week to find about jobs. It's been a few years that I've thought about applying to work as a teller or other entry-level position (see; in context) at a bank. It's customer service, which I like, and more intellectual challenge in a more polite environment on both sides of the counter than a lot of other customer service jobs.
I hadn't applied at or inquired about those kinds of jobs in all this time because I knew that I'd instantly get accused of all kinds of things, and I didn't need that. Finally, I decided that I'd waited long enough, made my point about those issues enough times, and that I should see if that kind of job is something I like.
I looked at the website for VSECU. The first thing you see on the page is something that says "4% for Everybody" against a background of clouds.
There's a link from the VSECU website to its Twitter page, and at first glance, it didn't seem too bad. I went back to the bank's website for a while, then back to its Twitter page a few minutes later. In those few minutes, the entire first display of the Twitter page had changed to be full of harassment. That means that my activities on the Internet were being watched; I really am being persecuted.
I looked at the website again today; it's made its harassment even more plain, and it is obviously MEANT as harassment.
Here's the first link under the picture of the clouds with 4% written on it. It's under the section that says "What's New:"
"VSECU Team Rides for Donations for Vermont Foodbank
VSECU staff, their families and friends are......
READ MORE"
Then, if you follow the link, it says this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What's New | Jun 13, 2011 VSECU Team Rides for Donations for Vermont Foodbank VSECU staff, their families and friends are excited to ride in the 10th annual Harpoon Point to Point Bike Tour on Saturday, August 13, to benefit the Vermont Foodbank. This is the second year VSECU will be a sponsor of the Harpoon Point to Point Bike Tour and send a team of riders to participate.VSECU will also be at the Brownsville Water Stop, the last stop on the tour, to hand out refreshments and offer encouragement!
Last year, the Harpoon Point to Point raised more than $120,000 for the Vermont Foodbank, making it the largest one-day fundraiser. The donations through the bike tour enabled the Vermont Foodbank to provide more than 300,000 pounds of food—or 230,000 meals—to Vermonters in need.
There are three rides in the bike tour, 115 miles from Williston, 50 miles from Bethel and 25 miles from Windsor, a ride to suit almost every fitness level and biking ability. Most members of the VSECU team, called “VSECU B4B,” have opted for the 25-mile trek, but a few of our more intrepid riders have chosen the 50-mile challenge. For more about the Harpoon Point to Point, visit them online.
The VSECU B4B team is riding for donations to support the much-needed work of the Vermont Foodbank. We would appreciate anything you can give by donating online on our VSECU B4B donation page. Please note that our team name is VSECU B4B, and our team captain is Kathy Town.
Thank you for supporting our efforts to help the Vermont Foodbank and your fellow Vermonters!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you follow the link from where it says "Our Giving Policy" on the first page of the website, you'll find a link that says "VSECU Helps Fund Summer Camp Scholarships at the Boys & Girls Club of Rutland County." If you go to the page from that link, you'll see that it says
"Kidventure campers will go on “top secret” missions where each week is dedicated to a special mission with titles such as “Finding Champ” and “Everybody’s Kung Fu Camping.” For more information on Kidventure Camp and other programs at the Boys & Girls Club of Rutland County, please visit www.rutlandbgclub.org or call 802-747-4944."
"Champ" is the supposed Lake Champlain monster; I'm sure that there have been other years when kids were asked to play games such as "Finding Champ."
As far as "Kung Fu Panda 2" is concerned; I know that there are celebrities in that movie who have promoted the pedophilic issues; whether their promotion was an ill-advised joke or they really mean it, I don't know. The movie itself seems to be geared that way, too.
If you go to the website for the Rutland Boys and Girls Club, the first picture on it is of kids in a pool. Again, if all of the things that have happened over the past year hadn't happened, I don't think that would be noteworthy, but I do think it's noteworthy now.
I don't know how to solve these issues, or what a safe balance is between not encouraging what has become pedophilic imagery and not creating censorship. As I said yesterday, and I think as I've said at other times, I could never have imagined that most of what's happened over the past year could ever have happened, and I don't know how to fix it. I have ideas and concerns about it, but that doesn't mean that I KNOW how to fix it. I don't know that it's easy to figure out how to fix most difficult problems.
--The post office
I went to the post office the other day. There was a cardboard display of half-sheets of paper that say
"Put your stamp on a greener tomorrow. Buy Go Green Stamps Today."
