If only.
After a 2 year hiatus I'm back on speaking terms with my mom. And by speaking I mean she'll acknowledge I exist when I see her, we can speak about "safe" subjects, she texts me goodnight sometimes, and she forwards me radical pro-American, pro-Christian e-mails. Honestly though, this last part I could do without.
The most recent forwarded e-mail (originating in 2006) was titled "Politically Correct" and included a link to a Snopes.com article. The e-mail applauded Michigan State University's administration for not reprimanding a tenured mechanical engineering professor for an e-mail in which he suggested all Muslim students leave America if they're not fans of Western ideals. The forwarded e-mail says MSU supports the outspoken professor and asks everyone to forward the e-mail to everyone on their contact list so the whole country gets it. Highlighted, it says:
"We are in a war. This political correctness crap is getting old and killing us."
So I clicked on the link to Snopes, and found things were not quite what the forwarded e-mail said. The university could not legally publicly reprimand the professor but they did privately warn him of further comment and MSU did not agree with the professor's statements. Further, the professor was quite embarrassed that his e-mail went public and stated that he wrote the e-mail in haste believing the e-mail address he sent it to was that of one particular (probably very annoying) person. Instead, that e-mail was inadvertently sent to the whole Muslim Student Association. The professor quickly and publicly regretted the e-mail.
The whole fiasco started because the Muslim students protested the Danish cartoon of Muhammad as a terrorist. Thanks to freedom of religion they have the right to protest a cartoon that depicts their most revered prophet as a terrorist. What if the cartoon depicted Jesus as a terrorist? Does anyone think Christians would have been cool with it because "it's just a cartoon," like they said about the Muhammad cartoon? I highly doubt it.
If one cares to consider the history of Christianity, one might not be so quick to point out the flaws or violence in other religions. For thousands of years Christian and Catholic leaders have persecuted, murdered and banished people of all other faiths. The Crusades are considered a dark spot in Catholic history, but the widespread molestation of altar boys by celibate Catholic priests is a current dark spot. Christian leaders persecuted and banished their own people for centuries, condemning them to eternity in hell because they could not afford to literally buy salvation. Even today Christians preach peace and acceptance and love on Sundays, but for the rest of the week they pass judgement and ignore those in need.
No one is perfect. It's time to stop pretending.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI wrote a blog comment about a month or so ago, and since you invited continued perusable, I have done so. At the time, you indicated that, as an aspiring journalist, you gravitated towards a fair and balanced approach (although not in the mold of Fox, one hopes), and, perhaps, here in lies your dilemma. Your title tag line proudly proclaims a penchant for pernicious prose (here is an alliterative gift for you), but there is a real disconnect between snark and sarcasm on the one hand, and journalistic integrity on the other.
May I be so bold as to offer a solution? Write two blogs. The first one being your current approach which is close to that of a columnist – it has a viewpoint, but it also includes information and background that both supports your position and allows room for opposition. Your other blog, would follow what I have a hunch, is in your heart and spirit. Since you mention sarcasm twice in your tag line once in your bio (two if you count the Irish/Italian DNA) in addition to being a self-proclaimed Snarkaholic, it feels very much to me, a total outsider, that your two sides are in a bit of a conflict.
I write a blog about accessing creativity, and I also have many thoughts about how you could go about this (anonymously if you are afraid of affecting a future journalism career). If you are interested in establishing a dialogue, drop me a line (e-mail is on my blog). If not, that’s fine, and I’ll continue to be a slightly provocative thorn in your side – every writer needs to be irritated. Don’t forget, all pearls come from one very annoying grain of sand.
Good luck, Bob
Oh, by the way, you might want to send your mother this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw
Or maybe not
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteI had to look up the word perusable... I don't think it was used correctly but the root was, because you certainly are reading with an eyeglass. No, I certainly do not gravitate towards Fox News, though it would please my dad (I'm already too much a liberal for having gone to college), and to be honest I'm not sure where I gravitate, if I'm gravitating.
And if I'm being honest, I may as well say my blog title is not the first I could come up with, but not the best, either (as I've had pointed out to me on several occasions) because it's not accurate. Thank you for your suggestion: I actually thought of that a while ago, but now that I have a paying job (hallelujia!) it's hard enough to keep up one blog, much less two. I'm terrible at naming things, and since I do love sarcasm and love the word snark I picked my title. Unfortunately for accuracy, I'm much more snarky when speaking than I am while writing. I'm also scatterbrained and think of a million things while writing, so my "journalistic integrity" as you so kindly call it is not so much me training myself for journalism school as me playing devil's advocate with myself and trying to cover information that exponentially increases as I write. My mind is a very busy place and I'm trying to find a balance between saying what I want to say and not saying too much that people give up reading.
So I've come up with the idea to let my readers rename my blog for me. I want to do this before I buy a website for my blog and the name sticks, so I'm giving you the heads up before I make the contest official. Don't ask what you win. I may say an iFeast.
I do appreciate your comments, Bob. You're pretty eloquent yourself and seem to have a cool sense of humor. Thanks for the video; I don't have sound on my laptop, but watched it anyway and I can't wait to hear what she says! I'll decide after I hear it to send it to my mom or not. Oh... poking the badger is never a good idea.