America Loses

I don't know how else to say it: this week, a little more than half over, has magnified many of the things wrong with the progression of our country. I am not a pessimist; I am a realist with optimistic tendencies. What I have heard on the news this week, though, has turned my stomach, culminating in a passioned rant to Marie about the state of things. (Thank you, Marie, for tolerating me during my rant.)

I could write for weeks on the problems of the country based on just a few events that coincidentally occurrend during the same week, and practically simultaneously through the same news cycle. How anyone from any party, race, creed or sex could spin them into a national "positive" is beyond me, and I don't believe it will happen.

Unless you've had your head buried in the sand, you've heard of the following:

• Don Imus was first fired from MSNBC, and then from CBS radio, for stupid comments he made about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
• The rape case against three former Duke lacrosse players was dropped, and the Attorney General called them "innocent". He didn't say "not guilty"; he said "innocent".

Unless you traipse through conservative media, you probably haven't heard of this one: PBS ditching a story about U.S. moderate Muslims trying to stand up against extreme factions.

I can't possibly get out all the thoughts I'd like to here; I would use too many words I choose not to say in front of my kids, and generally refrain from saying in public. I will do my best, though.

1. What Imus said was stupid. He deserved to be reprimanded at worst. But whatever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones..."? Today, Oprah is making the basketball players out to be sniveling losers, all so the general public can feel sorry for them. She has 100% discounted the exceptional efforts it took for Rutgers to make the NCAA women's basketball championship, and subordinated those achivements to approximately a dozen words said by one person once. Shame on you, Oprah. I thought you were all about achievement. So much for that.
2. What Nifong did, with willing accomplices on the left, in the media (oh, I repeat myself), and among the black leadership (oops, I repeated myself again), was reprehensible. He ruined the lives of three young men.
   
3. I'm waiting for the outcry from the media, demanding that the 87 Duke professors, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson apologize publicy to the three Duke students for what they said. The double standard is so evident I don't know how these people can live with themselves. The Duke professors should be fired, and Sharpton and Jackson should be sued for slander.
4. If you'll notice, the more legitimate "wrong" was done to the Duke students, not the Rutgers students. No lives were ruined, or names defamed in the Imus issue. The Duke students have to rebuild their lives. But...
5. The Duke students will pick up themselves by their bootstraps, build up from where they are, and deal with it. They will bear their scarlet letter. The Rutgers basketball team will make more radio and TV appearances and milk it for all its worth, yet they will bear no scars. That's my prediction. Why? Because that's how it is already playing out. Why change formulas that work?
   
6. The black leadership AND the Rutgers leadership should be ashamed of themselves for manipulating the Rutgers basketball team the way it has. The black leadership tried to do the same thing to Tiger Woods several years ago, but he refused to fall for it.
7. The Imus incident and the PBS incident set horrible precedent: they prove that small-group extortion works successfully to quell free speech. Just think, "we" let black leadership get away with this regularly, yet the worst they will do is try it again next time. We are setting precedent for groups like CAIR and others that represent extreme Islam to get away with it while physically imposing their will upon us as well.
   

We are a weak country. Neither party will fix it, because they both succumb to it. Only we, as the grass roots, can correct it.