I Like to Teach Beginners…
Reuben and I are watching “The Reader,” the Oscar-nominated movie starring Kate Winslett as an illiterate tram conductor in 1958 Germany. The climax comes early in the movie when she seduces a most delicious 15 year old boy. Oh, boys, the first half hour… was such filthy heaven for Cassandra! Did you see the butt on that boy? One can only hope that, some day, I, too, can become a dirty old tranny who devours young boys. The scene where he is naked, in front of the bathtub, with his buttocks laid bare to the world, inviting the audience to plunder his innocence…
The story then devolves into a trial. Winslett is a former SS guard. She lets 300 Jewish women die in a burning church. But she has too much integrity and tells the truth while everyone else lied. Blah, blah, blah. Oh my god can there be any more movies about the Holocaust? I was just about to ask Reuben what he thought about starting the movie over and watching the first thirty minutes of soft porn again when he said
I wish they would just execute the illiterate bitch already.
This comment is highly unusual coming from Reuben. He has a sensitivity bone for the suffering of others that I’m often missing. He’s getting his Masters in Social Work, after all.
Reuben then adds, I’m so sick of all these Hollywood movies where they make it seem like only white people have feelings.
The movie quickly faded into the background as Reuben and I discussed the all-too-important feelings of Brown People!
Three years ago, when I got fired in a big way from my first career, I moved to a hick state in the Mid West and opened up a taqueria. Don’t ask me why. I had no idea how to cook Mexican food, or run a restaurant, and the venture was a miserable failure. I tell people it was a very expensive MBA degree. By the time I finish paying off the bank loans my ovaries will have dried up.
However, I met people that I otherwise would have never come in contact with. One of them was Sonia, a Mexican woman in her late fifties to early sixties. She worked for about a week or so in the kitchen. I had to let her go when she kept getting the orders wrong during the lunch rush. She never looked at the order ticket as it printed out.
Sonia was illiterate.
It was just my luck that year was also a year of unparalleled prosperity in this particular state. I never knew there could be such scarcity, and such demand, for entry-level workers. I literally resorted to poaching workers from McDonald’s and Wendy’s in my spare time. Unlike the sullen high school kids, Sonia could be counted on to show up to work everyday. On time. Sonia overcompensated for her illiteracy by working extra hard. She always smiled and had a cheery attitude. In short, Sonia was good people. If you’ve ever been the owner of a small, struggling business, you know how hard it is to find good help.
Desperate times — desperate measures. I was going to teach Sonia how to read. Or at least be able to read my menu. In one night.
Heck, Cassandra can shave her legs, put on makeup, apply false eyelashes, style the wig, dress, and transform from a man to a woman in a mere 19 minutes! How hard can it be to teach the English language?
We started with the basics: Beef, Chicken, and Vegetarian. I handed her index cards where I wrote the words in English on the front. She would write the meaning on the back. Flashcards! I am so brilliant!!!
Except, when you’re illiterate, you can’t even write in your native language. Sonia couldn’t read Spanish, either. The alphabet was gibberish to her. Just think about it: the sheer magnitude of illiteracy. How crippling it must be. To never even recognize your own name.
We settled for pictures. I told her all she had to do was remember the letters B, C, and V. Sonia drew such cute pictures of a cow, a chicken (she drew a rooster with a squiggly cockscomb on its head), and tomatoes and onions for vegetarian. We had to stop afterwards because she said the B, C, and V were beginning to swim around in her head and she was getting confused.
That was the one night I taught someone to read. The next day one of my former workers (who quit because she couldn’t find a babysitter) found one and asked to come back. I let Sonia go.
So the great Cassandra failed. I didn’t teach Sonia English. I doubt if she even remembers how to distinguish her B, C, and V.
There are things in life that you can teach. Literacy, for one. In fact, in the great scheme of things literacy is relatively easy to teach.
And then there are things that are almost impossible to teach. Like Decency. Compassion. Respect for the nuances and the importance of truth.
The angry mob who swarmed Obama’s health care townhalls are not good people. They lack decency. They are literate enough to write ridiculous signs bearing ludicrous assertions: Obama Lies, Grandma Dies. They wallow in self-righteous ignorance: NO Government-Run Health Care: Keep Your Hands off My Medicare! And some are just plain vile: Death to Michelle and Her Two Stupid Daughters.
Some people are born white trash. They stay that way for life. No amount of education or intellectual engagement will change them. Selfish. Dumb. Hateful. Hypocrites.
Literacy is wasted on them and their stupid signs, no?
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Tags: delicious German boy butts, illiteracy, kate winslett, Obama's healthcare plan, race, Religious Fanatics
In short, the Holocaust is a disgusting piece of history that is re-enacted over and over again by those who continue to hate others. It’s like….people wallowing in their own ignorance. And honestly, I think it all boils down to jealousy. See…most white people don’t identify with their ancestral culture. That’s why we are so “patriotic” when it comes to America. We don’t know anything of ourselves outside of the flag and the “go back where you came from” mentality. We are jealous of any person or group of people that identify with their original culture and stick together accordingly. It scares us (most of us). The fear that we are already the minority when the the only true minority is that of our compassion, willingness to change, and belief that we are ALL one people….. I wish I could sit down to dinner with you two…just to show you that all white people are NOT like that.
I love white people! But these “birthers”… I don’t even know what to say. IT’s racism, pure and simple. I think Obama gives them too much credit when he tries to discourse with them. I hate these fuckers. I really really hate them. Human Garbage… C
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Ian! Of course I know that white people are not all like that!
Ian,
While I couldn’t and wouldn’t even try to speak for Cassandra, based on her writings I’m guessing that Cassandra recognizes that not all white people are ignorant bigots.
