- I’m on a subcommittee on Diversity, Inclusion and Tolerance. I think we just decided that these things are good.
- We’re considering weekly yoga/health and mindfulness in the department. I think we’ve also decided that health and mindfulness are good.
- I’m not calling the guy “Drumpf.” I just won’t. Yes, I firmly believe that he’s all kinds of mean, incompetent, and possibly traitorous, but he has a name, and there’s no reason I can see not to use it. People who say “Drumpf” just remind me of this doofus who buzzed around the Chronicle comments section referring to President Obama as “Barry.” It’s like making fun of somebody by drawing a picture of them picking their nose or something. Not sure I can call him “45,” either—I can’t see any point there. There are many valuable and intelligent ways to mock, anger, and humiliate President Trump, and we should use as many of them as we can. But he is President Trump for now, and that’s the way things are.
- I’ve been seeing my own death in my head a lot lately—usually I see it happening while I’m chasing my kids, just dropping dead in mid-stride or mid-stumble. I think I’m okay with it.
- A student interviewed me today, and one of the questions was, “What got you into teaching?” For a few seconds, I couldn’t answer. For me, I finally said, it had to do with two things. One is kind of like the feeling you get sometimes when you’re talking about something you’re really enthusiastic about—and then getting the chance to do that several days a week. The other is that moment when the light bulb turns on (or the candle gets lit) for a student—you can see it in their faces sometimes. And, cliché and all, it really does make up for weeks of frustration with a shot of numbness.
- Go-to fun moment: toss-up between Maui singing “You’re Welcome” and Princess Poppy singing “I’m Not Giving Up Today.”
Tirebiter out.
I rarely say President Trump, and even typing it just now gave me a bit of the willies. But I certainly do accept that he is, indeed, the president. I don't use Drumpf either, or 45, although I don't think 45 is disrespectful.
ReplyDeleteI guess I try not to have to call him anything!
Nice that you had such positive reasons for becoming a prof. I actually just fell into it after leaving graduate school vowing never to teach and then wanting a part time job after having a baby! Not a great answer!
I do love my students though. And that's something I don't think I would have said early on. They are so sweet, the good ones. Community college students are special and we who teach them are blessed (even while we are also cursed in other ways).
I can't say "President Trump" without feeling the bile rising. So I call him "Mister Trump," since it has been customary since George Washington to address the U.S. president as "Mister President." (We almost got the chance to make up something new for Ms. Clinton, but that's water under the bridge now.) I just worry that it may not be long until Mr. Trump starts to insist on being addressed as "Your Excellency," which is what Amnesty International advises is how to address a dictator.
ReplyDelete(Please give my regards to Porcelain and Mudhead, by the way.)
That works for me. My father was a graduate of one of those schools where everybody from undergrads to full professors was "Mr." (they refused to admit women in any of the above capacities, so figuring out what to call them wasn't a problem), and he avoided using the title "Dr." (even though is boss did), so it took me a while to become comfortable with using "Dr." or even "Professor," even professionally (I still don't socially; Ms. works, and I suppose we could just go to M. for everyone, but we'd still have to figure out what it was short for, and how to pronounce it). So "Mr. Trump" seems fine to me, though "President Trump" is, as far as I'm concerned, an acknowledgement of simple fact (unpleasant, disturbing, troubling, scary fact, but fact).
DeleteIt's taken me a while to adjust, but I think it was partly a very English-professor problem: "President Trump" scans quite differently from "President Obama." That's actually an interesting question: how many presidents have we had with 3-syllable last names? There are some early ones (Washington, Jefferson, Van Buren), but not many 20th- or 21st-century ones, I think.
Roosevelt and Kennedy are three. We're only 16 years into the 21st century, so should that count?
DeleteI'm not big on Drumpf, either. I'm not sure quite where it came from, but to the extent it's meant to emphasize his German surname -- well, I have a 92-year-old cousin with a German surname who fought honorably on the U.S. side in WWII (and whom I'd happily install in the Oval Office in place of the current president if I could manage it).
ReplyDeleteAnd whatever you call him, yes, he *is* president, with all the powers and the responsibilities of the office. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, that's the problem. Might as well describe it as precisely as possible. Sometimes that's the first step to a solution.
He sure is president, and fully authorized to launch a nuclear strike anytime he wants. How do you think he'll react, if impeachment were truly looming? A cheery thought, that.
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