Given the choices that I have made, both in how I choose to live my life and how I educate my children, people would expect me to have many battles to fight. This is not the case. I live very peacefully. This is mostly due to my great denial skills and my “I appreciate your opinion but this is my life” attitude. As some of you may already know, I do have one area of strife in my life and I can’t seem to shake it. No, it is not my tomato fetish. I’m over that. Mostly. The thorn in my side is and always has been the fundies.
They swarm me at the grocery store, they put flyers in my mailbox, and they buzz around my ears with opinions that scare me. I’m not even going to mention the aesthetics of a denim jumper. I’ve put up with it for years and have alternated between anger, frustration, and pity. But I have grown and matured (a little) and today I find the whole fundie belief system has become a slight nuisance. Nothing more, nothing less. But, I do reserve the right to verbally attack when they push me too far.
So, today I sorted through mail and found a flyer for the hazardous waste collection day at our local landfill. I scanned the listed items and about half way through my jaw dropped and my eyes opened wide. I couldn’t believe what I saw.
FUNDICIDE!
They were collecting fundicide - a substance used to destroy or inhibit the growth of irrational fundamentalism. (Definition taken from my imaginary dictionary) I didn’t even know this stuff existed. Why has no one ever told me about this stuff? I could have put it to good use.
I was gonna make a picture to go with this but I’m not in the mood. Maybe later. Maybe not. I just checked and I haven’t made a picture for anything since July. I suck.
Tags: anger, fundicide, no picture because I'm lazy, non-tolerance, religion, tolerance
September 18th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Try being a homeschooler in North Idaho.
I’m surrounded by them at every event, but I keep my mouth shut because it would be very lonely around here if I tell them what I really think.
Phils last blog post..Return To Summer
September 18th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I know what you mean. Sometimes I just want to scream. We live in a very conservative area but it’s gotten more diverse in the last 5-10 years. Either that or more non-fundies are homeschooling now. Or maybe I’ve just manage to meet enough tolerant people that I don’t feel all alone anymore.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Or maybe I just don’t give a damn anymore so it doesn’t matter. :)
October 7th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Phil…Try living in Alabama! I didn’t homeschool my kids. I don’t know if any of you read my post about spanking, but I’m a product of the fifties and sixties. I felt okay sending my kids to public school. They were all out of school before the need to put them in full riot gear to send them off to middle school arose.
I might be very tempted now. But my grandchildren seem to be doing okay presently in the schools they attend, of course they’re still in elementary school and as yet they aren’t being frisked at the door for weapons.
I totally understand the “fundie” issue, though living in not just the bible belt, but the whole damn pair of pants. I have a son who has an ongoing discussion on Sunday mornings with the Jehova’s Witnesses. They come to his house to “save” him on a regular basis and he really enjoys the exchange of viewpoints. Actually he enjoys baiting them, for the most part. But they must like it because they keep coming back.
I, on the other hand, hide like a chicken thief when they’re in the neighborhood. I peek out the window holding my breath until I see them march on down the street. Usually I let the dogs set up such a ruckus they’d be afraid to come in anyway.
But at least when they’re carrying pamplets you can easily recognize them. It’s the sneaky ones that are dangerous. You get into a simple discussion with someone in a grocery store aisle and think you’re having a normal discussion about the price of coffee going up or whatever, when WHAM out of the blue you’re struck by some racial or homophobic barb spewed from the forked tounge of the seemingly rational person you’d been conversing with seconds ago.
Yep,I wish they wore uniforms.
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