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missroseroseAm at the library, temporarily taking over the front desk because we're shorthanded. Looking around at the various middle-school-and-younger kids on the computers and whatnot, mostly Inupiaq, it suddenly strikes me exactly how many of them have signs of fetal alcohol syndrome - usually characterized most obviously by a flattened area between the eyes, as well as slower mental and physical development.
It's suddenly a bit clearer to me why so many of these kids are hard to manage...it's honestly not their fault. It's partly their parents' fault, but not as much as, say, a white person whose kid had FAS...alcohol was introduced to this culture less than, what, five generations ago? And now alcoholism has spread rampantly throughout a set of people with no genetic resistance, destroying their culture through the means of damaging their brains and disabling their offspring.
While I'm usually of the mindset that if people can't drink responsibly, they shouldn't drink, I'm not blaming the Inupiaq for this, because it's honestly not their fault.
It's times like this I hate being caucasian...
It's suddenly a bit clearer to me why so many of these kids are hard to manage...it's honestly not their fault. It's partly their parents' fault, but not as much as, say, a white person whose kid had FAS...alcohol was introduced to this culture less than, what, five generations ago? And now alcoholism has spread rampantly throughout a set of people with no genetic resistance, destroying their culture through the means of damaging their brains and disabling their offspring.
While I'm usually of the mindset that if people can't drink responsibly, they shouldn't drink, I'm not blaming the Inupiaq for this, because it's honestly not their fault.
It's times like this I hate being caucasian...
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Completely off-topic
Date: 2004-05-28 04:51 pm (UTC)How big is this library, BTW? Barrow doesn't seem large enough to support something terribly large.
Re: Completely off-topic
Date: 2004-05-31 12:10 am (UTC)The depths which my people have slipped to disgust me more than anything else in this country, except perhaps who's running it.
I am very glad I will not be in this town by the time the mean, brain-damaged ones are in power.
These children are very sheep-like, in both habits and intelligence. I just wish one could get wool from them. They'd be of some use, in that case.
Hooray for a town filled with ultra-fundamentalist hicks and wanna-be gangsters, both of which still have delusions of competence!
That's...
Date: 2004-05-28 05:13 pm (UTC)--Brian