TRIO Twelve: Raheem

G21 Staff Writer

Cheerleaders

OAKLAND, CALI - My little niece, Jessica, wants to be a cheerleader.

I know that's not as weighty a topic as the success or failure of the Web(Shout-out to Thomas Hart: Bra-avo! You're right and *hot*. Encore!) or the affairs of State and the possible bombing of Iraq(Shout-out to Jeff Winbush: Keep 'em coming, brother!) but it's important to me. Fact is, the idea of Jessica being a cheerleader has me upset.

To my thinking, homegirl going that route could be the mistake of a lifetime. I told her parents, my sister and brother-in-law, that and they rolled their eyes.

TRIO, our thrice-weekly commentary column, slugs you again. RAHEEM on "Cheerleaders!" JEFF WINBUSH looks at Clinton's Possible War(Wag...)! JENNIFER BLUE's PLANETARY MADNESS looks at YOUR influences! You knew the Media column as "Trend Bends." For version 3.0.1, it's reborn as CULTURECAST: Jennifer Blue looks at "Informers"... G21 COMIX: Bix the Snowboarder - The Legend Continues! VOX POPULI, YOUR page for talking to us, is updated. This week Carlene, the Misanthropic Bitch, fires off a response to THOMAS HART. THOMAS fires back! Rod breaks out the flame extinguishers!! The second TRIO of this week features Austin, Texas's THOMAS HART: "Why the World Wide Web Failed!" FLISS USSHER's LONDON CALLING! talks about finding the "Common Ground. " AND at the end of this month: FLISS REPORTS FROM BERLIN!! BOB POWERS finally gives some clues about HOW TO WRITE in POWERSBOOKS. In this week's TRIO, ROD AMIS says the Unthinkable: "Turn Off Your Computer!" HOT LINKS(Not from Louisiana) has a new Silver Surf Award site for you, and the Link Partners program. G21 TALK! Bust a move! We KNOW you have something to say about your time here. And the Message Board is the only place you can put your Official Contest Entry. What are you waiting for, Surfer? You need to use The Message Board HOUSE OF CARDS!"

So let me ask you something: what comes to your mind when you think of cheerleaders? I mean, in the real world, besides that series of porno flicks.

What I know is that I don't think of a group of people who are future captains of industry, astronauts, revered jurists, or nuclear physicists.

When I was in school, girls who went out for the cheerleading squad were the ones to whom being popular(conformist and shallow,) dating jocks, and having no future plans beyond more cheerleading, beauty pageants, or landing a "good" husband, were the only goals.

I certainly don't want to think of my Jessica as being one of those vacuous, airhead bimbos!

I want to think some of the chemistry of blood that makes me aspire, question, and rebel, flows in her veins just as it does in my own.

If there is anything that concerns me about our young people, it is that they have been presented so few alternatives to consumerist culture.

As far as I can see, the so-called choices presented to them are among becoming driven and avaricious capitalists, acquiescent and complicitous capitalists, or just plain duped capitalists who believe that recycling an aluminum Pepsi can is changing the world for the better. To my mind, those are not choices at all, but I don't see our society leaping to offer little Jessica, or the girls and boys of her generation, much better.

So I'm upset because I see her wanting to become a cheerleader as the first in a series of capitulations. The first step, if you will, in leaving her mind behind.

I'm afraid that ten years from now, when she's in college, I'll look into the eyes of my niece and be met with a stranger, or the hostile contempt of an intellectual opponent.

I fear the type of person who wants to join the cheerleading squad would never read an article like this one, let alone a magazine like this one.

And if they did, would respond: "Ee-eeyew! Is this really necessary? Johnny, look! One of their writers said `shit!' We should call somebody!"