Then there's a block of 16 stamp designs, the second of which shows a dripping faucet, with a caption that says "fix water leaks."
The last stamp design on the page shows someone filling a tire with air and the caption says "maintain tire pressure."
Here's more of what the brochure says:
"The United States Postal Service is doing its part to 'Go Green' by providing eco-friendly mailing materials and stamps to our customers.
As part of our 'Go Green" commitment, we've designed a series of 16 Go Green stamps, showing what each of us can do to promote the health of our environment.
For more green ideas, and to buy Go Green stamps, visit usps.com/green today."
If you go to the usps.com/green website, you'll see something that it also advertises for on its brochure; it's called "Cradle to Cradle certified packaging."
Here's what the first part of the back of the brochure says:
"The U.S. Postal Service is growing greener every day. Here's how:
Eco-friendly packaging. The U.S. Postal Service is the first shipping company to achieve Cradle to Cradle Certification for packaging. These products are assessed for ingredient safety, reutilization potential and manufacturing sustainability.
Delivering on climate change. The U.S. Postal Service is the first federal agency to publicly report greenhouse gas emissions and get third-party verification.
Reducing our carbon footprint. The U.S. Postal Service has reduced its facility energy intensity more than 28% since 2003."
Copyright L. Kochman June 13, 2011 @ 3:35 p.m.
--Democracy is worth our investment
It's worth it to make the investment in places that are rebelling against dictators and repressive regimes. I can't remember a time when the Middle East wasn't a place of constant unrest. A sick, pseudo-stability that results from a population being oppressed is not really stability. People always seek their freedom eventually, and if the United States indicates that it is unconcerned about the freedom and healthy stability of places such as many in the Middle East, those places are going to seek their freedom in another way that is either unfriendly to us or absolutely indifferent to us.
There's also this question; why wouldn't you want to help people who both want to be free and who are doing everything they can already do on their own to help themselves, and who can't attain their goals without you?
--Symbolism
It's very difficult to eliminate the color red from the world; that's one reason why I wrote about that this morning. The point about symbols is how you use them; for example, language is symbolic, and the inflection that you give it determines its meaning.
What I've always said about the various symbols is that the thing to do is to use them in context, and to ask yourself the questions "What are my intentions?" and "What is the result?" If your intention is to be harmful, that will be obvious in lot of cases. If your intention is to be helpful, that can be obvious, too. You can also have a neutral intention, or be unable to avoid a certain word, image, number or color.
I've also said that, most of the time, there's no need for people to go out of their way to do or say certain things. It seems as if what happened last year when I first noticed the pedophilic imagery and insinuations happening, and protested it, is that most if not all of the entertainment industry ridiculed my concerns and did things such as make sure to put scenes of kids in pools and with sprinklers and other kinds of things. I think that that wasn't the right thing to do; now the entire situation has escalated and everything that I said about what was going to happen has happened.
The point is for there to be more freedom for positive and productive activity in the world, not less. There's nothing positive about the issues I've described.
--Nasty Librarian School
I think that maybe some of the female librarians in this part of the world went to Nasty Librarian School for Middle-Aged and Old Ladies. I hadn't been in the library in Montpelier and visible for more than a few minutes when a Nasty, Middle-Aged, Female Librarian said to a patron of the library, loudly "It's not raining out, so that's good," in that hateful, sing-song voice that women often use to be nasty in a manipulative, passive-aggressive way.
I've never done anything to her, just as I've never done anything at all to the vast percentage of people who go out of their way to be nasty to me and about me.
--Inappropriate uses of my love life
I don't think that my love life, lack thereof, or anything about it should be used to determine world events. The distortion of stories by the media is bad under any circumstances; for anything about my personal life to be used to say "such and such a country should get aid," is a bad idea.
At the very least, I'm protesting that happening. I feel as if much of this past year has involved me attempting, over and over again, to encourage people to be rational about the biggest issues. I make mistakes, but I don't run the world.
I feel as if I'm in the at times unhappy and overly stressful situation of being visible to a lot of people who make big decisions. While I think that I often have the right idea about things, I'm sure that there are a lot of people who share my general views and who are much better educated and more knowledgeable about things such as the Middle East who could give specific and good direction for how to deal with issues of that magnitude. Those people may not have my visibility or access; I wish they did.
--Are you kidding? A Hero Complex? I want to go back to the mall! I was happy being a dumb American, as a lot of people are.
