Being Serious For A Moment

The First Amendment of the Constitution reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

First off, let me just say that I am not a fan of Don Imus. In fact, I think he's an asshole, and the worst kind of on-air personality. I do not think that what he said was right. But Don Imus should not have been fired. I do not believe that the backlash he received was necessarily for what he said but what others have said.


If you haven't heard by now about a week ago on-air personality Don Imus, when referring to the players on the womens basketball team from Rutgers who finished in 2nd place in their sport, as "nappy headed hos". This was followed by outrage all over the spectrum. At first he was suppost to be punished by a 2 week suspension from his radio show and the television broadcast of his show. Then, because of pressure from numerous political groups, the sponsors of his show pulled out and Imus was promptly fired.

As I stated earlier I think he shouldn't have been fired. First, this raises freedom of speech issues. I can't remember who said it but the quote, "I do not agree with what you say, kind sir, but I will fight to the death your right to say it." Because once you kick someone off of the air for saying something that you don't like it starts a slippery slope. It raises the question of, who's next? or to what end? I don't like Rush Limbaugh so can I get some of my liberal friends together to protest and get him kicked off? Can people who voted for Bush get Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart kicked off? Sean Hannity?

I've always been a proponent for speech rights. People have always complained about something on TV or radio that has angered them. The thing I always say to people like that is to simply change the channel. You don't like Imus' brand of entertainment? Fine, don't listen to it. It's that easy. Would it make me mad if I heard someone on the radio talk about white people like that? Maybe, but then I would just conceed that this person is a dimwit and doesn't know what they're talking about and I wouldn't go to that person for anything much less their opinion on anything.

I can't stand attention hogs like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. Wherever there is a news camera they will surely be there. Who crowned these jokers the representatives of an entire race? From what they were saying about the Duke LAX players to even claiming that the power companies in St. Louis are racist because when tornadoes knocked out the city's power for a good 1-2 weeks black neighborhoods didn't get their power back first. As soon as another issue rises up they will move on to the next one, uneffected by what they just did.

One of the things that has been revealed to me is that Don Imus wasn't necessarily punished for what he said, but that he is merely a casualty in Al Sharpton's/Jesse Jackson's/Bill O'Reilly's/Oprah's War on Rap Music. I hate to sound like a broken record but if you don't like rap music don't listen to it! It just seems stupid to me that you would worry about something that you don't have to put up with and can easily avoid. I can't stand most punk rock (only exception being the Clash 1968-72) but I have no problem avoiding all the "The -" bands out there.

So, people, if someone says something in the media that you don't like, don't worry about it, because there's nothing really to worry about, but there's lots of things to think about.

Lak