Ethnically Speaking by Larry Meeks

Dear Larry: I am a 45-year-old mother of five and am about to become a grandmother. My husband has started to have a fetish for tattoos. He is decorating his body at an alarming rate. The only place he does not have a tattoo is on his face.

He spends a great amount of time on the computer looking at women who have tattoos. I know he is attracted to them because he has been pressuring me to get some tattoos. 

Larry, I can't stand needles and I hate to think what I will look like with tattoos. I am overweight and if I get a tattoo and then lose weight, the artwork will look like a sunken ship.

My husband is driving me crazy with his insistent demands for me to decorate my body. He keeps telling me how much better my breasts will look if I put a flower on them. He is also giving me hints that if I won't get tattooed, he will look elsewhere for his enjoyment.

I think this request is only the beginning of something changing in his mind, because he is starting to mention nipple piercings and piercings in more intimate places.

I need some advice. I am too embarrassed to tell my friends. — No Tattoos

Dear No Tattoos: Your name says it best. Tell your husband that you will make the decisions about what you do with your own body. You are right — something is changing in your husband's head.

Since your husband is threatening you with seeking someone else, your relationship is in need of serious marriage counseling.

I suggest you seek a counselor immediately. If your husband refuses to go, go alone.

Dear Larry: I am an American of Mexican decent and cannot tolerate someone who constantly complains about how "white America" keeps minorities down. In this day and age, we are all capable of making our own future bright. It is a choice to sit around and complain or talk about how they only give jobs to whites.

I chose to become educated. My family did not have money to pay for my college education. I knew that I had to find a way to make my education possible. If I can do it, anybody can.

I want to know when people will wake up and realize that the past is in the past and we need to move forward. We can learn from the past, but we should not allow ourselves to wallow in things we did not have.

I want to say thank you, because it is good to know that I am not the only minority who feels that we are responsible for our own actions and cannot continue to blame any and all misfortunes on the past or ethnicity. — Grateful Reader

Dear Grateful: There are many minorities who feel just like you. What is shameful is that so many have been put down for their achievements, they are cowed into silence. I pray for the day they will speak up against those who think self-responsibility is a myth.

To find out more about Larry Meeks, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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