And I gotta say, while you may want to meet Cassandra to show her how wonderful white people are, I want to meet her just so she could fuck me in the ass while looking at me with that beautiful face.
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Wily! Yes, I recognize not all white people are ignorant bigots. My favorite person in the whole world is so white! DO you watch Bill Maher? I don’t think he’d be into trannies but I do wish he could be my boyfriend. Maybe we can have a threeway? Xoxo Cass
Cass,
Very similar experience with a production company. Used diagrams and pictures to convey staging for production events. Got the idea from observing the companies I was paying far too high in fees for sub standard work. The latinos did it better, worked harder, was there for work more – and always paid them more than the contract! I would have trusted them with my house & family. The uneducated white is the most dangeous. We shall of talk of many things along with our visit. You are far intelligent along with your looks. I am so attracted to your entire ‘package’.
Gary
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Awww…. Gary. I hear what you’re saying. I’m certainly not advocating that an entire group of people may be one way or the other. Just look at the crazy Mexican I have to deal with on a daily basis — Reuben — and you can’t say all Mexicans are good or bad depending on my interactions with him that day. LOL! I want you to suck my cock, Gary. Get down on your knees and blow me. Cass
Cassandra, you astonish me more and more. I want everyone in the world to read your blog.
Love and kisses,
Ruby
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Ruby… Wisdom says, if a dog bites you, do you bite it back? Cassandra says, I’m Chinese. If a dog bites me, I kill it and make dog stew. I wish the damn liberals would grow a pair of balls and fight back against the Republicans. xoxo Cass
Hi Cass,
Rome is the mob and the mob is Rome. The short response to the proposition that “Literacy is wasted on them and their stupid signs,” is – yes it is wasted. The town hall meetings on health care have devolved into a confederation of mobocracies.
Generally, mobs are easily controlled by demogogues and they constitute a very reliable voting block to be orchestrated by the – otherwise fragmented but opportunistic- displaced Republican Party. These “Death to Michelle and her two stupid daughters” types, compartmentalize themselves in a way which undermines their potential for compassion and decency. In other social settings they might be temperate and considerate, but because our country is evermore segregated by ideology, race, religion and ethnicity; a destructive parochialism persists. This parochialism serves political interests well but serves the country poorly by fostering mob-think.
Along With the war and economic turmoil, the current administration inherited a reservoir of bitter distrust for the government. Given the government’s recent record of group-thinking our way into the Iraq war; bail-outs to banks and corporations in the face of jobless recoveries; and an effective conservative campaign against “Big Government,” you might expect this distrust. Many feel marginalized by a “Big Government” which they deeply distrust. Their fear of being marginalized and their growing insecurity about the future is driving their anger. Literacy and reason are no match for this kind of anger. To paraphrase a line from the movie “Unforgiven”: “Reason? Decency? You know they’ve got nothing to do with it.”
What liberals and conservatives have in common is a belief in the power of government. Conservatives believe in its power to rob us of our freedom and prosperity and liberals believe in its power to deliver on the hope of improving who we are collectively and individually. I believe that there is an ideological middle ground but unfortunately for now, fear is more powerful than hope.
Brian
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Brian… Yes and No. “Conservatives” fear big government, except when they need to collect unemployment, food stamps, welfare, and, yes, the dreaded big-government-run Medicare. There was a time when I respected certain Republicans. David Brooks of the NY TImes, for example. Peggy Noonan is another. But more and more, I realize there’s a certain smugness, an “I’ve got mine fuck everyone else” mentality that seeps through to the core of the party. I’m done playing nice with them. There is no “middle ground” with these rabid dogs. ~C
Actually I agree with you that there can be no middle ground with the Conservative intelligentsia, although I make a distinction between an ideological middle ground and a political middle ground. I used to refer to the Rush Limbaugh/Glen Beck wing of the Party but it seems as though they are becomming representatives of the new core of the Party. That their influence is seeping outward to the mainstream of the Party is very surprising to me. There can be no middle ground with them and certainly not with the “Birthers.”
The ideological middle ground that I would seek could be refered to as a Pragmatic Liberalism. I would embrace the tolerance and sense of social resposibility of traditional liberalism but temper it with a recognition of why many of the liberal government policy initiatives of the past were only moderately successful. Some of the problems of the inner cities and rural America are intractible to direct government intervention. Now in many cases a focus on the family is likely to be more effective than a broad based social program. In this regard Conservatism (not Conservatives) may have something to offer.
Peggy Noonan and others that we might mention, live a world apart from the disadvantaged of our society. They have a religous commitment to their ideals (theories) but offer only a vaguely laissez-faire approach to the problems of the middle and underclass. They may even believe that government safety nets are a large part of our problems.
As for playing nice with them, I’m with you in recognizing that you can’t. In politics there’s no playing nice. There’s playing as dirty as you can get away with, and the Limbaugh-Glen core (corps) are way ahead of liberals in understanding this. The administration had a mandate and needed to press it agressively before they got stymied. I see a lot more drama ahead.
xoxo,
Brian
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Thanks for being so patient with Cass as she rambles on and on… Cass
Hi Cass,
I didn’t know how to post this comment to your comment to my comment # 2 above so I am doing it here. (Is that confusing enough?)
Yes Bill Maher! is great! If Democrats (and Obama in particular) could grow a pair the size of his, we would be better off. I don’t know if Maher is into tgirls or not but I bet once he saw you, he would be!! Regarding a threeway with Maher, while he is funny he is kind of ugly isn’t he?
C
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LOL! Yeah I think he’d have a puny lily white ass too. OK, I’ll settle for just drinks with the man.