I forgot to mention that school's over, and I got an A on my paper and I think I will get an A in the class and that's happy. The teacher said our class's papers were "the best she had read" and that in addition to our topics' being interesting that we were "elegant writers." Wow. I don't seriously think mine was that great, but I would have been upset if I hadn't at least gotten a B on it.

Of course, interviewing the person at the library consortium is what made my paper two ways: one, the bulk of the paper was about her and what she said and two, what she said was interesting. And yes, I write decently. Certainly better than what I read about on Miss Kitty's blog, but then, that's the least I could do. I bought a thank you card to send to the interviewee. I did give her credit on my Works Cited page: "this paper would not have been possible without the generous contribution of [librarian's name], [her title], at [consortium name]," but of course she didn't see that. So I need to send that card.

********************

I get to thinking sometimes... today, I heard that Jerry Falwell had died. Here's an article in Slate that gives a rundown of some of the worst things he's said: Jerry Falwell's Hit Parade. They're all awful, but I'd love to speak to the one on feminists: believing that women are of equal value to men means you hate men, how? Of course, if all men were like Jerry Falwell (shudder) then I probably would hate them all.

But that's not what I was going to talk about. I was going to talk about Tammy Faye Messner more popularly known as Tammy Faye Bakker. I remember a friend of mine in college saying at the dinner table, during the time when the Bakkers were being lambasted in the media, that Tammy Faye Bakker wasn't "that bad," and I had to agree with her. I do think she spent lavishly and had some shady financial dealings. But that doesn't really affect me and is not my business. What's to get all upset about?

A few years ago, I heard there was a documentary movie about her called The Eyes of Tammy Faye. I love documentaries and was intrigued by the topic of this one, and it was playing at Real Art Ways, so Sweetie and I went to see it. See, the thing about Jim and Tammy Faye is that they were Evangelical Christians who actually had gay AIDS sufferers as guests on their show. In Wikipedia it says that Tammy Faye "[urged] her viewers to follow Christ and show sympathy and pray for the sick." The movie shows one of these clips and it also shows how the Bakkers were viciously betrayed by Jerry Falwell.

I urge you to see the movie (I checked and it's available on Netflix). It has sympathy for its subject matter while still showing the possibility of the financial wrongdoing and the camp value of her highly made-up persona. It's also just a good documentary. Sadly, Tammy Faye is now gravely ill with cancer; most likely she will not live much longer. I truly admire this woman and think she is a kind person who was treated unfairly by the media. I hope she has found peace.

Labels: school, the world around us, watching

posted by Miss Rachel 5/16/2007 08:03:00 PM

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