"You're Special...." that's a really nice phrase that you can tell someone. But saying it with a different tone of voice, and it could be considered offensive. What if you said it with a condescending tone of voice to someone in a wheelchair?
If you read this blog, or know me in person you can probably guess that Barak Obama was not my first choice for President. No, it had nothing to do with him being a black man, it had to do with with fact that I believe he is a Socialist at heart. The majority of voters in this country felt he should be our President. He is my President and I hope that he is successful and I support him as such.
I can't imagine what it must be like to go from an ordinary citizen to being the leader of the free world. I imagine that the campaign puts a candidate in the spotlight enough to where they can begin to see the scrutiny that you will be put under if you win, but I don't know if anything can prepare you for the fact that there are hundreds of special interest groups out there watching every word you say to find something to be offended about.
Does anyone remember James Watt? He was the Secretary of the Interior under the Raegan administration. He was most famous for not allowing the Beach Boys to play at a Fourth of July event because of the 'undesirables' that they would attract. However, as I remember it, he had a terrible case of foot in mouth syndrome. I remember some flack about him referring to someone as a cripple. I did a little bit of research and found that in fact, his tenure as the Secretary of the Interior ended because of a sentence he uttered while telling about his administration:
"I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent."
This statement ended his career.
There are some people in this world that are simply looking for reasons to get their feelings hurt. I'm sure if the President mentioned that he had a steak before he went bowling, that PETA would be all up in arms. When I first saw the clip from the Tonight Show, I totally missed the reference to the Special Olympics, only after they pointed out what the flap was over did I even hear it.
Without a doubt, I can promise you that Barak Obama was making fun of himself and not disabled children. Would everyone please lighten up?
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2 comments:
I think most of this stems from the phrase, "I'm special."
When you and I grew up, children were meant to be seen and not heard - at least that was my Dad's philosophy. I was cool with that, for the most part, because I knew my time would come.
Not so much with today's batch. In my opnion, at least, kids from the last generation have had the "You're special." idiom pounded into their heads at every turn, from school, to all the Disney garbage, soulless shows on TV. And woe betides the harbinger of anything that indicates "You are what you are, and that may not be special." It is shot down diligently. Are we all really that afraid of returning to some sordid part of our past that we can't joke with each other any more?
Diversity: Where we celebrate everyone's differences by making sure there are none...
I'm a neanderthal. There, I said it.
While my parents have more than their fair share of bigotry for races, creeds and sexual persuasions of various sorts, for a time I thought I was above it all.
However, lately I have slipped back into the primordial social ooze where people were appreciated and judged by their highly personal differences.
>SOAPBOX="ON"<
I am a big fan of people saying what they mean instead of lying to your face. I will also say that I am a recovering liar myself. I can say categorically, the lie has a cherished place in human interaction, but it has become so overused through the political correctness, self-esteem movement, that we now have to "qualify" lying as being either a white lie (or presumably a black lie). This has my shorts a bit twisted up. Can't we all just get along? Why must our lies become segregated? Isn't it enough in today's politically correct world that we are urged to tell our children they're great even when we KNOW they sucked? Do we have to tell our significant others they are pure truth and beauty even when, on occasion they fall significantly short of the mark? In a dialogue, who is in a better position after a white lie? NEITHER! One thinks the other feels differently than they do, and the other has lied, knows it and must now seek atonement.
>SOAPBOX="OFF"<
So I agree, keep the distruths on the downlow and try to fight PC'ness every chance you get. We will all achieve specialness based on our own merits along with honesty at the same time.
Now what do I have to say to get a job here? Just kidding...
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