Furmanifesto

I don’t think that I need to spend too much time making the point that bad attitudes spread from person to person like a virus from that monkey in Outbreak.

You’ve probably spent 15 minutes with hungry kids right?

You’ve visited the post office on December 22^nd.

Ever seen an NBA game?

It’s almost impossible to contain a bad attitude.  This is because, in the moment, none of us will admit to having them.

When you confront someone on having a bad attitude they always have the same response don’t they?

“I don’t have a bad attitude, I’m just being realistic.”

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(ABC News)

Wilcox County High School in Georgia has two Proms and two Homecoming Celebrations each year.  There is one Prom and one Homecoming for students who are white, and one Prom and one Homecoming for students who are black.

If you are wondering how this is still happening in the year 2013, it helps to understand that the school doesn’t pay for these extracurricular activities.  The events are planned, promoted, and hosted by the parent-led “student groups” of teens who attend the school.

“The district hasn’t paid for a prom in 30 years, leaving the planning up to student groups that are free to organize them as they wish, Wilcox County Schools Superintendent Steve Smith told ABC News.”

In the past, black families sponsored the “Black Prom”, and white families sponsored the “White Prom”.  The kids have then historically done what they were “supposed to do”.

This year some kids are saying “enough”.

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When I was seven I was caught shoplifting

I had been enjoying some unsupervised free-time in the toy department when I decided that I’d help myself to some Star Wars figurines.

This wasn’t the first time I had stolen something.

There wasn’t a high degree of difficulty involved because someone else had already opened the packaging. I simply waited until I was alone in the aisle and then placed three of the toys in pocket of my windbreaker. I walked out the door, got in the car, and headed home to enjoy the results of my inter-galactic crime spree.

I enjoyed them for about 2 hours.

When my mother found me playing with the toys, she asked me where I had gotten them. I knew that I needed to say that I had taken them from the store, but I didn’t tell her that.

I told her that “I found them”.

She didn’t believe me.

I was taken to see my father.

I told him that they were “given to me” by a stranger.

He didn’t believe me.

I was taken to see the retail manager.

I told him that I had stolen them.

He believed me.

If you know me well you’ve heard this story and how it turned me from a life of theft, but I want to point out that it took a significant amount of work by many people to turn the tide of rebelliousness and burglary in my life.

I had a proclivity for theft and no desire to turn from it.

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