A thirty two year old circus performer plunged to her death at Ringling Bros. over the weekend. At the moment, no criminal prosecution is being looked at, and it’s seen as a tragic accident (although why the hëll there was no net under her remains totally bewildering. Then again, even when used, nets can be missed or you can land wrong, break your neck, and adios.)
She has (had) two young children who are being trained to join the act.
Sooner or later, somehow, somewhere in this country, luck is going to run out and a child circus performer is going to be killed.
At which point no one will say there’s no investigation of criminal prosecution. No one is going to say, oh, it’s a tragic accident in a high risk profession.
Instead there’s going to be a thundering of outcries over child endangerment. Investigations will be launched. Social services will be brought in. Children will be taken from their parents. And anyone under the age of eighteen will be banned from any act more hazardous than juggling. All the safety harnesses in the world don’t matter because, sooner or later, something’s gonna break.
So circus families might as well take the initiative now and stop using kids in anything remotely high risk…before the odds, and the law, catches up with them.
PAD
• 
Let’s see, something bad happened. To prevent something worse from maybe happening, parents should give up part of their rights when it comes to children. Children should have their right to choose to work curtailed because of the fear of something happening.
You know, if a republican suggested something like this, you would be all over them.
“Kids shouldn’t be regularly required to perform life-risking acts and if it’s irresponsible to put kids in that position, maybe they shouldn’t even be doing it in fiction. Like, say, a book where a bunch of kids put on costumes and fight folks, many with guns or worse, who are trying to kill them. But what are the odds of a book like *that* happening? And who would they find to write it…?”
Well, they could find me if it’s “Young Justice,” and then I in turn would write a six part story arc (which morphed into a summer wide crossover event) centering specifically on the question of shutting down YJ because kids under 18 were being put at risk. So if you’re subtly trying to call me a hypocrite, you’re not doing a particularly effective job.
****************************************
Here’s the funny thing. I wasn’t sure if I should write “That was just a joke” immediately after what I wrote. I thought that *saying* it would only make it *not* a joke. But ultimately I decided that some PAD *fans* would take it the wrong way.
So I added the line: “(Yes, I’m kidding…)”
I’m aware that there are lots of things that are perfectly acceptable in fiction, especially superhero fiction, that wouldn’t be okay in real life (the whole vigilante issue, for instance.) So I made a joke about it and *pointed out* that it was a joke. Sorry if I hurt your feelings.
“Let’s see, something bad happened. To prevent something worse from maybe happening, parents should give up part of their rights when it comes to children. Children should have their right to choose to work curtailed because of the fear of something happening.
“You know, if a republican suggested something like this, you would be all over them. “
Do you truly think I’m incapable of acknowledging a good idea simply because it’s broached by someone with whom I have ideological differences? Or that I fall into lockstep with those on my side of the fence?
Because you’re really wrong if you think that’s the case.
It’s hardly my fault that Bush keeps coming up with stupid ideas and endorsing beliefs that appeal to the most extreme conservative elements of society. If Bush stepped forward and announced that he was endorsing a Constitutional Amendment formalizing a woman’s right to choose or the right for two people, regardless of gender, to marry, do you truly believe I would diss him for it?
Because if you do, that’s…well…a dumb idea.
PAD
You know Pete, in regards to your earlier comment about the High School Jocks being the ones that tormented you the most in high school, I wanted to take a brief consensus. In my High School, I never ran with the Jock crowd, in fact, if anything I was much more with the Art and nerd clicks. But never once did I or any of my friends have a problem with any of the Jocks. Heck, most of the jocks in my school were actually really cool to everyone. It just makes me wonder. Was I the only one who had a High School experience like this. Am I the only Nerd/Art student that never ran afoul of High School football and was actually on decent terms with many of the Players. I would really like to know.
PAD,
Sorry about your experiences with the “jocks” growing up.
But to condemn the many (“I wouldn’t shed a tear”) for the actions of a few perpetuates stereotypes, which is the last thing I would expect from you.
