chocolate1 said:

The parents' excuse that he hates braids cuz they hurt his head was priceless. Don't lil girl wear braids to school everyday?

Vendetta1 said:

I don't understand why all public schools in America do not insist on uniforms. In Panama and most Latin countries, everyone wears uniforms.

cborgman said:

When is the last time you've been to Dallas, Houston OR Mesquite for that matter? Obama got over 60% of the vote in Dallas and Houston and in many of the suburbs so things have changed quite a bit. And I lived near Mesquite for many years and went there on a daily basis and there's nothing redneck-y about it. I've BEEN to redneck towns and I know the difference.

thejason said:

Did you miss the part where they say that the "reason" they won't cut is because he wants to donate his hair to his aunt who is fighting cancer for a wig. What FOUR year old makes that decision??? This is totally the parents pushing their own agenda IMO.

johnart said:

It's much cheaper to buy uniforms than new school clothes and it's been shown that kids actually learn better in schools with uniforms and there's less competition and distractions.

cborgman said:

Dude, most of the kids wear Dickies as part of their uniforms

SCNDLS said:

dallas - less than a year ago, debated living there in the past
houston - about 3 years ago, almost lived there, but chose austin
meaquite - 95 or 96
austin - less than 3 months ago, lived there for 3 years, if i ever leave nyc i probably will end up living there again
san antonio - about 2 years ago, lived there for 2 years
midland/odessa - about 1 year ago for 8 weeks, lived there for about 10 years

the comments were on a relative scale. dallas is much more liberal than say, big spring, but compared to a large city not in texas, say chicago or boston... pretty conservative.

Efan said:

If you see them it that makes total sense. It seems like their fighting the "establishment" for judging them vicariously through the kid. I can't find any pics of 'em so I'll look for some video.

SCNDLS said:

yea, without bumming the thread out, i can't tell you how freaking poor we were.

but we were realy really really poor. i elected to not get senior pictures made and wasn't in my senior year book because i couldn't bear to ask my mother for the small amount of money those would take. my brother did, and i was furious with him for it.
[Edited 1/13/10 7:24am]

SCNDLS said:

it's a sexist rule. it has no application or reason to exist other than supporting archaic gender roles. hell yes, fight the system of sexism, same as you would fight the system of racism or homophobia.

cborgman said:

Well I was in Mesquite last month and go there every month to see my Hasidic Jewish doctor from Canada so to characterize the whole town as "redneck" is completely inaccurate, especially if you only spent just a few days here way back when and in 96.

And coming just to visit isn't going to give you any city's true identity. Many people would think NYC has nothing but rude and obnoxious people if they based their opinion only on their interactions with strangers over a 1 week vacation. I know that's not true and would never make any kind of generalization about an entire city, state, or country and it's people without spending some time there and/or knowing people from there.

SCNDLS said:

And didn't Houston just elect a lesbian mayor?

cborgman said:

Well, I wasn't in my senior year book for curl and braces related reasons

But, I do believe that schools that insist on uniforms do provide assistance to "needy" families. Like Noimy said, it goes a long way towards leveling the playing field in terms of kids not focusing on who has what. Every parent of a kid in uniform I know, constantly talks about how much cheaper it is and how it reduces their focus on material things. So they love 'em and so do the schools.

OnlyNDaUsa said:

SCNDLS said:

i've been to mesquite more than once. i simply stated when the last time i was there was.

but, why is my opinion invalid? i lived in texas for about half my life, most of it in west texas, which would be a top contender for most redneck part of the state. and yet, the single most redneck moment i ever saw was in mesquite. watching them try to rope a stop sign from the back of a pickup was like something out of one of mcmurtry's most comedic novel.

i kind of wish they had roped it, just to see what would have happened next.

SCNDLS said:

Yeah I thought I heard that. Houston also had a woman mayor in the 80s. Kathy something.

Also one of the Dallas area police departments elected a lesbian as sheriff or chief of police. I want to say Dallas county. But I am going by a vague memory.

OnlyNDaUsa said:

well huzzah. now homophobia is dead, just as electing a black president menas racism is dead.

SCNDLS said:

i don't like them, but they don't bother me as much as this idiotic and sexist hair rule.

cborgman said:

If you say so. But only among republicans!

OnlyNDaUsa said:

i don't say so, my sarcasm does.

cborgman said:

you use sarcasm?

cborgman said:

You lived in West Texas, based on your comment, you didn't live in Mesquite or visit regularly or interact with a lot of people from Mesquite. So to you, some probably drunk fools trying to rope a stop sign on a Friday night, which occurred, I'm guessing over two decades ago, is enough for you to label the whole town as "redneck" in 2010?

To me that's just country as I've seen similar sights growing up in Austin and I would call that "country." Redneck to me is ignorant and/or racist behavior. Roping a stop sign is some country shit which makes sense if folks are ranchers or in a ranching community which Mesquite was back in the 80s. My ex graduated from Mesquite High school in 86 and he's never mentioned any kind of racist incidents or anything. That's redneck to me, and when Supa called it a redneck town that's what I think he was inferring.

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Yes, that Dallas county sheriff was re-elected last year. That's why it trips me out when folks who don't LIVE here and some who've NEVER even visited spout off these crazy assumptions about the whole state as if they are fact when they aren't. They wouldn't like it if someone said everyone in California is a fa--ot or everyone in New York is an asshole but it's perfectly fine to say everyone in Texas, or the South for that matter, is a racist redneck.
[Edited 1/13/10 7:46am]

SCNDLS said:

well, said event was in 95 or 96. i think 95 as that was my junior year.

so that is what this about? the term redneck bothers you?

fine... mesquite is really really country. so country, that i once saw a bunch of high school guys blowing through a school zone in a pickup and ripping through stops signs as they tried to rope them from the bed of the pickup, which was the single most country thing i ever saw in 13 or 14 years of living in texas, and i lived in bush country, which is so country it hurts.

Ok Ok Cborgman doesn't care for much of Texas. It is not a matter of defending why or why not it is just how he feels. It is not personal. If I lived in a huge ass city I might think it was crazy town. He apparently lives in a big liberal city . So just about any place would seem small and conservative.

SCNDLS said:

who said anything about racist?

cborgman said:

Like I said, to a lot of folks I know redneck = racist

OnlyNDaUsa said:

well, not really, but in the interest of getting the topic off of questioning my level of texas, let's focus on the sexist rule.

SCNDLS said:

to a lot of folks i know calling someone country is a small step above calling them mentally challenged, but both examples are pointless to theis topic.

cborgman said:

Still odd IMO to characterize/label a whole city of inhabitants based on a singular event but okay.