I went to the Houston County Public Library in Perry today to do some research for an essay that’s due in my English class this Saturday. I was researching the Elizabethan poet, John Donne. He was a famous sixteenth and seventeen century poet turned preacher known for his somewhat scandalous poems on love prior conversion.I wanted to use the internet, hoping to find some articles relevant to my topic through the Galileo search engine, an academic resource that catalogues articles and essays on a variety of topics from literature to science. When I entered the library I saw that the internet computers where in use by the usual riffraff surfing the web for objectionable material not caught by the systems outdated filtering programs.
I decided to wait for an available computer and in the mean time looked over a few other reference sources available. I didn’t really find anything. Perry’s library is stocked with an abundance of fiction novels and children’s literature, but it’s not really suited for academic research.
Finally a computer became available. I sat down next to two young black guys in over sized jackets and what I like to call head muffs (which are akin to toboggans, only for African Americans. They look a lot like pantyhose stretched over a thigh with too much cellulite. ). One looked a bit older than me, maybe 25. The other looked to be about 17 or 18. Both where listening to rap tunes boasting of overtly unrealistic female conquests of a most graphic nature (I mean honestly, who would even…).
After fooling around a few minutes with my e-mail, I got on to Galileo in search of the articles I needed. I couldn’t find any. Dang. So I did the stereotypical GMC student thing to do, I went to Yahoo! I typed in John Donne and got more than 6 million hits. Jackpot. I read a few of the preview feeds until I found one relevant to my assignment. I clicked on the link. “ACCESS DENIED: FORBIDDEN MATERIAL,” flashed across the screen. I hit the back button about ten times in half a second out of fear that someone might see my iniquitous act. I couldn’t believe it. Had I accidental hit the link to an “adult” site with “mature” content? I couldn’t remember. I scrolled back through the list of links on the Yahoo site searching for the link I clicked on. I found the familiar purple text that let me know it was the one I selected. It was the link I though I’d clicked. There was nothing standing out as a warning of inappropriate material, just some general information about John Donne. Perfectly innocent.
I tried another link. Same message. Another. Again, the same thing. I thought something was wrong with the computer. I know John Donne’s poetry was slightly erotic, and therefore quite scandalous, but that was in 1607! Slightly agitated, I was going to ask one of the black guys next to me to see if they were having a similar problem with their computer. I leaned over to the guy on my left and was shocked by what I saw: a large, round, giggling butt spread across the screen. The camera pulled back and I saw a whole line of video
girls doing video girl type things (this is a G rated blog). That’s when I realized the music he was listening too was actually a music video he was watching. I quickly looked to see where his hands were, hidden within the baggy jacket. The guy on my right was doing the same thing. Both were streaming raunchy hip-hop videos from BET.com. Furious, I left the library in awe.
How could it be that they were allowed to watch such filth and garbage, yet I was denied access to the literature of one of the most famous poets in English history! In a library! Heaven forbid a public service be politically incorrect and deny African Americans their “culture,” but what about my culture? What is the world coming to? Before long we won’t be watching Charlie Brown’s Pumpkin Patch on Halloween or singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at Christmas time. Instead will be watching Chucky Brawlins’ Pimpin’ Place and singing Ralphy the Red Hosed… like I said, this is a G rated blog.
I decided to wait for an available computer and in the mean time looked over a few other reference sources available. I didn’t really find anything. Perry’s library is stocked with an abundance of fiction novels and children’s literature, but it’s not really suited for academic research.
Finally a computer became available. I sat down next to two young black guys in over sized jackets and what I like to call head muffs (which are akin to toboggans, only for African Americans. They look a lot like pantyhose stretched over a thigh with too much cellulite. ). One looked a bit older than me, maybe 25. The other looked to be about 17 or 18. Both where listening to rap tunes boasting of overtly unrealistic female conquests of a most graphic nature (I mean honestly, who would even…).
After fooling around a few minutes with my e-mail, I got on to Galileo in search of the articles I needed. I couldn’t find any. Dang. So I did the stereotypical GMC student thing to do, I went to Yahoo! I typed in John Donne and got more than 6 million hits. Jackpot. I read a few of the preview feeds until I found one relevant to my assignment. I clicked on the link. “ACCESS DENIED: FORBIDDEN MATERIAL,” flashed across the screen. I hit the back button about ten times in half a second out of fear that someone might see my iniquitous act. I couldn’t believe it. Had I accidental hit the link to an “adult” site with “mature” content? I couldn’t remember. I scrolled back through the list of links on the Yahoo site searching for the link I clicked on. I found the familiar purple text that let me know it was the one I selected. It was the link I though I’d clicked. There was nothing standing out as a warning of inappropriate material, just some general information about John Donne. Perfectly innocent.
I tried another link. Same message. Another. Again, the same thing. I thought something was wrong with the computer. I know John Donne’s poetry was slightly erotic, and therefore quite scandalous, but that was in 1607! Slightly agitated, I was going to ask one of the black guys next to me to see if they were having a similar problem with their computer. I leaned over to the guy on my left and was shocked by what I saw: a large, round, giggling butt spread across the screen. The camera pulled back and I saw a whole line of video
girls doing video girl type things (this is a G rated blog). That’s when I realized the music he was listening too was actually a music video he was watching. I quickly looked to see where his hands were, hidden within the baggy jacket. The guy on my right was doing the same thing. Both were streaming raunchy hip-hop videos from BET.com. Furious, I left the library in awe.How could it be that they were allowed to watch such filth and garbage, yet I was denied access to the literature of one of the most famous poets in English history! In a library! Heaven forbid a public service be politically incorrect and deny African Americans their “culture,” but what about my culture? What is the world coming to? Before long we won’t be watching Charlie Brown’s Pumpkin Patch on Halloween or singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at Christmas time. Instead will be watching Chucky Brawlins’ Pimpin’ Place and singing Ralphy the Red Hosed… like I said, this is a G rated blog.
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