Let's Git Riled Up!

I think people like getting all worked up. I think even we peace-lovin', tree-huggin', make-love-not-war types like getting up on our high horses and tossing a few words of indignation around. If you're not sure about this, take a look next time you're out driving or--heaven forbid--shopping at Wal-Mart. People get pissy. People will actually set up situations to fuel their pissy selves. Like speeding up when the guy in the lane next to you wants to edge in (guilty). Or giving the evil eye to the person who clearly has more than 10 items in their cart when they wheel into the express lane (guilty again). We could overlook these things. We could rise above them. But we don't really want to. We want to be right, and better than everyone else. And we want to talk about it.

Case in point: Don Imus. The man's a boob, of course, but he's paid to be a boob and he does it well. To paraphrase him, "My job is to say things that are funny." (He then acknowledged that referring to the Rutgers women's basketball team as a bunch of "nappy-headed ho's" maybe wasn't so funny, but still. His job is to be like that.) Personally, I'm not surprised that the man said what he did; little as I know about him, I do believe he's referred to as a shock jock, and, um, isn't that what he's paid to do? Shock? No, what I'm surprised at is the inordinate amount of media attention that's being devoted to this. People are crazy mad, Al Sharpton's in a fever, and the cries for Imus' resignation are growing louder and more insistent. It's water cooler fodder, that's for sure, and we like talking about it. Indignantly.

We all know bigotry and idiocy exist. Sometimes we engage in it ourselves, hopefully thoughtlessly, but sometimes just because we're just foolishly insensitive. Once I made fun of a lady's hairstyle, thinking in my stupidity that she couldn't see my wild gesticulations indicating how very tall and big her hair was, even though she was sitting 15 feet away. She called my ass on it, and I deserved that. And maybe Don Imus deserves to be called on his bad self, too, because I do believe that as a society we sometimes need to provide a little guidance as to the limits on our behavior. Some things do cross a line. But...do we have to hear about it at every newscast? Can't the interested parties just work it out between themselves? Do we all have to be so involved?? The most astute thing that I've heard anyone say so far was from one of the basketball players, who pointed out to a reporter that the real story should be about how damn good their basketball team was.

I think she had a point.