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| Sunday, April 22, 2007 |
| Home sweet home - with girls in tow |
We're back, they're back - everything's back to normal. Phew!
I didn't have a bad time at my parents' house, I found it to be relatively stress free. I think Beloved didn't fully agree, since my parents are sort of taking off their "company faces" with him, and showing their true bickering selves.
My dad really cracks me up. When we were there last weekend, he was in bed watching television, and my mom and I were hanging out down the hall in the living room. I really forget the reason, but she called him, "HONEEEEEYYYY!!" and he yelled back, "WHAT???!" and she yells back, "COME HERE!" (very maternal in tone, too). I heard him sigh and go, "fuuu-uuuuuck" as he got out bed. I just cracked up hysterically, b/c he's my dad. He's mr. religion. He's not supposed to say that kind of thing (I suppose he's not supposed to go through a bottle of Tanqueray gin every few days, either, but that gets overlooked as well). My mom didn't hear him, because I think a) she's getting old, and b) there's kind of a lot of weirdness going on in her head that she has to really focus on, to the exclusion of things going on outside of her head. She didn't understand why I was laughing.
We had a few "issues" come up, too, where the political tensions were on the verge of heating up between my dad and myself (Beloved won't engage, but he's definitely on my side of things). First, my dad brought up the Imus issue. He said, "well, what gets me is that everything he said is true, people just don't like the words he used to say them." I said, "dad! you don't know anything about those girls' sex lives!" Because it was the quickest thing that came to mind about "nappy-headed ho's" - although I quickly thought of the excellent article I read about why it's so deeply offensive for an African-American woman to be called "nappy-headed."
My dad was stunned -- why the hell was I talking about sex? He said, "what? who said anything about sex?" I said, "Dad! 'ho' means 'whore.'" "oooooooohhhhh!" he said, "I didn't know that."
Geez. He listens to these crazy right wing radio shows all day long while driving around in his truck - I can't believe he's just been nodding along with them, thinking "ho" meant "girl" or something. I mean, jesus christ.
I couldn't touch on the fact that he is, in fact, a racist. My mom already made him drop it, and it jsut upsets me to confront the reality that my dad is a racist.
As much as my brother's homophobia/hatred bothered me later in the evening.
The other issue was around gun control. I've been talking about gun control over at a friend's house lately -- funny thing is at my dad's house, I was arguing against the gun control he was advocating. He said he just doesn't understand why the Virginia Tech shooter was able to buy a gun. Why? Because he wasn't a citizen, but rather a legal alien. I don't know if that's true. I can't find anything on a quick google search, and I'm not inclined to spend hours looking deeper -- b/c it doesn't matter. My dad meant "because he wasn't born here," so it really doesn't matter whether he was here as a legal alien or as a citizen - he was here legally. I was upset by that - and said, "dad, you know a lot of people who weren't born here, and I'm sure that many of them would be very responsible with a gun, just because this boy snapped does not mean that people who aren't born here shouldn't have the same rights as you." And it's true. My dad has a few friends who moved here later - some from New Zealand, some from China - and I know he would never for a moment think they couldn't be trusted with a gun.
I think that's it. I can't remember any other debates. They do all get carried out in a very reasonable manner -- and my dad is the one to bring things up every single time. "So, what did you think about Imus?" I actually try to deflect him from the issues. I succeeded for a while in getting us all to talk about how long Imus was on the air, rather than about the events of 2 weeks ago.
Now we're home, though. And we don't typically debate. The girls are tired but happy, and I am ready to face yet another week scrambling to get by on the tiny amount of reading I find myself capable of this quarter. I'm also anxious for my bar loan check to come. Ever since last summer, I don't feel comfortable when my bank balance is under $1,000, and right now, it is. by kind of a good bit.Labels: parents, politics, weekends |
posted by Zuska @ 6:17 PM   |
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| 2 Comments: |
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Ha! I bet your Dad's not the only man out there who thinks "nappy-headed" was the insulting part and figured, "What's the big deal?" Geez.
The shooter was a LEGAL alien, having lived here since he was a child. I blogged on it at http://ptlawmom.blogspot.com/2007/04/its-beside-point.html
The reality is that there are many, many permanent residents here who, for whatever reason, haven't chosen to apply for citizenship. My own father didn't apply because his citizenship helped him in his government contractor work. That is until 9/11 when he was suddenly having to take Dept. of Defense meetings on a park bench because they didn't want non-citizens near their computers. Needless to say, he now finally has his citizenship. I would imagine that many other permanent residents, seeing the current wave of "Us v. Them" sentiments, may also apply in fear of what new, more restrictive legislation may bring their way. As it is, the application fees for all USCIS processes doubled last month.
Argh. Don't get me started. ;)
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Ever since last summer, I don't feel comfortable when my bank balance is under $1,000
Then my bank balance would make you fall over dead. LOL!
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Ha! I bet your Dad's not the only man out there who thinks "nappy-headed" was the insulting part and figured, "What's the big deal?" Geez.
The shooter was a LEGAL alien, having lived here since he was a child. I blogged on it at http://ptlawmom.blogspot.com/2007/04/its-beside-point.html
The reality is that there are many, many permanent residents here who, for whatever reason, haven't chosen to apply for citizenship. My own father didn't apply because his citizenship helped him in his government contractor work. That is until 9/11 when he was suddenly having to take Dept. of Defense meetings on a park bench because they didn't want non-citizens near their computers. Needless to say, he now finally has his citizenship. I would imagine that many other permanent residents, seeing the current wave of "Us v. Them" sentiments, may also apply in fear of what new, more restrictive legislation may bring their way. As it is, the application fees for all USCIS processes doubled last month.
Argh. Don't get me started. ;)