Wednesday Musings

[repost from Wednesday, April 11, 2007]

Good Morning All,

It doesn’t take very long, does it, to fill up the radio and television airways or the pages of the daily newspaper with a lot of stuff that barely passes, if at all, the test of being newsworthy…How many of us have been sitting at the edge of our seats waiting to here the DNA results of the paternity test for Anna Nicole Smith’s infant daughter…only having sat at that very edge only weeks earlier as a judge in his questionable courtroom antics, decided on where Anna Nicole would be buried; only to wait a few more weeks for the autopsy results as to how many drugs actually caused her demise…I can only pray for the emotional well-being of the baby…

And just when some of this so-called sensationalism begins to subside, along comes Don Imus, ranked a mere 14th among the shock-jocks of AM radio, in influencing the public …going way too far not only in this day and age, but way too far period; as he verbally assaulted the Rutgers’ Lady Scarlet Knights basketball team…It goes far beyond Dr. Phil’s, “What WERE you thinking?” question. Because in my humble opinion, Imus wasn’t thinking in the first place.

As a person who strives to be a faithful Christian, I cannot even begin to find the words that describe the sorrow and pain that I felt when I heard all this. Yet my feelings are not what are important. I can’t even begin to come close to what the young women and their coaching staff must have felt and are still feeling. The players are young people; a team of young women, 18-21 years of age, that gave it their all in the championship game, only to be on the receiving end of mockery and bigotry. And due to the revenue Imus and others like him, produce for the media, his wrist has been slapped with a 2 week absence…wonder if it’s with or without pay? But I digress…

I am sad and so very tired of people of influence in our culture crossing the limits by saying or doing whatever they please because they can. They will do whatever will get a rise out of somebody with no regard for the personhood, the dignity, the worth, the respect of another human being. Who does Imus think he is?

And then again, who do you think you are? Who do I think I am? Where do any of us get off thinking that we have the right to make fun of, to ridicule, to mock, and to judge anyone else in this life, especially at the expense of the feelings of another human being? Isn’t there something in the bible about judgment? Hmmmm…better get busy opening up my bible and meditating about how Jesus tells us not to judge others…maybe I need to spend some time with the many passages about how I’m called to love others…hmmmm…time’s a-wastin’…

But I tell you what…if you can’t take time right now to flip through the scriptures, or you don’t have ready access to your bible, how about meditating on this:
“God loves everybody! Get over it!” ( Jerry Barlow). Blessings, Joanne