Rules rules rules...

Rules aren't always meant to be followed. Some rules we need, some are totally useless.

Bad Rules:

The one rule that annoys me above all other rules is the dreaded:

1) Dress Code!

I despise dress codes the most because for me, how i dress is an extension of who i am. And i dont like sacrificing who i am just to please other people. Sometimes i dress nicely, sometimes i wear a tshirt and sweatpants, and sometimes i mix and match. I love designers, and i love casual clothes, i love tank tops and tube tops all year round, i love lacy, girly things, and i love my football jerseys. Stilettos and sneakers. Blouses and baggy jeans. How can you truly be yourself if you're forced to dress like everybody else?

2) No music players

This one drove me crazy in high school! We were not allowed to have any electronic devices except calculators inside the school building. We couldnt have cd players (mp3 players once they became popular), cell phones, laptops, or anything else. Music has always been a driving force for me, i always listen to music when i do homework, or anything. It always inspired me, and helped me concentrate. Silence, on the other hand, always stifles me. When it's too quiet i cant think, and i definitely cant be creative! As long as we listen through headphones, why try to kill the music?

3) Reading textbooks!

Okay, so it's not particularly a rule... but since i'm thinking about school... I dont like reading textbooks, at all! They're boring! No matter how articulate the author, no matter how knowledgeable the author, we dont like reading (except fiction... that we'll read). Especially for New Media students... most of us are probably here, in this major, because we are hands on people. We prefer doing over sitting around and looking at what other people have done.

4) No cursing

It's a rule in a LOT of places, even households have this rule, so it's not just businesses and schools. Yes, expletives probably should be kept to a minimum, but people need to be realistic: havent you ever messed something up or stubbed your toe really hard and let out an expletive or two? We're all human, we all make mistakes. So more people need to get off their high horses (because they know they do it too.)

5) Too much freedom of speech...

Every weekend I see protesters gather outside the Planned Parenthood. I would just roll my eyes at them and keep driving on by, if it weren't for the fact that they print off huge posters with pictures of dead children and fetuses and use those as their protest posters- with their own children standing right there. Freedom of speech, as much as i love it, needs a few boundaries. No one wants to see those disgusting pictures, and children especially should not see those pictures! It's one thing to try and instill your beliefs in your children, but it's another to potentially scar your child for life with those graphic images!


Good Rules:

1) Do not kill

Yeah, pretty basic. Any form of murder is bad! Hurting people in general is bad. It's the most basic of all human morals.

2) No blackmail, insider trading, all those bad financial crimes

It's cool if you're smart enough to get away with it... but if you're smart enough to cheat your way around stuff, dont you think it would take less energy to just do it the right way? Dont take advantage of people.

3) Unemployment benefits

Yes, there's a lot of controversy around it, because there are people who take advantage of the system. But when you come from a family who had everything for so many years, a house, a comfortable life, a company car, no financial worries. Then have that all overturned out of the blue. It's tough. My family has been there. We lived with no health insurance, and a very meager income for several months. And it was through no fault of any of us. It's nice to have that buffer, so that we could at least survive until things got better again.

4) Insurance

Not really a rule, but it's something you legally have to have for some things. Yes, there are a lot of screwed up aspects of America's insurance programs, but isn't it nice to know that you have it? Just to give you a little peace of mind?

5) Tough immigration policies

Yes, I probably sound like a typical old white-haired Republican: but really think about it. Would you want somebody coming here, illegally, taking over your job, and receiving all of the benefits that you have worked for your entire life, benefits that they havent worked for at all? Think about the number of them who work under the table, getting paid tax-free, or living off social security, unemployment, and food stamps, when you and your friends and family are the ones funding it. It's one thing to want to help someone, that's why we donate our time and money to charities, but it's another to have our hard-earned cash get donated for us, to people we didn't consent to giving it to. What's fair in that?