So I went to Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg today. Had a good time. Hadn’t been there in several years, so fun seeing what was still there and what wasn’t. Surprised to see the Disney Store is actually still around!
Anyway, when I spend the vast majority of my days thinking about NYRA or doing something with it, I get to the point of feeling like my brain is focused so much on the one thing. Gives me a headache. Then need to find a way to focus on something else for a while.
But it isn’t that easy. It’s an example to use the line from the Godfather: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”
Tomorrow, I’m going to my friend’s house for the monthly game day. Always fun. Would seem like the perfect time to not have to think about NYRA or youth rights. But I often find I’m mistaken. There’s one girl who’s always at these things, who teaches sixth grade music, or used to. And, sure enough, she’s of the typical anti-kid mindset, believes they’re horrible demons who need to be sheltered and protected. Came up first back in April when I met her and heard she was a teacher, and something she’d said made me think she might at least lean pro-YR, so I mentioned NYRA, though didn’t get very far. She started on the whole “kids have too many rights!” bullshit. Then in June, that was when we got into an argument about whether 11-year-olds should be watching South Park or Family Guy. Kind of amusing they couldn’t come up with anything better than “but it’s for adults!” Not a whole lot since then, but I’m always cautious. And that’s what sucks. I want to have fun on the game day, playing nerdy games, and not have to be confronted with the fact that anti-youth bigotry is just so ingrained in our culture.
True, could be that I’m just a bit too sensitive.
Today at the mall, it was a similar deal. Walking around, buying some things. Got my new shoes at JC Penney! Went to f.y.e., since I still had a gift card my cousin gave me for Christmas last year, and bought a couple of CDs. Then I was hungry so I went to the food court.
Damn it. One of the ads I spotted was one of those “Don’t Serve Teens” posters.
I keep myself in the realm of NYRA so much, then get sick of it and wander out, only to be very quickly reminded of why NYRA exists in the first place.
I began to think of what, if anything, to do about those posters (I spotted another in another part of the mall a little bit later). Complain to management that I found the ad offensive and request it be taken down? LOL. I thought of going out to my car, getting one of my drinking age window signs, taking it back into the mall, and taping it over the poster. Covering a Don’t Serve Teens ad with “Lower the Drinking Age!” Hehehehe!
Okay, I ended up not doing anything. Gaithersburg, MD is proving to be a place desperately in need of the youth rights gospel. The mall ads. The pet store incident from two years ago. The bowling alley with a sign saying no one under 14 is allowed in after dark. I guess I’d better work on a strategy!
And, sure enough, here I am again thinking about NYRA stuff until my brain is ready to explode.
Something similar happens to me. I manage to forget about youth rights issues for a moment and focus on something else, and then all of a sudden a blatant example of ageism pushes it back to the forefront of my mind.
You should have torn the sign down and ran. And um…polyamoury?
Swingers are fun, Julian. 😀
Family Guy, South Park, ect…aren’t REALLY for adults. The writers just write it, the animators just animate it, and put it on for whoever seems to find it funny. It isn’t like they sit down and say, “What can we do with our adult TV show this season?”