Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 2 September 2010 — Page 2
Page 2 • The Muncie Times • September 2, 2010
EDITORIAL
Goodbye Laura Schlessinger, you will not be missed; maybe Beck will follow
First, the good news: After the outcry over her repeated and insensitive use of the "N"-word, controversial Laura Schlessinger, who likes to call herself "Dr. Laura," is giving up her radio show at the end of the year. When a black woman called Schlessinger's radio show to complain that her white husband remained passive when his family and his friends made racially insensitive slurs against her, Schlessinger jumped on the woman. Schlessinger whined and ranted about why it was OK for blacks to apply the "N"-word to each other, but it was wrong for non-
blacks to use the same derogatory term. In a 5-minute conversation, Schlessinger senselessly repeated the "N"word 11 times and also told the caller that if she was so hypersensitive on race matters, maybe she should not have married outside her race. After a firestorm of criticism, spearheaded by the National Urban League which called for her ouster from the radio show, a somewhat surly Schlessinger apologized and then said she would leave the show so she could feel free to more freely exercise her First Amendment rights, what-
ever that means. We hope it does not mean she wants to continue ranting about the despicable "N"-word. To those, black and nonblack, who were offended by Schlessinger's sometimes uncontrollable mouth, we hope there is gratification that she has lost her platform for making insensitive remarks. We hope it will be a reminder to others who may be similarly inclined, to stop and think about the consequences, before using such racially inflammatory words. Moving on to other matters, this past weekend Washington, D.Unwitnessed two dueling Aug.
28 rallies on the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I have a Dream" speech. One rally, featured conservative radio TV commentator Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin as speakers. Neither would ever be accused, in a month of Sundays, of supporting the Civil Rights Moments. Yet there was the surrealistic spectacle of Beck and Palin choosing and booking the same site as Dr. King for their political theater of the absurd. A smaller rally started at a Washington, D.C., high school before participants marched to the site of the future Dr. King Monument. It featured a number of speakers, including the Rev. A1 Sharpton, one of Dr. King's sons and the two major Washington, D.C., mayoral candidates. Its theme was "Reclaiming the (Dr. King) Dream." Beck and his crowd cynically chose the date and site to pretend they support the dream espoused by Dr. King of a better and more United States of America. That is a forlorn hope from Beck and Palin who sounded as if they want a theocratic USA, as if only they know what God wants for the country. Below the surface of their public comments lies latent racism that refuses to accept the coming multiracial, multicultural and multiethnic USA. They year for an earlier time when racism was blatant.
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At no time have you ever heard Beck, Palin and others of their ilk condemn racism or laud diversity and the fact that diversity and inclusiveness are good for the country. For some of them, such as the tea partiers, their yearning for smaller government seems to be a thinly veiled attempt to have a government that would ignore racism, racial discrimination and where the strong and powerful would be free to lord it over and discriminate against the less powerful members of society. The Sharpton crowd, on the other hand, was more interested in fulfilling Dr. King's Dream of a colorblind society where people would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. They are still striving for that America where all America's children would be treated as equals, where Beck would be ashamed, if that's possible, of lying by calling President Obama a person with a "deep-seated hatred" of white people or deliberately lying that the president was not bom in the United States or ignoring the abundant evidence that that he is a Christian and not a Muslim. The two weekend rallies illustrated the good, the bad and the ugly in America— the America that wants inclusiveness and the one that wants to keep the races and classes permanently separated.