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Matrixprime
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
USA
69 Posts |
 Posted - 12/05/2005 : 7:48:09 PM
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Over the weekend, I came up with an idea for a topic that I think is tailored quite well to this crowd. Namely, that we will often make excuses for stuff in a movie that stretches our suspension of disbelief due to personal experiences and/or love of the movie.
I've decided to go with THE COVER UP.
I started High School in unincorporated Orange County, Orlando, Florida. To those not in the know, life here centers around the Round Eared Satan; whether true or not, people here believe the city lives and dies on the prosperity of Unca Walts Big Bad Blight (OK, enuf sarcasm from me).
The truth is, though, that local news and major papers (like the Orlando Sentinel) tend to avoid focusing on items that affect tourism. I could quote some examples, but one was when tourists were getting ventilated in S Florida, most local papers avoided covering it, burying it in the inner workings.
Too, in unincorporated Orlando, there are a lot of semi-rich; as such, campuses are a bizarre mixture of middle class, bussed in low income, and very wealthy students.
OK. So, as I said, I started 9th grade here. In Orange County, most schools have had such a population boom they have to build a mini-campus of portable buildings, and house their 9th grade there. Only my last class was on the main campus.
At that time, the county decided on major budget cuts, and they went about it in a sleazy way. My English teacher, a fuddled older woman, was literally given her pink slip in the middle of my class by a student assistant (she left the class in tears). So, around the time of midterm exams, some seniors decided to stage a Walk Out in protest. They were to sit around the Flag poles.
You can figure out what started to happen; everyone who wanted an excuse walked out, and most teachers let them (since they were mad, and because some were being let go). Things went downhill. Here's what happened (and what I mention I saw personally, or got direct from close friends who were there):
-from my Cultural class, we heard constant screaming and hollering.
-All vending machines were flipped, and garbage cans were gunned into the yards
-One garbage can was thrown through a window, cutting up several students and the teacher
-One teacher reached outside her door to tape paper over the window, and a passing lunatic grabbed her and slammed her into the door
-Bathroom fixtures were yanked from walls
-On my way to my main campus class, I saw flaming paper and books launching out of windows.
-A friend on the main campus told me students gathered at the bus stop, smoking cigarettes and what he felt was weed by the smell
-They tried to seal off the campus by dropping the shutters, and were harassed by mobs of students.
-when one of the administrators came by on a cart to order them to disburse, the group started chanting 'kill kill kill' until she took off.
By the time school was out, there were Riot Police all around the campus, and cars and motorcycles everywhere. They had police stationed every few feet, and when we were led to the buses it felt like being in a prison camp.
((jumping ahead a bit, the campus looked like a DMZ for a while. It was several weeks before the vending machines were replaced, and the garbage cans were chained to pillars))
The next day, in the local section, there was a small column about the riot, where it was mentioned merely that 'students expressing their unhappiness at losing favorite teachers got a little 'out of hand''. Thats it. If not for the fact that I was always honest, and the testimony of about half a dozen friends, my parents were inclined to think I was nuts. There were no pictures of the damage, no indication of the injured students or damaged property, and after that first column (which I should have kept), no further updates.
Damage told, as far as I was concerned, probably was in the five digit range, at least from the fixtures and vending machines. Not to mention the school was within fifteen minutes of Universal, Wet & Wild, Sea World, and Disney, and that the campus population was at least at the 4,000 marker (when i graduated, there were over a 1000 seniors, and that was after the sizable drop out count).
So, when I see or read about a cover up in a movie (like in the Rats review in the Video Cheese), I start to roll my eyes and then stop. Something like what I outlined sounds like something from Compton, or one of those lame uplifting films, and something kids would love to talk about; and while they did talk, for it to never make its way to the news? The same news that jump on misery like flies on poo?
Your turn!
Bah Weep Granna Weep Ninny Bahn - Universal Greeting
Est Solarus Oth Mithas - Solamnic Knight Pledge
And now its me too:
http://matrixprime.blogspot.com |
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Bobby-G
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
904 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2005 : 12:13:10 AM
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There was this weird thing that happened here in Chicago earlier this year (or was it last year?). I have a job in the evening as a courier and I was downtown on Wabash just south of the River and heard these explosions and felt the street actually shake. Then I see all these bright fireworks coming up from the river and exploding maybe about twenty stories up (right around building that go up over 40 stories) -- this went on for about 15 minutes -- I was asking people around the area if they had any idea what was going on -- Nobody had any idea, and they seemed rather scared, too (yeah, it was kind of scary!).
Thought I'd see something about it on the evening news -- Nothing. Seems pretty odd that there was nothing about this - even if it was some sort of planned exhibition, I'd expect some kind of news coverage.
Rob |
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KurtVon
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
387 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2005 : 12:56:10 PM
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I have given up on news organization is general since every news story in which I am even peripherally involved has been totaly wrong. To the point where the next time I see a single paragraph without a simple error of fact, it will be the first.
Heck, just last week the news ran an article on my sister's art show and mentioned she gave up a professional tennis career to work on her art. Really? Gee, I must have missed that pro tennis career when I was distracted by her work researching genetics under James Watson at Cold Spring Harbor Labs (no mention of that).
In their defense, though, I don't think it is a cover up so much as incompetence and laziness.
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