I, myself, was never really harassed by “the jocks” in high school. Most of them were actually down-to-earth and pretty cool. If anything, I was bothered by “the snobs” who had to rub people’s faces in about the cothes they wore and how well-to-do and sophisticated they were. So maybe we should shut down ALL school activities. (kidding)Let’s face it:
1.) There is risk in a zillion things we do every day, even crossing the streets.
2.) All “cliques’ are capable of being cruel to people. Why? Because basically all PEOPLE are capable of being cruel. Some moreso than others.
I guess it depends on what you mean by “remotely high risk,” PADguy. It’s not just football players, most kids take absurd risks on a regular basis. Most of us survive childhood somehow, tho. Circus performers, or the vast majority of them anyway, are probably at less risk than kids in most sports, certainly less than the star athletes, because their parents are usually circus folks who understand the risks and guard against them.
And the comparison should be to the star athletes — these kids are not chosen randomly, and there are very few of them. They are good at what they do, or they aren’t kept on in the relatively high-risk jobs.
I notice nobody here has found a lot of horrible young-trapeze-artist injuries. I doubt there are a lot of them. As somebody said, the first thing you learn is how to take a fall.
If you’re saying, use sensible safety precautions, well, sure. But if you’re saying that there are no safety precautions good enough for high-wire or trapeze work, then I think you’re overstating things. And missing something important about the human spirit.
“And a note to Don: When I was going to high school, the guys who made my life the most miserable were the swaggering football jocks. So if you’re trotting out stats to try and imply that raising concerns about child acrobats would also require one to take the stand that HS Football players should be shut down…hey. I’d shed no tears. No one ever sustained a life-ending injury in a high school debating team.”
You’re really not doing much to counter my concern that your position on this is highly colored by bias, you realize.
I wouldn’t lose any sleep over football never being played again either (hockey is another story…) but the point was that we accept the judgement of parents with regards to their kids’ safety all the time and on matters that result in a lot more injuries (ie, > 0) than child circus performers have fallen victim to.
The Goverment needs little reason to step in and show their power in regards to how one raises. Take a look a pice called the Mondale Initive.
Local, or State officals can act on any amount of information given without fully investigating the charges. And once an action is taken the rule is guilty till proven innocent.
“And a note to Don: When I was going to high school, the guys who made my life the most miserable were the swaggering football jocks. So if you’re trotting out stats to try and imply that raising concerns about child acrobats would also require one to take the stand that HS Football players should be shut down…hey. I’d shed no tears. No one ever sustained a life-ending injury in a high school debating team.”
“You’re really not doing much to counter my concern that your position on this is highly colored by bias, you realize.”
What a stupendously silly comment.
My bias is against adults who expect small children to be part of the family act and thrust them into highly dangerous situations. The response was to bring up high school football which was, in fact, a fairly inept counter. My concern was motivated by worries that, sooner or later, a child or children are going to die and, boom, we’ve got a whole new problem. So better not to put them in that situation and avoid it.
No one goes to a football game wondering if someone is going to die. When you watch a highwire act, that is *exactly* what everyone in the audience is wondering. So don’t try to draw a parallel between the two because there isn’t any.
Furthermore, anyone who says the government cannot and should not become involved in such things would have been a joy to have around in the early days of movies. Back then, children worked brutally long hours and their money was frittered away by their parents. I guess some of you guys would have been cool with that. Fortunately enough, another type of thinking prevailed and the so-called Coogan Laws were created. Nowadays, kids are strictly limited in the hours they can work, their money is put into trust for them, and they receive mandated education on set.
Anyone think that’s a bad thing? Anyone really think we should abolish those laws and roll things back to the way they used to be?
PAD
Team sports -do- kill and injure kids, as opposed to circus work which has yet to kill one. You can insist it’s an invalid comparison simply because one is work and the other isn’t but that doesn’t change the fact that parents get to make decisions about acceptable risk level all the time.
