Phil Robertson, Archie Bunker, and the Duck Legacy

"A&E Caves!"

That's my headline.  Do you know how I feel about this subject?  I bet you don't.

"I never said a guy who wears glasses is a queer...I said a guy who wears glasses is a four eyes.  A guy who's a fag is a queer."

Do you know who said that?  On January 12th, 1971, when I was eight years old, a show debut on CBS was being highly discussed.  The show was called, All In The Family.  That was forty-two years ago.  The show depicted a white working class veteran of "the big one", WW2.  He was easily the most openly bigoted character ever to grace the American television viewing audiences.  His name was Archie Bunker.

The stars of the show candidly said that they thought, given the topics and especially the tone of the dialogue, that the show would last weeks before it was taken off the air.  On April 8th, 1979, after nine seasons of Emmy Award winning television (41 wins and 71 nominations) and an unprecedented run as the #1 show on television, it ended it's decade long dominance of American television.

Was Archie Bunker a hero?  Maybe to some, definitely not to others.  So, how did that show, that used words like queers, fags, spics, spades, honkies, krauts, slanty-eys and lesbos ever survive the television censors and our cultural sensitivities for nine years?  I believe it was for two reasons.

First, it was because Archie Bunker was real.  Not a real person, but a real profile of a certain population of America.  Second, it's because although Archie was bigoted, the show, with it's flawless empathetical writing, was able to show two perspectives (Archie's and everyone else's) in a way that made you see the point, care about the characters, and laugh a little.  The show did NOT tell you what to think.  It did, however, provide a very good way to frame how you thought about a subject and decide for yourself.

Those days are long gone.  Today, we the people are not allowed to decide for ourselves.  It seems like everyone from civil rights groups to human advocacy groups to churches and to our own government is bent on telling us not TO THINK but HOW WE SHOULD THINK.  Instead of having a guy like Phil Robertson on the air and letting US decide, there are those that would rather we not hear any opposing opinions, no matter how biased a certain group might feel about it.  When Archie Bunker was on the air, we had the ability not to watch.  But, we only had three choices.  ABC, NBC, or off.  Today, if you don't agree with Phil, you have 800 other choices to include DVD, DVR, and the internet.  It's so easy to 'not watch' that it's ludicrous to think that a group needs to spend any amount of time or money trying to eliminate the whole perspective from being said at all.

That's what bothers me about the evolution of our society, about our news today and about the attitude that Americans are stupid.  If you stop asking Americans to THINK and if you continually tell them how to think, then they absolutely WILL be stupid.

I have spent the better part of my life getting and staying educated.  I have made my successes in business by making choices based on information.  If you make the wrong choice, you find out quickly.  So the best choices are made by using ALL of the information you can get your hands on.  The day someone restricts the information I am allowed to have, well, that immediately signals to me that someone has an agenda and at the top of their list is controlling me and my opinion and thoughts.  THAT IS WHAT BOTHERS ME ABOUT THIS DUCK DYNASTY ISSUE.

I have a lot of friends who are gay.  I have my own opinion on the subject.  My opinion has come from my experiences, my reading, my exposure to media, my church...all of them.  I have formed my opinion using everything I have heard, and then I thought about it, and then I made a decision.  And, should my experiences or information change, I may change my perspective.  During the nine year run of All In The Family, many people changed their opinions and positions.  Some hardened theirs.  But, if that show had been pulled from the air, topics that needed serious thought might not have been considered at all.  In the end, it was about trying to present all the information and trusting us to find the answer in our own minds and hearts.

I'm done with the control.  The manipulation.  The condescension that we, the people, are not smart enough to observe, think and decide what is good for us.  I just want to be free again to make my choices using information and news that hasn't been adulterated for someone else's agenda.

Phil Robertson?  He should be free to say what he wants.  If the people stop watching, the sponsors will pull their money.  If the people don't like something, they can watch something far more compelling and thought provoking...like the Kardashians or Fear Factor or 2 Broke Girls or...you get my point.  I know you do.  I, on the other hand, actually think you are smart.

Anthony Weiner: I am #weiner

Here it is, July 24th, and, still, this guy Anthony Weiner has not dropped out of the electoral race for Mayor of NYC.  He has to.  It's really simple.  He has to.

He doesn't have to quit because he's a liar.  Which he is.  He said he didn't sext his junk.  Then, he said his account was hacked.  Then, he said he did it.  When I was a kid going to catholic school, Sister Corinne told me that that was a lie.  I've been going by that my whole life, so I will stick to it.  It's not a skill that most of us, despite what we know about politics, actually want our leaders to have.  But that's not why he should quit.

