New binarisms (aka Evil politicians)

[Henry M]

Sorry your son got so upset (really), but sounds to me like You're upset that 
it was Aids. Your son would have had the same questions if it had 
been the big C, but would you have thought it was so wrong for them 
to mention the disease then?

On 13 Nov 96 at 16:10, MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu wrote:

> Thanks to money set aside long ago by a now  deceased grandparent,
> my son goes to a very progressive private elementary school in LA. 
> When he was in 3rd grade they called an assembly to tell him and his
> peers that their gym teacher, who had gone out on sick leave, had
> died of AIDS.  My son really loved this teacher (as did we) and was
> crushed and bewildered--it was his first knowledge of AIDS as
> anything but a word he didn't understand.  While the school's
> presentation of the story of this teacher was completely
> sympathetic, I was outraged that we hadn't even been alerted that
> this assembly was going to take place, much less consulted to see if
> this was how we wanted our children to learn this brutal fact of
> brutal life.  This school is the perfect embodiment of Hilary's
> "Village" (they ?EVEN CALL THEMSELVES A VILLAGE AS OF THE PAST SIX
> MONTHS, speaking of signifiers), and I want none of it.   For weeks
> my son came home every day asking (obviously after long discussion
> with classmates in the yard) if you could AIDS from coughing, from
> falling down, from eating bad food.  It was really painful to see
> his perplexity.  My feeling is that this behaviour is typical of
> what I am calling "new communalism."
> 
> Sorry for the personal digression, but I am trying to respond to
> davemarc's question.
> 
> My reading of TRP  leads me to suspect all systems, even--maybe
> especially--those that call themselves my friend.
> 
> john m
> 
> 

Keep Cool, but care. -- TRP
http://www.nicom.com/~gravity