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Edited on Thu Dec-21-06 02:37 AM by LittleClarkie
I was talking to the new parish secretary at my church, asking her about her background and how she came to work for us.
It was strange. The conversation started out alright, with her telling me that she used to be a teacher. Then I found out it was a "choice" school, which here in Wisconsin means the government is helping to pay for parents of lower income to send their children to the school of their choice, generally meaning private school.
Well, this woman used to work for a parochial school apparently, with no gym to speak of and generally not much in the way of facilities. She said alot of children who have behavioral problems end up at schools like the one she used to work at, with children throwing desks and water bottles and such. She says she was let go, because the church school was having trouble recruiting new children, and their rolls were dwindling.
Somehow, as I asked her about how such schools are held accountable, she misunderstood and started talking about teacher certification. She refuses to get her certification because she doesn't believe in what the state teaches. She said that she objected to the multi-cultural class she'd taken before she decided she didn't need to be certified. She objected to it because they taught tolerance of different races and cultures. She said that God created all people equally, and that's how they should be treated. She interpreted what the class taught as being favoritism and special treatment for each different race or culture, and felt that was wrong.
She talked about how she used to be naive to the ways of the world, but sometime in the early ninties she'd started to find out things. She seemed to be talking about government intrusiveness, citing things like the pressure plates on the road by stop lights being used for crowd control because a car sitting on one could be turned off with a charge. Or the same pressure plates letting cars go sooner but making motorcycles wait longer. Or how fire stations can control the stop and go lights. AShe talked about the cameras at intersections and how sophisticated they were in the amout of detail they could register.
By this point in the conversation, I've got an urge to slowly back away, not making any sudden moves. Back in more confused days, this sort of conversation would have kicked off an anxiety attack in me that would have taken months to get over. But I'm not quite as pliable as I used to be, so all I've got is a few crispy brain cells at this point (mind you I'm little sleep deprived today).
But I digress.
She seemed to be talking about a 1984-like scenario. Big Brother is watching. I don't know her politics, so I venture a comment about the Dept. of Homeland Security and how that agency was probably adding to the list of things that worried her. I started to say something about the Bush administration and how government has grown when she interrupted with "Oh, they pick on that man so much. He's a good Christian and he's doing the best he can."
Oh dear. I've read about such folks but never really met one. I'm alittle speechless. I really don't need the President of these United States "doing the best that he can." Yeah, but, "the best that he can" doesn't appear to be enough. So then what? I should cut him some slack because he's supposed to be a good Christian, which I'm not even sure I believe?
I think I tried to suggest that even people with the best of intentions could put policies in place that can be exploited by the less scrupulous and left it at that.
Somehow she managed to head into "It's Clinton's fault" territory from there. She told a story about Iran threatening the life of a soldier (Something like that. It wasn't a story I'd heard before) and Clinton doing nothing.
"And and then ten years later the towers happened" she said.
Hrrr? "That wasn't Iran" I replied.
"Iraq, then."
"Not them either"
"Oh well, the Middle East... somewhere"
"Try Al Queda" I offered.
Informed little thing, ain't she. The freeper alarms are going off now. So this is the sort of person who bought into Bush's rationale for war, and thinks that Iraq had something to do with 9/11.
My brain's bleeding that this point. It's a wonder I could talk.
Talked a bit about security right here somewhere, with her saying something about watching out for these people, and me repeating her words about everyone being created by God and needing to be treated equally back to her.
From there she somehow wandered into how Middle Eastern men treat woman like property, but that she's not into women's lib or being treated like a minority for being a woman and getting special treatment, harkening back to her earlier topic.
Maybe the church school let her go, skipping over senority considerations, not because she was too old and being paid too much, as she assumes, but because this woman is nuts.
I took my leave then. I don't think she was terribly pleased with me, saying I didn't have to agree with her, or believe her (about the conspiracy stuff).
My church is somewhat liberal. And this woman says she likes to talk about stuff like this. I'm wondering how long before one of the parishoners can't take it anymore and gets into an argument with her. Hoo boy.
Thanks for listening if you got this far. I just had to get that encounter out of my system. It's been bugging me all day.
Bush's numbers could go completely into the toilet, and the few percentage points he'd have left would include this woman.
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