As far I can tell this issue isn’t getting a whole lot of press outside the US, but here in the States one of the biggest stories in the past week or so has been the controversy over comments made by radio talk show host Don Imus about a women’s college basketball team and his subsequent firing by CBS and NBC.
As I’ve been observing the coverage of this story I’ve been feeling like I should write something about it, because it I’ve been mildly troubled by it – mainly because I think the issue is actually quite complicated, in ways that few people in the media seem willing to acknowledge. It seems to me that the very fact that there has been so much outrage about what Imus said has made it quite unsafe for people to ask serious and honest questions about the issue and that that has really stifled much real dialog.
It seems to me to be a case where the precisely correct way to interpret what happened and its relation to broader cultural issues is not completely obvious – it requires reflection, analysis, enquiry and dialog. It’s very hard to do that (in the public arena at least) when folks like Al Sharpton just (apparently) want people to know how angry they are and how angry any other morally upright person should be. It seems as if these people are unwilling to allow others to be genuinely uncertain about how to evaluate what happened.
I would love to write more about this and feel like I probably should, but I know I could spend hours on it that I just don’t have right now. However I will mention a pretty interesting discussion about this on MSNBC’s Meet The Press today (second half of the broadcast). I think this is the closest thing I’ve seen so far to a really constructive discussion, but even here it was interesting to see the difference in perspective of say David Brooks and Gwen Ifill – the latter seeing the issue in very back and white terms (I don’t mean in the racial sense) and seemingly quite irritated when Brooks suggested any ambiguity about the moral issues invovled.
I will also say that I think this is an example of an issue where I would love to see someone articulate a clear Christian perspective.
I had an interesting experience this afternoon – I went into Dick’s Sports at Streets of Woodfield to buy a new waterproof watch. When I approached the check-out to make my purchase, the first thing the cashier said to me was “Can you tell me your zip code”? This is not a particularly unusual request here in the US – some stores actually ask for your phone number. It may well be completely benign, but I generally believe that personal information is not something that should be given away just because someone asks for it. It bugs me a little that stores are so presumptious about this and that people here seem conditioned to not question it.
So my response to the cashier was “Why”? I think she was a little surprised, and asked me to repeat, which I did. When she realized what I had said, she didn’t respond at all, but just proceeded to ring up my purchase. I thought it was pretty interesting that she was unwilling to explain why she wanted the information. All the more reason I think to be cautious about giving away such information.
Since I criticized Charles Rangel for his views on war funding, it’s only fair that I express admiration for the comments he made later in the same interview with Tim Russert, while explaining the significance of the title of his new book, “And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since.” It relates to an experience he had while fighting in the Korean War -
REP. RANGEL: …And we were all scared. Well, finally they hit, and I was thrown off of a ammunition tractor into the air. All I saw was a ball of orange fire. And I ended up in a ditch. And I could hear the bugles blowing, I could see my comrades being led away with their hands over their head. At one point I wanted to play dead, but I thought that the loudness of my heart could be heard by those that was around me, that I was so scared. But anyway, I had been an altar boy, and I knew prayers in Latin as well as in English. And I knew I was going to die, but I just gave it one shot, and I said, “Jesus, if you ever get me out of this, if you could just consider sparing me, you’re not going to have any problems with Charlie Rangel ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.” And I think so many people have had bad experiences that, once they get out of it, they forget it. Something clicked, Tim, that I’ve never forgotten it, and I haven’t had a bad day since. No matter what has happened, something automatically says, or I imagine that Jesus says, “Is that you, Rangel, complaining?” I say, “No, it must be Tim or someone around me, but I’m OK.” And I’ve always been OK.