If the pivotal factor for you is that the audience watches the act waiting to see if someone is going to die (I’m assuming you also thing people only watch figure skating to see if someone’s gonna fall, not for any other athletic achievement) then I might remind you that the act is more about the appearance of danger than the reality. The magician doesn’t want to really spear the woman in the box with a sword, they just want you to be amazed it doesnt happen.
As far as child labor laws, now who’s making a silly parallel? Those laws protected children against things that -did- injur and kill them with regularity, not imagined future harms.
Just to respond to the football jock aspect of this thread-
I had one really cool friend in HS who was a football player, but by and large big loudmouth jocks and I didn’t get along. I think most of the resentment that myself and some friends felt was due to the dominance of their culture over all our lives (our faces were rubbed in pep rally after pep rally, for example). I have a number of football players in my family and personally resent the attention and praise they get from everyone (including the local paper), while my own writing and band projects get none.
That said, I have to add that I had a lot more gripes and grudges with people that weren’t jocks (at the time they were called the “alternative” crowd), who, despite being so very “alternative”, tended to reject me because I listened to Frank Black while they were into Green Day. They liked to bemoan the death of Curt Cobain endlessly; I liked to bemoan the breakup of the PAD/Keown team and the general crappiness of Image comics. It’s a strange and sometimes hurtful thing to have the outcast crowd reject you, which is a major theme of Jhonen Vasquez.
But now I’m way off topic.
Circus safety? I don’t know. But I do think kids ought to be allowed to wear a yamulke. Seems like there’s more harm in curbing a student’s personal religious expression than there is in, what, infecting the other students? What is the concern here? I can understand an objection to mandated religion from a teacher, but where’s the harm in a student wearing something religious and fielding questions? Seems like the other kids might, I don’t know, learn something by being exposed to a wide variety of religious expression.
Joey, the problem lies in exactly where the line gets drawn. If one allows a student to wear his yarmulke to class, can one then legitimately deny a teacher the right to wear her gruesome Crucifix pin? And how is she likely to treat the student with the pentagram pendant, or the Tree of Life t-shirt?
As you can see, in a world free of common sense (that is to say, the world most of humanity occupies), this can quickly become an incredibly divisive issue. Most school administrators attempt to head it off at the pass by just declaring all religious items off-limits.
Regarding your other point – I knew there was a reason I liked Jhonen’s work so much (even the Nickelodeon-censored “Invader Zim”)…
joeyfixit,
As one who got into comics in a big way in high school in large part for the escapism and because I frequently was not in the “in” crowd, let me say I can understand why you might resent the attention the football players who are close to you get. But I would add this.
Let it go.
I’m not saying that to be flip. I’m saying that from my experience it is a healthy and sensible way to react.
I know what it’s like to feel unappreciated, but then i came to understand was the problem was that I was lettting other people’s opinions affect my opinion of myself, or my self-worth, if you will.
I’m sure your band projects are fine, and i’m sure many people think so as well.
As far as writing, well I can DEFINITELY empathize, seeing as how that’s what i do for a living. In most cases, it is not glamourous. But if it’s something you love to do, then that’s all that matters.
And, ironically, in college, it was the English majors that were the clique and would try to denigrate my work and played politics at the paper and were “Shakespeare snobs” whenever I would bring up comics, Star trek, etc.
To this day, in my family, my twin brother is considered the “success story” since he is a Physician’s Assistant. Most of our family conversations are dominated by, “Dad sneezed today. Why do you think that is, Matt? Or “What do you think of the Atkins Diet?”
My other brother is considered the fun-loving one, even though he’s contantly getting in trouble.
And I’m the writer. But you know what? It doesn’t matter what the people I used to depend on for validation think, because I’ve grown to the point where I need to satisfy the Man in the Mirror.
And besides, it’s been a fun, fun ride, where I’ve met people who appreciate my gifts and have been able to experience things large and small that i never would otherwise.
