1980

Waking up at 6 o'clock in the morning so I can have time to get my hair all feathered out and apply a mask of colorful make-up. I put on my acid wash jeans, my Ramones tee, and put on my studded leather jacket. I hop into my Dolorian and put The Clash up to 11, now I'm on my way to school. I walk into school passing by all the stereotypical cliques of the school: the jocks, the cheerleaders, the nerds, the band geeks, the artists, and my group the rebels/rockers. The bell rings and slowly saunter to class not giving a damn if I'm late and upon arrival, the teacher sends me to the Principal's office. When I do make it back to class I take my usual seat in the back and then proceed to either listen to music on my cassette player or fall asleep. The teacher drones on about how Regan's projects like Star Wars and Reaganomics will help America against the Soviets. Eventually the lunch bell rings and I take my rightful place at the outcasts table and eat the brown-bag lunch. The day goes by with little incident and after school I head to the record store. I look through all the vinyls and the 8-tracks until I find something I like, probably some Misfits or Iron Maiden. I go home to play pong, blasting music, and not doing any of my homework. I go downstairs to have a "nice" dinner with the parental units just nodding and grunting at everything they say and then go upstairs to talk to friends. At least five times I had to go yell at my younger brother for listening in on my phone call and then I go take a shower. I wash of the pound of make-up and completely ruin my perfectly quafted hair made by two cans of hairspray. I go to bed without having done any of my homework, falling asleep to Soft Cell's Tainted Love playing the background, thinking today was a productive day of doing nothing and that I can't wait to do it all again!

Hate Radio

In Hate Radio, author Patricia Williams talks about some of the underlying fears that racist talk shows prey on. An example she gives is "...grown people sitting around scaring themselves to death with fantasies of black feminist Mexican able-bodied gay soldiers earning $100,000 a year on welfare..." It is a ridiculous fear that sensible people don't typically have, but because of talk shows like Rush Limbaugh, they impregnate the minds of the ignorant with these types of images who readily soak it up and accept this as something that happens on a daily basis. A generalized contempt these shows express is that minorities are less intelligent than Caucasians and that many believe blacks are "lazy, violent, welfare-dependent, and unpatriotic." I agree with Williams and the point that she is trying to make. Right-wing talk shows, for the most part, spew hatred and contempt for anyone and anything that is different from the typical, white norm in society. These shows only hurt our country and our people by preaching hatred of others and fill people's heads with nonsense. There is no sort of positive impact on listeners from what I've heard listening from some of these shows. The hosts are only trying to move backwards in time to when segregation and hatred were commonly accpeted and practiced. In today's world Americans can't afford to be biggoted towards other people because America itself is very diversified.