Is bigotry part of tattoo dust-up?
Is bigotry part of tattoo dust-up?
“It is a little harsh labeling us girls with tattoos as SLUT CHIC. If you are going to stereotype across the board, I really wonder what else you are against? Certain races maybe? Even gays? The only reason this is getting so huge is because the DISPATCH put it on the front page knowing what kind of attention it would draw. Notice how they didn’t put my mom’s comment in there about how she believes it’s our own body and we should do as we please and it’s freedom of expression. Is that not in a famous thing called our Constitution? Most the people talking bad about it probably have no lives and never really lived, hence they need to occupy their time by talking bad about young adults. The GHS yearbook is a STUDENT run group, in which everyone was forced to get a PARENT PERMISSION SLIP, so stop putting the blame on the adviser and insisting that it is promoting bad behavior. You must not be really paying attention to your own children if you’re too busy getting involved in other people’s lives.”
Red Phone:
Red Phone agreed with the harshness, dear caller, calling it regrettable, and noted readers must be able to separate comments from individuals. We need to note that the paper never blamed the adviser. Here’s another take from another caller:
“All this uproar over the tattoo and piercing pictures in the yearbook is just comical. So much controversy has been brought on over this “tattoos in the yearbook” issue, and for what? Did these people miss the portion of the article where it said that these kids had to have their parents permission to have their pictures shown in the yearbook? That obviously means that their parents had no problem with it. So why should anyone else? Are these people that are commenting negatively going to actually BUY a GHS yearbook? Or are they parents of a GHS student who think that their child will be negatively influenced by these “obscene” photos? If so, someone needs to remind them that there are much worse things these kids could be doing than expressing their creativity ON THEIR OWN BODIES. Tattooing does no harm to anyone, except maybe the prudish folks who seem to be so offended by them. The way people are reacting, you would think that they were profiling pregnant teens, or kids with weapons, in the yearbook! Now let’s talk about something that’s an ACTUAL problem!
Red Phone:
Apparently, dear caller, nothing goads so-called “values” readers like an in-your-face yearbook page on tattoos. Seems like this issue is a microcosm of what’s playing out across the country. More than one out of 10 schools in the country are dubbed “dropout factories,” (See Tuesday’s Dispatch, A1) yet the cable news channels are absolutely giddy over a non-gay senator soliciting gay sex in an airport men’s room and a desperately unstable celebrity playing ping-pong with her children. Red Phone’s advice? Take it in stride, laugh it off, and keep your focus on issues such as pregnant teens and armed children.
P.S. You can’t see it in the photo, but Red Phone has “I love my Ma Bell” etched on my receiver.
School Nurse Shortage
On the cover page of the Oct. 24 edition of the Dispatch there was a blurb at the bottom under the title “In Tomorrow’s Paper” about a school nurse shortage. Did I miss the article, or did you decide to publish it in a future edition?
Red Phone:
No, dear caller, you did not miss the story. As often happens, other stories took precedence, but we still have plans to publish the article.
