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A few months ago I said that I would try to talk about anti-douchebaggery as much as I talk about doubchebaggery and evil. I haven't done so well on that so far, but trying is a first step (perhaps toward failure, but anyway...), so in that spirit, I draw your attention to this kid:
His name is Matthew LaClair. You can read here on the People for the American Way website about how he took exception to his high school history teacher engaging in fundamentalist religious proselytizing, telling the students that only Christians will go to Heaven and that evolution has no basis is science. You can read in the PFAW article about how Matthew stood alone among his peers and against great odds to counter this obvious douchebaggery. In the end, he succeeded in vanquishing villainy in at least his small corner of life in this country. [Note: I believe this all occurred a couple years ago, and so is not current events--it's just new to me today].
Which is the point: what little thing have the rest of us done lately? Matthew was a kid who took on a pretty big fight in the context of his life and education. We can't all do the heavy lifting all the time, but if we all did take some kind of small action frequently, it might make a difference. Think about that the next time someone pushes their church in your workplace or makes a dumbass remark about the "Ground Zero Mosque" or espouses some casual homophobia or some clueless privileged racism or some other kind of entitled douchebaggery. We can all speak up in our own ways. This kid--who at the time was a 16-year-old with basically no legal rights at all--brought a school district to heel. We can all do something good like that all the time even if it's on a much smaller scale and in a much less public forum.
For reminding me of this, Matthew LaClair is inducted into my Pantheon of Anti-Douchebags.
His name is Matthew LaClair. You can read here on the People for the American Way website about how he took exception to his high school history teacher engaging in fundamentalist religious proselytizing, telling the students that only Christians will go to Heaven and that evolution has no basis is science. You can read in the PFAW article about how Matthew stood alone among his peers and against great odds to counter this obvious douchebaggery. In the end, he succeeded in vanquishing villainy in at least his small corner of life in this country. [Note: I believe this all occurred a couple years ago, and so is not current events--it's just new to me today].
Which is the point: what little thing have the rest of us done lately? Matthew was a kid who took on a pretty big fight in the context of his life and education. We can't all do the heavy lifting all the time, but if we all did take some kind of small action frequently, it might make a difference. Think about that the next time someone pushes their church in your workplace or makes a dumbass remark about the "Ground Zero Mosque" or espouses some casual homophobia or some clueless privileged racism or some other kind of entitled douchebaggery. We can all speak up in our own ways. This kid--who at the time was a 16-year-old with basically no legal rights at all--brought a school district to heel. We can all do something good like that all the time even if it's on a much smaller scale and in a much less public forum.
For reminding me of this, Matthew LaClair is inducted into my Pantheon of Anti-Douchebags.
