Classless

You truly didn't think that I was going to let this pass me by, now did you? Even if I am late in finishing the post.

Classless; class; ass--go figure. The week/month was full of them from those who feared that 44 would brainwash their children to the uncouth behavior of Rep. Joe Wilson, Kanye West, Serena Williams, Federer, the NBA idiot caught with mega guns, and more. I NEVER! Must have been a full moon.

Let me be clear. Today's children need all the help that they can get. If the president of the U.S., one who exemplifies the American credo of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, etc., and one who did not have the proverbial spoon in the mouth or well-connected family, has a message to give, let him give it. Maybe he'll succeed in motivating the rug rats in ways in which we have obviously failed to do. Not once in my lifetime have people decried, in the manner in which this was done, any president's address to children or use of them for a political statement. My first trip to the White House was during LBJ's term. Lady Bird was having something or other and needed the young interns, summer workers, whatever as a part of the audience. Don't ask me what the message was--I only remember that she had the prettiest skin/complexion that I'd ever seen. Flawless. I won't waste your time with a litany of others who have used/addressed the youth; just flip through the history books and look at the photos. Did they brainwash anybody? I guess so. Bill Clinton met Jack Kennedy and look at what he accomplished. Okay, two philanderers but you get the point. People, pulleeze.

Then Joe Wilson forgot that he was in the U.S. Capitol and not in Britain's Parliament, where rude and obnoxious behavior is an accepted fact, or did he? Would he have done that if the prez's skin were a different hue? Did this "meek, mild-mannered man," as his friends call him, think that he could get away with it by blending into the chorus of boos from the Republican side? You've got to stay with the beat, Joe, can't be late or you are exposed, as any dancer/musician can tell you. Or maybe Saturday Night Live, or whatever its name is, had it right. There was a plan to boo as one and then the plans changed and he didn't get the word. Not racist, you say? Revisit his remarks upon learning about Strom Thurmond's Black daughter, a fact that every Black South Carolinian was aware but spoke of in hushed terms. I remember my mother telling me about it when I was young--too young really to know what it meant. How I wish that I'd listened more closely.

Serena, Serena, Serena. Kanye, Kanye, Kanye. Listen, chil'ren, having more money than you could ever dream of DOES NOT excuse boorish, crude, rude behavior--anywhere! At no time! The money opens doors to worlds of which you could only dream but bad, inexcusable behavior shuts them very quickly. Nobody gives a damn about how intensely you play the game--you are NOT John McEnroe. Nobody gives a damn about whether you think someone else had "the best video of all time." The vote was in and whether you agreed or not is immaterial. Learn how to act in polite company, please, and leave the ghetto behavior at home.

Class? 44--hands down. Don't you just know that he wanted to leap from that podium and deliver a major case of whoop ass? Jimmy Carter. Why are they treating him like a pariah for speaking the truth? One cable host noted that he was a major segregationist in his early days. Doesn't that make him even more able to recognize racism when he sees it? Further, he didn't say that all of the outcry was based in racism, he said that a great portion was. Thank you, Mr. Carter, for saying what a lot of us were thinking. Beyonce for giving Taylor her moment....

Asses? Where are the mentors for my young men making big bucks? Why isn't someone telling them to leave the thugishness behind when they reach that level? Do they read? Do they listen? Hello--folks are going to jail for shooting their own fool selves, beating on women, backing dog fights, etc., and these young brothers keep repeating the pattern. Idiot--caught in a car with a shotgun, handguns, and one strapped to your ankle. If you've got that much firepower, you need to be in Iraq or Afghanistan. They could use you over there. And the NFL player with the scag who claimed that he beat her up. Pulleeze. Smelling the money. And Floyd Mayweather, making big bucks and having to pay the IRS $6 million in back taxes. Have you lost your mind?

I'm bringing it to a close. The world has not gone crazy. It's the people in it. Be blessed.