He doesn't have to quit because he's stupid.  Which he is.  When you get painfully and publicly caught doing something wrong, and you're given a second chance, and then you do it again...you're stupid.  It's not a hard and fast rule, but it's pretty basic.  Pavlov's dogs learned that one...so do most children when they are being taught discipline.  So, if you are an adult, and you can't master something fourth graders and dogs can do, you pretty much are too stupid to be the Mayor of New York City.  But that's not why he should quit.

He doesn't have to quit because he lacks character, or because he's kind of sleazy, or simply because he would bring shame on the City of New York.  All of which is probably true.  But, there is only ONE REASON that he seriously has to quit.

#weiner

Or, if he needs it translated to english, "hashtag weiner." 

Plug it into Twitter, Facebook, Google...it doesn't matter.  Pick a social site or search engine, add '#weiner', and click enter.  See what comes up.  If you are his Public Relations spokesman (or, God help you, his spokesWOMAN), and if you have any sense at all there is only one thing you can tell your client, and I will help you with it.

Here is what I would tell him. 

"Dude...YOU are #weiner.  #weiner is now a massive punchline.  When this is how you are perceived by the world as well as your general electorate, you have to quit.  You are NOT winning.  It's done.  You are a public relations worst nightmare."

"You can't ignore it.  It's like Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Werner Von Braun got together and formed the theory, built an atomic bomb with your name on it, and built a rocket to deliver it directly to your campaign.  But instead of seeing that whole situation for what it is, you are looking at them and pretending to see the Three Stooges.  You are closing your eyes to the reality that your campaign is ground zero pal, thanks to you."

"Hey, I empathize.  My parents called me Dick.  But I went in the other direction, I tried to work around it.  Not you.  Your name is Weiner and you get caught sexting your junk.  You have effectively turned yourself into a porn star...and that's not easy to do when you don't actually work in the industry.  But, that's how you are seen by people."

"No one is coming to your rescue.  If Joey Chestnut won another hot dog eating championship between now and November, you might have a shot at jettisoning #weiner.  But, as of this writing, there is no way out.  You own it.  It's you."

"The only respectable and responsible thing you can do is quit and let someone else in your party, with a decent shot, run.  But, I have this feeling that your sociopathic tendencies will not allow any semblance of a conscience to creep in and do the right thing.

"You did manage to do a few things successfully.  You wasted a lot of people's donated money, you humiliated your wife in public, and you created a social media frenzy around a social media standard."

"#weiner"

"Congratulations.  You dope."

The Blizzard of '78 Will Never Happen Again

As I (we) dig out from the Blizzard of 2013, aka "Nemo," I can't help but think back to the Blizzard of '78.  Thirty-five years ago, today.  I turned 16 during the Blizzard...and I turn 51 tomorrow.  It feels like a short time, but things are so different.  The one thing I do know, even with the amount of snow we got yesterday and last night, is that the Blizzard of '78 will never happen again.

That Blizzard, for as much as we think about the snow, wasn't about the snow.  It makes for cool pictures.  It's the basis for all the stories.  But it wasn't really about the snow.

It was about getting caught while we weren't looking.  All of us.  We were blindsided.  No multi-million dollar weather tracking, no internet, no satellites...just one big surprise.  We were in it together.

It was a time when we had a lot less, so we complained less and helped each other more.  We could have complained a lot.  But who would've listened?  And how?  If it were today, the noise would be deafening.  But there was no illusion then that anyone was listening.  We relied on each other.  We took care of each other.  We stayed in places we never would have ever thought we would...we stayed wherever we could, and we welcomed each other.

It was about the world stopping for a week.  That's why we laugh when we hear, "Bread and Milk!"  It's because delivery wasn't what it is today.  When the trucks couldn't get through, we went without.  A lot less was stored, so there was less at the store when the trucks could actually get there.  We had to share to make it work.  And we shared.

It was about getting to know neighbors that you had no time typically to get to know.  It was about grabbing a shovel and pitching in.  It was about getting out and giving a hand.  It didn't matter to whom.  How many trips to the store were made?  How many times did the sled get pulled to the store and back.  And we walked.  Together.

It was about, in my neighborhood, all banding together to look for an old man who had gone out in the middle of the storm and had never come home.  It was about 15 to 20 kids walking that neighborhood with broomsticks and poles held upside down and poking every snowbank.  It was about the fourteen year old girl whose broomstick came up about eight inches short.  And the tears and the panicked look.  She couldn't text her friends, or post her thoughts online.  It was about how we all talked her through it as we walked her home.

It wasn't the same as today.  It won't ever really be duplicated.

We romanticize the Blizzard not for the snow, but for the stories that we all treasure.  And we all have them.  Because it was a difficult time that brought out the best in us.  How do I know?  Because there's a lot of snow out there right now.  I have close to four and five foot drifts in my yard...and it's not the same.  It's not the snow.

It was community.  I don't know what it will take to replicate that again, but it won't be something we can forecast.  It will be something we don't see coming.

I think I can wait on that one.

Happy Shoveling!!