[Emphasis added]
Interesting interview by Tim Russert on Meet the Press this morning with Charlies Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Russert gets right into the issue of all the non-military spending added to the recent appropriation bill to finance the war in Iraq. Here’s part of the transcript -
MR. RUSSERT: Chairman Rangel, welcome back to MEET THE PRESS. Want to talk about your book in a second, but let me start with the war. The House voted for funding for the war with a date certain, March of ‘08, to begin a withdrawal of U.S. troops. But in that bill was $20 billion of so-called pork, money for cricket infestation, tours of the Capitol, security at the National Convention, peanut crops. Why would the Democrats put that kind of money in such a serious bill?
REP. CHARLES B. RANGEL (D-NY): Because they needed the votes. That bill, we lost so many Democrats, one, because people thought we went too far and others because we didn’t go far enough. And so a lot of things had to go into a bill that certainly those of us who respect great legislation did not want in there. But the real question was, were we doing something to stop this immoral war and what could we do instead of doing nothing except do what the president asks us to do?
[Emphasis added]
I find this extraordinary, that the Democrats would have people believe that this is one of the great moral issues of our time, and yet have to resort to vote–buying in order to get their own party members to support the measure. And I couldn’t help notice Rangel’s attempt to place the responsibility for this in the third person – “Because they needed the votes.”
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/27/pet.projects.ap/index.html
CNN reports that the US Federal government will spend $1.2Billion over the next 5 years to subsidise small operation dairy farmers. So American taxpayers (that includes me) will get to pay to support uneconomic US businesses that are unable to compete with rest of the world, while actively damaging the business prospects of efficient, well-managed farmers outside the US. The individual responsible for this attack on fair trade is Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
Yes, it’s been pretty quiet here for a little while. Not for any really good reason. However, it’s springtime here in Chicago – so a good time for new beginnings. My grass is growing again and the doves are back – nesting above the outside light on my front porch. It still amazes me how quickly the seasons change here in the midwest.
Lately I’ve been doing some work on a new website for Full Life, a Chicago area singles ministry. Quite a lot of learning involved, although it uses the same basic technology I used for my own site. I’ve been learning a lot about PHP, mysql, Joomla and CSS. The current redesign is here, though it is in a very early stage of development. – just investigating some basic layout options. I’m expecting input from a graphics artist on the actual design.
One issue I’ve run into is that the basic Joomla template doesn’t support dynamic submenus that fly out when you roll the mouse over a main menu item. I would really like to be able to use this approach as it makes navigation much more efficient. However I have found a free 3rd party plug-in that does this called SWMenuFree that seems pretty slick.
Apart from web site work, I’ve been watching a bit of video – some “Star Trek” (TOS) episodes downloaded from Unbox and “House” DVDs. It’s interesting that I enjoy these shows – both completely unbelievable stories with larger than life characters. It’s interesting that characters who are so absurdly perfect (Kirk) and imperfect (House) can be so entertaining.
I’m very anxious to do some running. I’ve put on an alarming amount of weight, but am still suffering from a groin injury I sustained in Auckland, and it’s preventing me from doing any running at all. I was supposed to run an 8km race this weekend, the Shamrock Shuffle, but there was no possibility of being able to make it.
Caught Monday afternoon just before I left Michelle and Jeremy’s. 
After church on Sunday I drove over to Cornwall Park and took some photos of and from One Tree Hill. Here are the pictures.
On Saturday Dad and I got to go sailing and again had a great time. We had good breeze for almost the whole day, and sailed from about 10am to 6pm. We initially headed towards Waiheke and got about half way from Motuihe to Putiki Bay before deciding that we would aim to sail around Motutapu/Rangitoto. The most challenging part for me was . Our next tack was intended to take us west of Rangitoto Light and get us to North Head. However we turned too soon and found ourselves pinching to get past Rangitoto Light. The wind had stengthened by this stage, and I found that hard on the wind the boat had a lot of weather helm and was quite difficult to keep on course. We eventually took a couple of additional tacks to get past North Head and into the harbour and then had a good reach up the harbour to Westhaven.
After getting back to the marina and packing the boat up we went straight around to Michelle and Jeremy’s for dinner. Some photos of Dad sailing and me and Victoria and Thom and Michelle and Jeremy’s are here.
