Im Wif Stoopid June 04, 2004 - 1:47 p.m.

I never read the newspaper or watch the news. Well, almost never. And this works just fine for me because, well, I typically don't give a shit. But, anything that might be important to know or just interesting, Chris tells me. So I'm not completely left out in ignorant field, as well as creating something for Chris and I to discuss so that all of our conversations aren't 'work sucks' and 'I saw this movie last night' and other pointless drivel. So it works out for the best, really. It enforces conversation and keeps me in the loop.

When he came home this morning, he reminded me of a comment he said last night as he was flipping channels. He stopped for a second on ESPN2 to find they were airing the National Spelling Bee. He joked by saying 'EXTREME Spelling' because it was odd that it was being shown on a sports channel, and we're always making fun of all the things that have been given the prefix 'extreme' to indicate that it is more important or needs more attention. Anymore, it seems like any kind of activity has developed an extreme version, and it's just silly.

He used that to remind me of the spelling bee, then told me about an article he had read concerning people who were there, protesting.

Protesting at a spelling bee? What could there be to protest at a spelling bee?

Oh, it seems people will find anything these days.

Spelling bee protesters: "Enuf is enuf!"
By Carl Weiser, Gannett News Service - 6/2/2004

Protesters delivered a message Wednesday to the national spelling bee: Enuf is enuf!

Seven members of the American Literacy Society picketed the 77th annual spelling bee, which is sponsored every year by Cincinnati-based Scripps Howard.

The protesters' complaint: English spelling is illogical. And the national spelling bee only reinforces the crazy spellings that lead to dyslexia, high illiteracy, and harder lives for immigrants.

"We advocate the modernization of English spelling," said Pete Boardman, 58, of Groton, N.Y. The Cornell University bus driver admitted to being a terrible speller.

Protester Elizabeth Kuizenga, 56, is such a good speller she teaches English as a second language in San Francisco. She said she got involved in the protest after seeing how much time was wasted teaching spelling in her class.

Bee spokesman Mark Kroeger said good spelling comes from knowing the story behind a word - what language it comes from, what it means.

"For these kids who understand the root words, who understand the etymology, it's totally logical," he said.

The protesters contend that the illogical spelling of English words makes dyslexia more difficult to overcome and helps explain why one in five Americans are functionally illiterate.

"If these people were able to read and write with a simplified spelling system, they would be able to fill out a job application, stay employed, and stay out of prison," said Sanford Silverman, 86. The retired accountant from Cleveland was handing out copies of his book, "Spelling for the 21st Century: The case for spelling reform."

Carrying signs reading "I'm thru with through," "Spelling shuud be lojical," and "Spell different difrent," the protesters - who first protested two years ago, but skipped last year - drew chuckles from bee contestants.

"I can't believe people are picketing against something this ridiculous," said Steven Maheshwary, 14, of Houston, who successfully spelled "Zoroastrian" in the bee.

Or as 13-year-old contestant (tautologous) Rachel Karas of Flint, Michigan, put it: "It's just spelling. You gotta learn it."

This has got to be some of the stupidest bullshit I've ever heard. I'm so tired of people wanting to cater to the stupid masses. For example, ebonics... because people are too fucking lazy to learn how to do or say things the right way. For people to use it as slang is one thing (though I still find annoying) but when they declare it an actual language, it's just a disgrace on anyone's intelligence.

For these people to declare that English - a language that has been around, without problems, for hundreds of years - needs to be altered to fit their needs, is just ridiculous and pompous. Who do these fucktards think they are, demanding such a request? Where did they come up with such atrocities? It's blasphemy, in the non-religious sense. (Blasphemy isn't necessarily filled with religious connotations, but most people associate it that way.)

I'll agree, I often have my own problems remembering phonetics and proper alphabetic sequences for words... but that will occur in any language out there. Next thing you know, they're going to be screaming that math equations and formulas are too difficult, and we need to change that too. There are simply things that are complex and harder to learn, and some people will have problems with certain fields of education. Someone who could be an awful speller, could be a fantastic mathematician. And vice versa. It's not because there's a flaw in the system, people, it's because people are born different. Thus making them individuals.

