"And I'll talk in my sleep and you'll steal all the covers"

[hermionesviolin]

We went to the Mankins’ for dinner tonight -- chicken stir-fry. Annie’s mac&cheese shells for me. Lots of people at school have told me it’s great, but i’d never had it. It’s good, but honestly my favorite is still the from-a-box kind. It’s what i was raised on; what can i do? Strawberry shortcake for dessert. I don’t remember ice cream being included in the strawberry shortcake i’ve had in the past. Is yum.

Murphy reminds me of Sean at that age. Peru says he never wants him to grow up, wants him to just stay at this age. I just shook my head. I am all about the elementary school and up age range.

Big Fat Liar was, to my surprise, a very enjoyable movie.

laynamarya (and silvermousepad), i said “Word, yo,” umpteen times last night and thought of you. Was saying it a lot tonight, too.

During the car ride home someone mentioned the recent case about the Muslim woman who wanted to leave her veil on in her driver’s license photo. My brother said the whole wearing a veil thing was stupid. I pointed out that as a member of a religion which believes someone rose from the dead he’s on shaky ground calling parts of other religions “stupid.” This got us into a discussion on things one accepts on faith (he said there’s proof that Jesus rose from the dead, and i challenged him to find me documentation outside of the Gospels -- why do i doubt he’ll take me up on that?) and actual rules. Admittedly i was hard-pressed to come up with any rules in Christianity that aren’t Jewish or Catholic that one would call “stupid,” partly because i don’t think Protestant sects have many “rules” per se. Conversations like this remind me that my brother is still a teenager and that it’s a damn good thing teenagers don’t run the world. None of us know much about Islam or the Koran, so of course i had to look up the rationale around the veil when i got home. Good sites include this page (bottom-most section) and this page (which has a number of good links).

Nancy is a young woman who wears the head covering that many of my female African-America students wear. She once told me that she is not a religious Muslim. As a matter of fact, she is not a Muslim at all. She and a number of friends have decided to wear the head covering because they noticed that the boys do not hassle their Muslim classmates so much, but rather treated them with respect.
-from A White Teacher Talks About Race by Julie Landsman

Comments

[lanieday.livejournal.com]

The way you get people to show you respect is not from hiding aspects of yourself but from letting people know who you are. I think it's a sad thing indeed that someone would advocate women veiling themselves not to be hassled by boys. Especially a teacher whose obligation it is to see that her students aren't harassed. Male or female of all ethnic and religious affiliations.

Also the FDL case wasn't merely a veil that covered the womans hair. It concealed her face entirely which is against state law. And while America does work on the principle of freedom of religion it also works on the priciple of secular law.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I may have misrepresented Mrs. Landsman with that excerpt. She's not actively advocating that practice, merely mentioning it. It's just one paragraph and doesn't get elaborated on in the book. I certainly agree that you shouldn't hide who you are in order to get respect, and there are absolutely problems of cultural appropriation and privilege and so on there. I think in most high schools it's difficult for teachers to be ever vigilant, so students often adopt their own tactics to keep from being harrassed.

And yes, i know all of what you said about the FDL case. Maybe i wasn't clear enough in my entry. My mother or father mentioned the case and while we were talking about it my 15-year-old brother said he thought a religious rule that women should cover their faces was stupid and we were trying to explain the rationale behind it (from what little we know of Islam and the Koran) and why it had in this instance come to be a court issue.

[sk8eeyore.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about the Qur'anic rationale for wearing the veil/hijab, except that I'm pretty sure it isn't specifically mandated to be worn, outside of formal prayer. My girlfriend chose to wear a headscarf for a while, and one of the reasons she gave, in addition to it providing a visible symbol to hold her accountable to her faith, was that when women wear headscarves and dress modestly, they are less likely to make other women feel insecure about their bodies. As cool as that is, I also have issues with it, but I guess it's not surprising for me to find any aspect of religion problematic. ;) Anyway, if you're interested in some interesting perspectives on hijab, ask rilkeanheart. She's nice. :)

[zzrg.livejournal.com]

The Florida case irked me, not because the woman challanged the law or the decision of the courts. It was a fair question and a fair decision. What got to me was the fact that a few of the very loudest voices I heard unfairly making light of the woman and saying driving is a privilage not a right are some of the very people that drive around alone in cars that get about 8 miles per gallon and have radar detectors to protect themselves from police interference with their driving. Excuse me, I think they are treating it more like a right than a privilage.

As for wearing a head covering to get respect or to be treated a certain way, more power to them. It is just as legitimate a choice as young women that choose to dress like Britney Spears, Madonna, Tori Amos, or Marth Stewart to get the treatment from others that they desire. Should people be treated differently? Of course not. But that is not reality. (This is one of many reason I support school uniforms.)

The proof of a religion rests not so much in the dust of the past as in how it effects those that believe in it. For example, the Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist religions have all proven to provide humanity with spiritual, social, and psychological guidance. I respect any religion that improves the lives of its followers. For me, that is where the proof is to be found.

I believe there are an infinite number of roads to wisdom. The vast majority of them are going to seem completely absurd to me, even nonsensical. But that is the limitation of my perspective, not necessarily that of the paths that others take.

I hope that last bit made some sense.