I was sitting in McCormick & Schmick's, a very fine seafood restaurant in Philly a couple of days ago, and I was trying to talk shop with a fellow attorney over lunch. I tried to give him my undivided, but I couldn't. Why? Because there was a very fine Nubian in a business suit across the room distracting me.
It's easy to get distracted these days. For instance, we can get distracted by the cell phone while we are trying to drive. Parents can get distracted by their children while they are trying to talk on the phone; loud people can distract us all in public; and an attractive Nubian can distract us damn near anywhere.
Still, the folks down in Mississippi have taken this distraction thing to a whole different level. You all know the story by now: .A young lady who happens to be Gay has created a stir at her -very red state- school, all because she wants to go the prom with her partner in a tuxedo. This being northern Mississippi, the folks at the school decided to cancel the prom because they say it would be distraction. I mean I know the folks in Mississippi don't take to women wearing tuxedos too well, but why do I get the feeling that this isn't about the tuxedo?
"The Itawamba County school district's policy requires that senior prom dates be of the opposite sex. The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi had given the district until Wednesday to change that policy and allow 18-year-old Constance McMillen to escort her girlfriend, who is also a student, to the dance on April 2.
Instead, the school board met and issued a statement announcing it wouldn't host the event at Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Fulton, "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events."
There is that word distraction again. "Due to the distractions of the educational process"Yes, god forbid we cause a distraction at that most educational of high school events; the prom. I mean I can just imagine if Lark Voorhies had showed up at my senior prom in a LBD. Now that would have been a distraction for your ass. Field, are you going to dance or what? Ahhm, sorry date, I am a bit distracted. I can't stop looking at Lark across the room. How dare she show up here like that?
Anyway, I see that those pesky ACLU folks are getting involved. Maybe they will help us work out this little distraction thing.
Constance, look at the bright side: you have graduated high school and you are emancipated. You can finally move away from Mississippi.
