An Original

You remember that scene in "Good Will Hunting" where Matt Damon is in the bar with Minnie Driver and that blonde-haired dude in the ponytail is trying to make Ben Affleck look like a dumbass? I absolutely love it when Matt calls out Ponytail Boy from regurgitating what he has read in books. He has no thoughts of his own, but tries to use other people's studies to "sound cool."

I so can't stand that.

Isn't it annoying when people throw all these facts and figures at you to prove their point? It's like "is there an original thought in there?" Just like with Katrina.

Here are my thoughts...minus fancy shmancy facts and figures and statistics. For me, it makes me ill when people blame the evacuees. It makes me sick when people act like everyone left behind is a looter. Our country is as unorganized as a hard-partying C student who got into college on his daddy's name. Really, where was everybody on every level? And please, God, don't make me watch Richard Simmons reunite with his brother on "Entertainment Tonight" ever again. It was too painful to watch a grown man in a bedazzled heart tank top and short shorts sobbing like that. I know it's a tragedy in Louisiana, but there's no need for Richard to sport sequins.

So there you have it. No big statistics. No dates to prove this and that. No nothing. Just what I think.

Debate is a wonderful thing, and people should enter a debate wisely, knowing facts and statistics, but making their own determination. There is no reason anyone should blanketly agree with a journalist or a politician or a commentator on everything. Think, people, think! I can't remember who, but someone once said they're not afraid of the leaders...but of the masses blanketly following. That was so well put.

I see it time and time again. It's like women agreeing with everything their husband thinks or believing everything they're taught in school. For example, the high school I went to taught elementary students that humans aren't mammals. (We had grades K-12 there.) Huh? And I'm glad Bert and I don't agree on everything. We're going to cheer for different teams when go to the Mississippi State University/University of Georgia football game. And yes, I was angry at first, but you know what? Good for us! We are individuals.

You don't have to agree with me on everything, but my thoughts and opinions are my own. It's like Matt Damon says in "Good Will Hunting" when Ponytail Boy tells him he'll be working in a fast food place and serving Ponytail Boy's kids: "At least I'll be original."

Yep, original I am. And damn proud of it.