Imus in the mourning
by
Clyde
7:57 AM
As much as I may agree with the outcome of the Imus debacle, I must admit that the ripple effect that it may cause has me as nervous as a leper contemplating masturbation. First of all, let me be perfectly clear. I do not like Don Imus, I have never liked Don Imus and I never will like Don Imus. In fact, if Don Imus were anally raped by a syphilitic rhinoceros, I would be more concerned about the traumatic psychological effects upon said creature of the wild than any harm done to that son of a bitch.
That said, I fear that we are treading into dangerous waters when it comes to the subject of free speech. No one disputes that society demands that we have standards of behavior that must be met, but who among us is really qualified to decide what the standards must be when it comes to the subject of a person's views? Should it be the majority, because I thought that the Constitution was a document that ensured the rights to the minority. Is it decided because of past deeds or is it decided by the moment? Does it apply to only those in the main stream media or does it apply to the people as a whole? These are serious questions to a serious issue, where does a person's right to free speech stop.
Listen, if we are to regulate what can and cannot be said at any given time, we could be denying ourselves of the most basic right we have. I am in no way defending Imus, but this is a situation that could have lasting repercussions upon a myriad of things. When do we find the comedy of Chris Rock or Andrew Dice Clay so offensive that we force them to other means of supporting themselves? When do we find my friend Bob Kincaid's term "Repiglican" out of bounds? When does my right to question Ann-Dee Coulter's manhood come to an end?
Now does this mean that I think there should be no standards placed upon free speech, not at all. Certain things must be but most of those instances involve the safety of people and property. Screaming "FIRE" in a crowded theater yes, yelling at the stupid assed teenager about to diced up by Freddy Kruger no. It is all a matter of context and ramifications.
In addition to the free speech concerns, what has happened to the citizens of the great land where mere words can cause so much pain and anguish? It wasn't like Imus was at Fox News hawking free falafels and twelve people were injured by a stampeding Bill O'Reilly. He made disparaging remarks, unjust yes, insensitive yes, beyond the pale most definitely, but ultimately they were just words. Can we be so injured by ignorant remarks that we curl up and whimper like Rush Limbaugh at the end of a Boy Scout jamboree?
With all that is going on in this country do we really need to let the comments by an ignorant racist dominate the news? We have the White House using the RNC email server to get around the Records Act. The military has had their deployments lengthened. The Justice Department is being investigated for political cronyism. And we finally found out the identity of the father to Anna Nicole's baby, you know, important shit. Yet, all we have heard for the better part of a week is Don Imus.
Let us hope that this was a win against racism and not a loss for individual freedom.
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