I am still sending solicitations to Marvel. I have not given up on that dream and never will. I have done local municipal stories, sports, and features. I have interviewed, face to face, some people I admire like PAD, Patrick Stewart, Allison Mack, and Kevin Smith. I have interviewed Joe Quesada so often he knows my name and what I look like. I have interviewed Joss Whedon, Nana Visitor, Stan Lee, William Shatner, Avi Arad, Dan Jurgens, Axel Alonso, Michael Turner, Gareb Shamus, Alex Ross and many, many others. I get tons of free trade paperbacks and DVDs for free (to review). I’ve met powerful politicians.
Best of all, I LOVE what I do, I have the respect of my peers and the appreciation of many for my gifts.
So don’t begrudge anyone else their accolades. Love what you do (and others will appreciate it) and that’s all that matters.
Jonathan (the other one),
Why would you WANT to deny a teacher the right to wear a simple crucifix? And what’s so gruesome about it?Freedom OF religion, as long as it doesn’t ovcertly those who wish freedom FROM religion, is a huge part of what makes this country great.
I would draw the line at peaceful, simple, traditional garb and the like that is not intentionally trying to provoke anyone.
Joeyfixit,
A Frank Black/Jhonen Vasquez fan? Too bad WE didn’t go to the same school. (been a Pixies fan forever but just now discovering how much I like Black’s solo work–gonna be listening to Teenager of the Year on a 10 hour car trip until my ears bleed).
If it’s any consolation, the jocks are, in all likelihood, having their moment of glory NOW. With few exceptions, athletics is not something that carries over long into adult life. have nothing against the jocks, some nice kids there. As a teacher, I appreciate the fact that some of these kids try to do well in class solely because they want to stay on the team (and my buddies, the football coaches, will make any team member who acts up in my class run laps or get hit repeatedly with a frozen fish or whatever they do when I rat them out).
But if I had a choice between my stepson becoming a football player or developing an all-consuming passion for photography, I’d go for the photography without question. Like music or art or writing, it’s something he can do for a lifetime and actually get better at as the years go on.
Now, can you explain the meaning of “Velouria” to me? I’ll be singing along and get to a line like “And how does lemur skin reflect the sea” and my wife gives me THAT LOOK and I can’t even say that it rhymes with the previous line because, well, it doesn’t. Great song, though.
Hey Jerome, your posts lately have been among the very best. Thanks.
“And we will wade.. in the shine… of the ever…”
What more explanation does one need? One of the things I loved about Frank/Francis’ lyrics is the complete bizarreness of them. Recently I was listening to Frank’s early single, “Headache” and realized for the first time that some of the lyrics probably refer to the movie Vertigo(I was counting the rings/and I fell into a sleep/I peeked to see if you were waaay back wheen)
To be perfectly honest, Jerome, the resentment doesn’t begin until certain uncle-type relatives start to get on my case about how I should go to more of cousin whatshisblah’s games because his team’s doing so well. My response (never aloud) is, “I just don’t care about football. You/They don’t care to come see me play bass for some dipstick band, or listen to me on the radio.”
Bill- High School was over for me about 8 years ago. (heh-heh, there wasn’t really and Jhonen Vasquez around before 97, was there?) While athletic prowess no longer dominates, I find that sports enthusiasm has hardly waned among my peers at all. And I know there are nice kids there, the point I was trying to make was that the Outsider kids tended to be jerks more often.
As for Velouria, I think he’s singing about some girl named Velouria. Who he’s probably in love with. Maybe. Or maybe it’s more about the Tears of Shastasheen.
Anybody else have Pixies tickets? Got mine about two weeks ago.
“Anybody else have Pixies tickets? Got mine about two weeks ago.”
No, and it’s a big gaping flesh wound into which you have just poured a handful of salt.
have a great time–I’ve seen some of the lists of songs they are playing on the tour and it’s just about everything one would want.
Where you at? I don’t think it’s too late. They’re headlining Lollapalooza, you know (NY, at least)
I’m going to be in New York for most of June and July…is there any chance????
lollapalooza.com, man. My tickets are for Aug 16 and 17. There are other shows. The tour’s on now.
Boy, this is off topic.