The people protesting, claim that English is illogical and it needs to be changed because it causes three basic issues; Dyslexia, high illiteracy, and harder lives for immigrants.

Well, let's knock dyslexia out of there right off. If someone is dyslexic, they're going to have problems spelling words, regardless of any changes to these words you might make. Some words, like 'enough' to 'enuf', maybe. But most of the issues dyslexics have are switching the letters around completely. So despite how a word is spelled, they're still going to be switching letters around. Also, dyslexia is essentially a birth defect. It seems harsh looking at it that way, but it is. People are born with birth defects everyday, and have to find their own ways to cope with the standards of society. You don't see us altering the way we do things, just to accommodate the smallest of defects. We add things, yes. We implement new ideas into the already existing structure. But we don't completely flip things around and make the majority change, simply for the ease of a smaller group. They have to work harder to understand or learn. That happens. It's unfortunate, but it happens. We need to find better methods of teaching them, create devices to help, anything. But not change the system to cater to them. Changing things will not help them overcome this obstacle they're faced with on a daily basis anyhow. Forcing themselves to struggle through it, much like any other person has to struggle through other parts of life, may help them be a stronger person in the long run.

In all honesty, I feel high illiteracy is pure laziness. I think in some cases it may be caused by someone's difficulties with dyslexia. Either way, I feel this is brought on by someone being too lazy and/or impatient to truly put any effort into educating themselves. There is no one to blame here, but the individual. If they don't have the drive and motivation to learn, fuck 'em.

Harder lives for immigrants. Okay, this may seem harsh as well, but I'm of the mindset that if you visit or move to another country, you should understand their language and not expect them to cater to yours. If you're going somewhere with a different culture, go there knowing that part of their culture is the language. We don't see other languages changing the way they work to accommodate English speaking people. Hell, Russian even utilizes completely different characters. Not to mention that even though it's been said that English is the hardest language to learn, it doesn't dispute the fact that it's the most popular second language of any culture.

Why is it that English is probably one of the most known languages, yet this group of people are saying it's flawed? If it's so flawed, how is it so widely known? Why do flaws require change? Perfection is imperfect.

If we were to change the way English words were spelled, would these changes have to take affect in other English speaking areas like the U.K. and Australia? And what about all these other cultures that have taken the time to learn the language as it is, will they then have to re-learn it? Or would this simply be a U.S. thing, and it would be called 'American' instead of 'English'? And when other cultures heard it, they would pity us because they would realize just how fucking stupid we truly are because we suddenly have poor spelling? Because that is essentially what this protest is doing; Encouraging poor spelling.

All this protest says to me, is that these people encourage taking the easy way out. They want to cater to the lazy masses. And that they put the blame on anything other than where it belongs. People have lost the ability to take the blame for their own imperfections. More importantly, people have lost the ability to simply except and cope with said imperfections. When they haven't accepted themselves, they have this need to blame something else for their problems, then cry about it.

The coddled child never walks on its own two feet.

Baby them or teach them. Make a choice.

"It's just spelling. You gotta learn it." and the other quote with the lovely use of the word "ridiculous". Nice to see that some people have brains. Sad to see they're not in the heads of a few select adults.

And I had to look these up:

Zoroastrian - A follower of Zoroaster; one who accepts Zoroastrianism. (Which is: The religious system founded by Zoroaster and set forth in the Avesta, teaching the worship of Ahura Mazda in the context of a universal struggle between the forces of light and of darkness.)

tautologous - Repeating the same thing in different words.

I think I had more points to make, but I got tired of typing. Something about changing Braille so that the blind will have to worry about less dots. I want to read that guy's book to see if he's utilized his own 'lojical English'. And everyone should just get a wheelchair or scooter so that their feet won't hurt. And most Word Processing programs will correct the spelling for you anyhow. Also, the mention of English actually having set rules explaining how it works. Can't people just fucking read and follow these rules? If they change the spelling of words, they'd have to just come up with all new rules. You can't just go changing things wily-nily, and not consider the rules previously implemented. I'm sure there was more.

I think I'm going to start going to schools and protest for stupidity. Because, we need more of it.

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