Too Easy

Shooting fish in a barrel. That's the expression for taking a shot at something that you just can't miss, so I almost feel guilty taking my shots with this blog. But, I just need to say something about something.

Coach Pitino. You probably know the story. Six years ago he had sex with a stranger in a bar, got her pregnant and paid for an abortion. The public would never have known except she decided to try to extort money from him. This is stupid on so many levels, I won't say more about it specifically. Let's move on to the next item.

Last week the West Memphis police saw two men standing in the middle of the street, apparently drinking. When the cop rolled up, one of the men ditched what he had into a bush and did the rabbit trick. The cop pursued and caught him. No big deal so far. But the man's mother happens to roll up on the scene and, since the cop is white and the perp is not, she begins to curse calling him a "white m.....f.....," among other things and then says, "Do you know who I am? I'm a former West Memphis Council Member." Well we're allowed to say stupid things at moments such as those, I guess. But as the cop reaches into her car, since apparently she won't step out, she drives off with him hanging on. He quickly let go and wasn't serious hurt. She, however got charged.

Now the thing is, had her son done nothing, the cop would probably have told him to get out of the street and take his drinking inside. End of episode. But noooooo.

I could add to this list several more very public figures who have done similar stupid things recently and had the light of the media shined in their faces. You know who they are. And what are we doing? Shaking our heads and thinking how stupid they are. But they are more than stupid. In each case there is a moral and/or ethic issue that should outrage us and would have outraged our grandparents, maybe even our parents.

Awakening way too early the other day, I entertained myself with TV. There's not much on at that time, so I ended up watching a couple of episodes of "Cheaters." It's a show in which an investigator is hired by a spouse or significant other to check on the fidelity of his or her partner. Of course they are caught being unfaithful. And you know what? They don't care. There is no remorse, no apparent guilt, no repentance, no asking for forgiveness. Instead, they show outrage at being followed and/or blame their partner for their infidelity.

I could go on, but the bottom line for this blog is this: "What in God's name has happened to our standard of morality in this country?" We freak out when we hear some Muslim woman being whipped because she showed her legs or talked to the wrong man. And we should. But where's our outrage at the stuff going on right here that's far worse?

This is what I've been thinking about the last couple of days. Any thoughts?

Peace,

Jerry+