I've said, many times, that very little of what I've spent my energy on over the past year is something that I wanted to be doing, and that I only did it because I thought it was important. I've said, many times, "Could the people who are officially in charge please take on their responsibilities in a positive way so that I can stop spending all of my time and energy trying to halt the effects of their destructive behavior on the world?"
At times over the past month or so, I've seen some people with an emblem on their websites that says "Hero Complex." I don't think I have a Hero Complex; do those people perhaps have a Villain Complex?
--The Good Samaritan Shelter
A recent addition to the decor at the Good Samaritan shelter, where I've been staying, consists of 2 cases of Price Chopper spring water sitting on the floor in the kitchen.
The morning after all of the residents of the shelter had been evacuated to the auditorium to be away from the flood, and come back to the shelter, the manager walked up to me and told me that I could wash all the blankets that the residents had brought to the auditorium and used for the night. She didn't push me when I said "I'm no Cinderella," but she had in fact walked up to me out of nowhere and told me that I could do that.
There's been an ongoing issue, also, with one of the cleaning ladies there; this morning, she walked over to where I was and put a "Wet Floor" sign on the rug in front of the front door, where I couldn't miss it.
I'm not sure what her continuing problem is; I think that perhaps during the time when there might have been some confusion about whether or not I supported pedophilia, she became extra aggressive. During that time, I tried to talk to her on the street as she was walking into work one morning; I wasn't offensive or meaning to be offensive, but she started yelling at me "I WILL F--- you up!"
I indicated to someone on the board of directors who was at the house at the time that I didn't think that staff at a shelter should be threatening the residents.
Hopefully by now, I have dissipated any misunderstanding that there might have been about my feelings about pedophilia; I don't support it at all, I think it's terrible.
I have been an exemplary guest at that shelter, as I've said before. The only conflicts that occur happen because I defend myself from being abused.
I don't think that a shelter should be encouraging abuse of any of its residents, for any reason. I think that the symbolism used in that place has been decidedly malignant.
There's no excuse for any staff at that shelter to be sexually abusive toward me, which is what all of the harassment is, or for any staff to encourage me to be abused by other residents. It's the job of a shelter to provide shelter.
No matter how sarcastic or even degrading I get in moments when I'm angry or exasperated, I NEVER try to systematically degrade people in a specifically sexual way that is directed AT their genitals or genital functions.
@ 2:52 p.m.
--The Vermont State Employees Credit Union
I went to the VSECU last week to find about jobs. It's been a few years that I've thought about applying to work as a teller or other entry-level position (see; in context) at a bank. It's customer service, which I like, and more intellectual challenge in a more polite environment on both sides of the counter than a lot of other customer service jobs.
I hadn't applied at or inquired about those kinds of jobs in all this time because I knew that I'd instantly get accused of all kinds of things, and I didn't need that. Finally, I decided that I'd waited long enough, made my point about those issues enough times, and that I should see if that kind of job is something I like.
I looked at the website for VSECU. The first thing you see on the page is something that says "4% for Everybody" against a background of clouds.
There's a link from the VSECU website to its Twitter page, and at first glance, it didn't seem too bad. I went back to the bank's website for a while, then back to its Twitter page a few minutes later. In those few minutes, the entire first display of the Twitter page had changed to be full of harassment. That means that my activities on the Internet were being watched; I really am being persecuted.
I looked at the website again today; it's made its harassment even more plain, and it is obviously MEANT as harassment.
Here's the first link under the picture of the clouds with 4% written on it. It's under the section that says "What's New:"
"VSECU Team Rides for Donations for Vermont Foodbank
VSECU staff, their families and friends are......
READ MORE"
Then, if you follow the link, it says this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What's New | Jun 13, 2011 VSECU Team Rides for Donations for Vermont Foodbank VSECU staff, their families and friends are excited to ride in the 10th annual Harpoon Point to Point Bike Tour on Saturday, August 13, to benefit the Vermont Foodbank. This is the second year VSECU will be a sponsor of the Harpoon Point to Point Bike Tour and send a team of riders to participate.VSECU will also be at the Brownsville Water Stop, the last stop on the tour, to hand out refreshments and offer encouragement!
Last year, the Harpoon Point to Point raised more than $120,000 for the Vermont Foodbank, making it the largest one-day fundraiser. The donations through the bike tour enabled the Vermont Foodbank to provide more than 300,000 pounds of food—or 230,000 meals—to Vermonters in need.
