Whoever said attending a university conference on sex trafficking is no way to spend a vacation?! Certainly not my blessed mum, who had the idea that, to keep our minds fresh and learning during our summer vacations, we should learn something new at this "community conference" at the local "community commuter school." Don't get me wrong -- I've an interest in the topic, thanks to Hollywood and Public Broadcasting (Dirty Pretty Things & Frontline). But get me in a room - a vast auditorium with people hither and thither - and throw in some students that know more than the panel of experts presenting the conference (insert a good 'ol sarcastic eyeball roll here), and it's worthy of a blog spot.
While I certainly was learning new things, I was amazed at how rude the audience was. Forget cell phones ringing during presentations...this went far beyond that. It's these students that know everything; that ask questions that have been answered already; that don't listen; that try desperately and purposely to appear as smart cookies; that wait and wait for a professor or speaker to make a slip so that they may correct them; that grab the spotlight and make some insignificant detail of their life relate to the topic at hand (that really has nothing to do with anything other than their pathetic ego)...and on, and on, and on. It drove me crazy! I think this Question Authority! attitude is taken so fucking beyond the exclamation that it's beyond the intended message. I'm not down with some doofus student trying to zing the professor for an ego boost. Blechchch! I take a student audience more seriously if they ask questions respectively and make discussion with poise.
Okay, enough of this nasty little diatribe. Sex trafficking is not cool. Contact your local senators/representatives and be sure to let them know.
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