Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Ah..."The grapevine"...

What would we do without that precious grapevine? How would we survive without our daily dose of "harmless" gossip? I can tell you that I am completely sick of it! It utterly disgusts me!!! I listen to people talking about this person or that person and how she is doing this or that and it is revolting. I took a bit of a stand on it today and I don't regret it at all.

I also got a personal reminder of what it is like to be the one being gossiped about. Rush came home from school today telling us that she had been called to Student Services. The lady there then proceeded to tell Rush that she had "heard it through the grapevine that you been hit by your boyfriend."

Let's disect this for a minute:

1. Rush doesn't have a boyfriend therefore he could not have hit her.

2. Where are the witnesses to this so called beating? I can tell you where they are; one of them is downstairs doing her homework and the other is in her house with her family feeling quite badly about what she accidentally did to Rush. I can also tell you that neither of them saw my daughter being beaten by her non-existant boyfriend.

3. It says in The Bible, "On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death" (Deut 17:6) but these teachers and staff have tried and convicted some poor boy that doesn't even exist because of the "word on the grapevine".

4. If my daughter can look you in the eye and tell you with an unwaivering voice that that is not what happened and proceeds to tell you what did happen, do not call her a liar.

I understand and appreciate the motives behind their concern. I also think that it is great to know that something would be done if my daughter were to have a boyfriend right now and that boyfriend should happen to be silly enough to lay his hands on her, that the teachers will promptly act. I find no fault in them arranging a meeting with her to talk with her about it; I do find fault with whomever did the talking without doing any listening.

Why are people constantly on a witch hunt? Why must there always be a scandal? Perhaps we live in a society with too much CSI, Law & Order (both of these shows I like to watch occasionally too) or too much Desperate Housewives or Grey's Anatomy or something. Why, oh, why do we have to always have someone to hang even if there is no reason to hang them? If my son can darn near poke his eye out doing up his binder my daughter can become severely bruised by a suddenly opened locker.

People seem to constantly have to be talking about someone else or putting their nose in someone else's business or something. It seems it is more probable for them to believe the scandal. Sometimes the truth is just the truth.

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