There are three rides in the bike tour, 115 miles from Williston, 50 miles from Bethel and 25 miles from Windsor, a ride to suit almost every fitness level and biking ability. Most members of the VSECU team, called “VSECU B4B,” have opted for the 25-mile trek, but a few of our more intrepid riders have chosen the 50-mile challenge. For more about the Harpoon Point to Point, visit them online.
The VSECU B4B team is riding for donations to support the much-needed work of the Vermont Foodbank. We would appreciate anything you can give by donating online on our VSECU B4B donation page. Please note that our team name is VSECU B4B, and our team captain is Kathy Town.
Thank you for supporting our efforts to help the Vermont Foodbank and your fellow Vermonters!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you follow the link from where it says "Our Giving Policy" on the first page of the website, you'll find a link that says "VSECU Helps Fund Summer Camp Scholarships at the Boys & Girls Club of Rutland County." If you go to the page from that link, you'll see that it says
"Kidventure campers will go on “top secret” missions where each week is dedicated to a special mission with titles such as “Finding Champ” and “Everybody’s Kung Fu Camping.” For more information on Kidventure Camp and other programs at the Boys & Girls Club of Rutland County, please visit www.rutlandbgclub.org or call 802-747-4944."
"Champ" is the supposed Lake Champlain monster; I'm sure that there have been other years when kids were asked to play games such as "Finding Champ."
As far as "Kung Fu Panda 2" is concerned; I know that there are celebrities in that movie who have promoted the pedophilic issues; whether their promotion was an ill-advised joke or they really mean it, I don't know. The movie itself seems to be geared that way, too.
If you go to the website for the Rutland Boys and Girls Club, the first picture on it is of kids in a pool. Again, if all of the things that have happened over the past year hadn't happened, I don't think that would be noteworthy, but I do think it's noteworthy now.
I don't know how to solve these issues, or what a safe balance is between not encouraging what has become pedophilic imagery and not creating censorship. As I said yesterday, and I think as I've said at other times, I could never have imagined that most of what's happened over the past year could ever have happened, and I don't know how to fix it. I have ideas and concerns about it, but that doesn't mean that I KNOW how to fix it. I don't know that it's easy to figure out how to fix most difficult problems.
--The post office
I went to the post office the other day. There was a cardboard display of half-sheets of paper that say
"Put your stamp on a greener tomorrow. Buy Go Green Stamps Today."
Then there's a block of 16 stamp designs, the second of which shows a dripping faucet, with a caption that says "fix water leaks."
The last stamp design on the page shows someone filling a tire with air and the caption says "maintain tire pressure."
Here's more of what the brochure says:
"The United States Postal Service is doing its part to 'Go Green' by providing eco-friendly mailing materials and stamps to our customers.
As part of our 'Go Green" commitment, we've designed a series of 16 Go Green stamps, showing what each of us can do to promote the health of our environment.
For more green ideas, and to buy Go Green stamps, visit usps.com/green today."
If you go to the usps.com/green website, you'll see something that it also advertises for on its brochure; it's called "Cradle to Cradle certified packaging."
Here's what the first part of the back of the brochure says:
"The U.S. Postal Service is growing greener every day. Here's how:
Eco-friendly packaging. The U.S. Postal Service is the first shipping company to achieve Cradle to Cradle Certification for packaging. These products are assessed for ingredient safety, reutilization potential and manufacturing sustainability.
Delivering on climate change. The U.S. Postal Service is the first federal agency to publicly report greenhouse gas emissions and get third-party verification.
Reducing our carbon footprint. The U.S. Postal Service has reduced its facility energy intensity more than 28% since 2003."
Copyright L. Kochman June 13, 2011 @ 3:35 p.m.
--Democracy is worth our investment
It's worth it to make the investment in places that are rebelling against dictators and repressive regimes. I can't remember a time when the Middle East wasn't a place of constant unrest. A sick, pseudo-stability that results from a population being oppressed is not really stability. People always seek their freedom eventually, and if the United States indicates that it is unconcerned about the freedom and healthy stability of places such as many in the Middle East, those places are going to seek their freedom in another way that is either unfriendly to us or absolutely indifferent to us.
There's also this question; why wouldn't you want to help people who both want to be free and who are doing everything they can already do on their own to help themselves, and who can't attain their goals without you?