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Outside Outrage

We're not the only ones who are outraged - here are some outside outrages that caught our eye!

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Junior Outrage
The Student Elimination Process Print E-mail
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Written by Tori Sanders, age 12   
Tuesday, 18 March 2008 02:11

Hey! Have you ever wondered what goes on at your child’s school? Believe it or not they don’t teach them to spell school s-k-o-o-l and they don’t tell them how to survive in the world. No, they teach them about how to avoid danger. Everyone remembers the long school assemblies about “stranger danger”, but little did we know the “trusted staff” was increasing the risk of stranger danger.

I know, I know, that’s ridiculous, right? So here is exactly what happened: Before my mom began working from home I took the bus to my grandmother’s house. Now let’s remember this is bus full of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. So one day the bus driver says there were way too many people on the bus and that some of them have to get off. If there were kids on that bus that didn’t belong I didn’t see them.

A minute later we were back at my school and the principal (the woman who signed the information letters about the kidnapping attempt that morning) was climbing the steps of the bus. She starts telling people who usually ride the bus that they have to get off and start walking home. Then she said that if our bus came back to the school everyone was getting off! Now does it seem to you like this is a good system? The people getting off the bus all have the kidnapping attempt letters in their back packs! This isn’t a good idea.

So the second time that there is a kidnapping attempt the principal comes over the intercom and says no matter what happens, no one is allowed back inside after they leave. Sounds like a good plan—if they’re trying to cut down on the number of children in the school!

So if you were one of these children’s parents what would you do?
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One Minute Outrage - Cultural

Issue: Parents keep griping about the sleazy clothing lines for kids, but someone is buying all those sheer blouses, half-shirts and short-short skirts made special for grade-schoolers.


Impact: As long as there's money to be made, companies will keep manufacturing--and pushing--the clothes we wish our kids weren't wearing...and they'll continue to see them on television, in store windows and on their friends and set their sights on a look we'd rather they didn't even know about.


Read More: When Tweens Dress Like Tramps...

One Minute Outrage - Political

Issue: President Bush signs Executive Order allowing the federal government to freeze without notice the assets of various classes of people and organizations “destabilizing” the effort in Iraq—and no one notices.


Impact: Unknown; the possibly impact under the terms of the order is much more far-reaching than the quick description at the press briefing would indicate.



Read More: Invisible Executive Order Deserves A Closer Look

One Minute Outrage - Legal

Issue: Police departments in major cities across the country aren't content to arrest self-made criminals, but have decided to hit the streets and see whether they can create some more.

Impact: Time and tax dollars poured into sting operations designed to test ordinary people and create crimes that would never have been; meanwhile, who's minding the store?  Hundreds of thousands of unserved felony warrants lie inactive across the country while police experiment in subways, department stores and on streetcorners.

Read More:  Make Your Own Criminal – It's So Much Easier than Chasing the Real Ones

One Minute Outrage - Cultural

Issue: Easy access to media in the Internet age has exaggerated the drive for the proverbial "15 minutes of fame"--and what ordinary people are willing to do in order to achieve that fame spirals further out of control every day.

Impact: As what we're willing to do for attention and a little slice of fame edges further and further beyond the bounds of sanity and safety, what it takes to achieve even fleeting notoriety expands as well, creating a spiral of ever-increasing risk-taking, violence, and life-altering choices in the quest for a moment in the sun.

Read More: Attention Whores: A Social Epidemic

What's Real About Reality TV?


Reality TVReality television survives, ironically, through a carefully maintained web of lies. Some of those lies are simple and wouldn’t surprise most people: spontaneous events are shot multiple times, scenes are filmed out of season, time sequences are misrepresented. But the larger lies are the ones sold to the participants—lies that are absolutely acceptable because the contract says so. When you step into reality television, you must agree—explicitly—to be deceived, and that you have no recourse if the outcome of that deception is harmful. All well and good, perhaps, for adults who understand what they’re getting into. But what about an etiquette-school teacher who thinks she’s part of a documentary and ends up in Borat’s movie? A child rented out to Kid Nation?

Read More: What Does “Reality” Really Mean, Anyway?
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