2004-02-25 - 9:50 a.m. Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still Even among these rocks --T.S. Eliot, "Ash Wednesday" Despite applauding the all-Aramaic script (that's a pretty cool idea!), I don't plan on seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion o' Jesus H. Christ. I feel fully qualified to pre-judge it based on the not-great reviews and on the fact that it portrays his last 12 hours, and I just don't need the agita. Aren't we all in agreement that the salient points of the Jesus story include: 1) he wasn't murdered, he gave his life willingly, 2) he forgave his tormentors, and 3) he rose from the dead. Whether one believes in the story or not is beside the point--it's the agreed-upon version of events. To focus on the corporeal death aspect of the story--and call yourself a believer--seems suspect. It's just not cricket. Go ahead, Devil's Avocadoes, flame me in my own comments section. And since we're talking about controversial topics, I have two more. Grey Tuesday, aside from the clever wordplay, is just the dopiest protest I've ever heard of. Sampling the Beatles' music without permission, and profiting from it, is wrong. And it's a crime. What is unfair about that? When I read about Naomi Wolff's latest, uh, complaint, I sided with Yale and Bloom. "Let it go, Naomi." But then I read her article. Yes, it's humorless and self-dramatizing, but I found myself feeling both creeped out by Harold Bloom and angered by what I read about Yale. I wouldn't want to send my daughter (or son, but mostly daughter) to a school where she wouldn't be afforded protection from creepy predators. I realize that college students are "adults," but come on, how many 18-20-year-olds do you know who are emotionally and mentally equipped to go head-to-head with Ivy League institutions and legendary professors? They need some support, and that support should have been in place when this happened. thoughts? (7 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact