A lot of random stuff, obviously. My brain works a thousand miles a minute, and is easily distracted, so I have a lot of thoughts about different things. But two main things have been bothering me this week:

One:  The McKinney Pool Party.  I live about two hours from McKinney. I wouldn’t say I go there a lot, in fact, it’s been years since I was there, but I’ve been there several times. I remember that it seemed a nice place to be, with no obvious signs of turmoil. But the outrage over the pool party fiasco drives me crazy. (And if you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about, just Google it. You’ll see.)

Mainly because all of the people spouting off about the whole thing weren’t even there. Seriously?  If you weren’t there, you don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there, and I don’t make any claim that I know what went on. One side claims it was racially motivated police brutality. The other side says the police were just doing their jobs to get out-of-control teenagers to stop destroying and disturbing a neighborhood they shouldn’t have been in anyway.

My thoughts?  If it was race-related, then it was a horrible thing and things like that should be eliminated from our society and our consciousness, as does police brutality in its entirety. People should never be treated differently because of their race, gender, ethnicity, religion, favorite color, whether they’re a dog person or a cat person…end of story. And I mean they shouldn’t be persecuted for those things, nor should they be given preferential treatment. It also doesn’t matter who’s doing the talking. If you say “All _____ (insert identifier here) people are _____,” then you have just made a racist remark. There’s no such thing as reverse racism. It’s just racism. And it’s wrong. Treat people how you want to be treated.

If it wasn’t race-related, then the problem is just as big and pervasive:  a generation who thinks they can go where they want, do what they want, and say what they want…and no one has the right to say they can’t do it. Um, hello? Therein lies anarchy. There are rules and laws to make sure society doesn’t descend into madness. You don’t have the right to do whatever you want with no consequences. If you break the law, you should be punished. And if you’re in the midst of an unauthorized party, destroying a neighborhood you shouldn’t even be in, well, you should expect consequences (not brutality, but consequences).

Two:  is it a cultural thing or not? So, the man I’ve been seeing for six months or so is from Cameroon.The cultural differences have created some problems at times.

A week ago, he left for Colorado for a work function. When I asked, he told me he’d be back on Friday (two days ago). I barely heard from him all week, where “barely” equals a handful of texts and one 2-minute long conversation. Not happy about that at all. On Friday, I saw on Facebook that he’s headed to Thailand. What?  I texted him and asked, he confirmed it, said he’d be back Saturday. (Not sure if I believe that now either.) When I asked when he decided that, he never responded.

I have….SO MANY issues with this. The lack of communication all week, to start with. Not mentioning he was leaving the freaking country, for another. “Furious” is a mild understatement for my mental state right now. I’m not even sure I’ll be speaking to him when he returns. I can almost guarantee that when confronted with the issue, his answer will start with “In my culture…” My usual reply is “Well, we’re not in YOUR culture, are we?”

My question is this:  do you think this behavior IS a cultural thing? Or is it just a he’s-a-selfish-and inconsiderate-jerk thing?