The world has lost it’s mind. It is clear especially in our little neck of the world, the good ol’US of A. Everyone is whiny and petty, like a giant group of 5 year olds. Tit for tat.

Ahhhh shat up!!!

Whatever happened to this country? We used to be full of characters, of people with flaws but with the capacity for greatness.

It has all been sterilized, bleached. Like some kind of bad big brother movie where everyone is shaped to think and act just like everyone else. All of us driven by some fascist machine.

Political correctness is the author of this crazed society, forcing us to all point fingers at anyone who is different. And the whining goes on and on and on…and on…

He said this, she said that. He’s a racist. She’s a liberal. He’s gay. She drives an SUV. He eats red meat. I don’t like you! Shock! Gasp! The horror!

How did we devolve into a bunch of whiny, snotty, spoiled 5 year olds? Because we chased the grown ups out a long time ago and barred the door closed. These children had children and so it went.

Don Imus is simply an illustration of this. His comments were mean-spirited, racist, and just down right deplorable. Yet, I never heard them – because I don’t listen to his show. Or watch him on TV. Why? Because I would rather have my eyes removed and replaced with Tabasco sauce.

In other words, Imus is a bore, and predictable. Kind of like his fellow shock jock Howard Stern. You can bank on both of them making the same comments over and over. In fact, that is why their fans tune in – to hear the same kinds of comments so they can laugh and share in the fun. Kind of like a bunch of high school kids drinking their first beer.

The point is, I don’t support Imus’ comments that the Rutgers women’s basketball team is a bunch of “nappy-headed ho’s”. But I do support his right to say it.

You have all these wanna-be do-gooders all over the place calling for him to be fired. Why? He has been doing this for years! For decades! So, why now is this all of a suddenly a big deal?

The other point is hypocrisy. We can blast rap music on the radio that has the same basic message, that is demeaning to women, yet when an old, Freddy Krueger look-a-like white guys says it, we are screaming for a civil rights movement?

Pardon me but, you trippin’?

And now Imus the Blowhard is going to get suspended for 2 weeks. Big deal! Some decry this as a social step as progress, many more cite it isn’t severe enough. Well, you’re all wrong and a bunch of hypocrites!

Why is it ok for one person to make Imus’ comments but when he does it, it isn’t? For example, let’s say Chris Rock made those comments. Nothing, crickets. Or, what about a fellow female basketball player on the other team talking trash to the Rutgers team? No harm, no foul.

But Imus on the radio?

Glen Beck said it best, and this guy is quickly becoming a hero of mine. He said that Imus’ comments were horrible at the least, but he supports Imus’ right to say them. He also likened Imus to a bitter, miserable old man that has nothing but hateful and mean things to say – but that he has been equal in spewing his venom towards everyone. In fact, this is nothing new for Imus – so why is this a big deal now?

The other side of things is economics. Beck said first and foremost, he is a capitalist. He believes the market will dictate what is acceptable and what is not. In other words, if you don’t like Imus or support his comments or his brand of “humor” then don’t listen and let it hurt him in the pocketbook. That will get him off the air and force corporations to make more responsible choices of what talent they back, so that they can maximize their revenue.

Otherwise, we are forced to deal with the Sanjaya’s of the world, mediocre talents that evoke little else than a car wreck. And everyone apparently loves a car wreck, huh?

Yet there is also the apparent hypocrisy and censorship. We let some people get away with these comments by supporting this false notion of “context”. As if there is a proper place for hatred, sexism and bigotry. It is very simple, either you support someone’s right to say what they think and believe or you don’t.

Some will say that is an absolute, that is too black and white. Well, it is that simple. Either you censor everyone who has anything racist, sexist or negative to say or you don’t – in which case you support certain individuals who do say such things by not censoring them. In other words, you are already casting your vote for who stays on the island and who goes. In other words, yes it is black and white and there is no other way about it.

Otherwise, it is hypocritical to cite one person as racist and let another’s comments slide because they somehow have the right to be a bigot or they have earned their right via some kind of social capital to say and support something racist.

No.

And this is crucial, because in our ideology, in our hopes to make a better society we become misguided. We think we should direct and control everyone’s thoughts to be exactly the same. What we fail to recognize is that only in our differences do we truly begin to see what is good and what is true. Through contrast we can recognize our own faults and we can offer ourselves a chance to heal and to grow.

After all, if white America of the 1950’s stifled the minority point of view, there would have been no growth. And consequently, the attempts at silencing that view were overcame and growth resulted. It may not have been as swift or as quick or as widespread as the enlightened few would have had it, but spread it did nevertheless.

Personally, I want all the racists, bigots, hate-mongers and extremists easily identified. I want their hate as identifiable as a bright yellow star stitched to their clothes. I want it to shine so that we can all lay witness to the venom and so that we know who in our society is lagging behind. This way, they are easy to identify and easy to guard against and protect one another from.

So Imus, grab that microphone and go on unimpeded with your hateful humor. Let it rip. Because I support your right to freedom of speech just as I support the right for individuals to burn the American flag, to call me “cracker” or to denounce my country as an evil infidel right within the very boundaries of my country.

For the second I deny anyone that right, is the second I stifle another human’s right to express their views and ideas.

Silencing the ideas does not mean they are defeated. It means they go dormant and hide until the right time to show themselves. Glen Beck, amazingly, also understands this, too – to silence someone is to do so out of fear. To shape a society with fear is not to grow and progress, but to harbor those views deeply and silently until they find the right time and medium to express them.

After all, isn’t that what we are up against at this very time as a country? As a civilization? Isn’t that the new challenge for the human race? To recognize our differences yet still maintain enough love and respect for one another to allow those differences to flourish?

Silencing Imus is the easy way out. It solves nothing and forces us to blindly believe we are progressing as a society. Of all the people weighing in on this issue, Glen Beck, another radio personality, broadcaster and peer of Don Imus, understands this most of all not because he agrees with Imus, but because he has a belief system that is non negotiable.

In other words, he knows where he stands. If you do, you would simply turn the channel, or turn the knob on your radio. As simple as that, society progresses.