Last
week I wrote a column about the craziness of a school
decision over in the state of Tennessee refusing to
acknowledge the accomplishments of honor roll students. I
thought this week I could get back to some more light
hearted subject that might be a little more humorous.
But, no….it wasn’t to be. Our family along with most of
the population of the world and probably some other aliens
on other planets were subjected to the antics of the half
time show at the Super Bowl. I started not to write on
this subject, as I know everyone is probably tired of
hearing others pontificate on the event over and over.
Allow me to just say this.
The times they are a’ changing.
In that old song…”In olden days a glimpse of stocking….was
looked on as something shocking…now anything goes….” Has
finally come to pass, hasn’t it? If I can read the
motivation behind the national outrage surrounding what I
will refer to as Breastgate, I see that we aren’t
necessarily mad at Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake as
much as we are at ourselves.
It’s sort of like that story of the frog being placed in
the pot of cold water and then the heat turned on, isn’t
it? At first he doesn’t feel anything, in fact it’s rather
pleasant, then it starts to get warmer and finally he
realizes it’s too late and dies. Boiled to death because
of his own complacency.
Not so different with our society is it? Look back at the
Beatles or Elvis; we thought the world was going to end
with their suggestive lyrics, and hip movements. Then we
relaxed when we saw that all of our kids or ourselves… in
the case of yours truly… weren’t going to turn into evil
devils overnight. Portable radios and stereos became the
rage. We felt liberated with the music of the day. No cuss
words, no profanity, no bad words of any sort, just songs
with alternative meanings to their phrases. That’s ok, let
it be.
Then little by little, we let the water heat up all around
us and then last Sunday we’re all surprised at just how
hot it had become, weren’t we?
Why were we surprised…when we allowed this to happen? Our
own apathy is to blame.
No, not me you say…
Yes, you did…we as a nation turned a blind eye to the
steady progression of the decline in our morality and
values as a people. We allow professional athletes to earn
more in a year than our teachers earn in a lifetime. We
worship at the feet of entertainers who espouse cruelty to
women or who glorify the use of drugs. In short we have
allowed this problem to grow into the nasty little Genie
that it has become. And now we are wondering how to put
the Genie back into the bottle.
If you go to the store and buy a dozen eggs that turn out
to be rotten, you don’t hesitate to take them back do you?
Yet, we sit in a room in our own houses each night and
mindlessly switch between hundreds of channels vainly
searching for something of value to watch with our
children.
There are folks watching everything that is on every
channel, that’s how the program stays around. If it lacks
viewers or listeners, it dies out on its own. Programming,
for the most part, isn’t about the art of
entertainment…it’s about the art of money.
Take away the money and guess what…the programming stops.
I don’t care who or what you produce, music, movies or
television, if it doesn’t sell it doesn’t stay.
Elvis had flops, the Beatles had flops, Paul Newman had
flops, you can name a hundred television shows that lasted
one or two episodes. Why? They didn’t produce any revenue
for the companies who generated them. It’s about the
money.
Ms. Jackson may have planned a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ or
she may not, who knows? Who cares? She admitted that she
was planning some sort of spectacular way to end her
performance and she certainly did, didn’t she?
But why did she think she could get away with her actions
and the ghastly performance she headlined? Because she
thought we would let her. She thought her actions would
bring more publicity and thus more revenue. She did not
stop to think that we as a people might just say…we’ve had
enough.
So, what’s the answer? Well, it’s simple. There are those
out there who feel that they had a right, no a mission to
impose their morality or their lack of it along with their
decadence upon all of us. We have the same right to refuse
to accept it. We’ve always had that right; we just don’t
choose to use it as often as others.
We can write letters…send e-mails and speak out against
the things we find offensive. The sponsors and producers
of entertainment do not; I repeat do not like criticism.
They want whatever they produce to be accepted and to have
a return on their sizeable investments.
When some little old seventy year old lady writes a letter
to the sponsor of some program she dislikes and states she
will no longer buy their products they may not take notice
at first. But when the letters and complaints start coming
in and sales drop off, then you will have their undivided
attention.
All of us have time to protest. All of us have an interest
in the future of this country, our kids and our
grandchildren. All of us have to say enough is enough.
I have…. what about you?.
