It seems the attention given is to those who shout hate louder than others, those who can lie louder than others, and those who demonstrate discord and disdain and delight in the denial of rights and freedoms. Somehow venom, vile and vitriolic are the attractive traits in showcasing the skill set and standards of those upon whom we are to rely.
From the potential candidates interested in the office of President on the Republican/Bagger ticket, to the false prophets who say they speak for some kind of God who created some in his image and others were made by the Devil, to the new kids on the block promoted on such culturally rich channels as MTV, VH1, TLC and Bravo we suddenly are told to be awe inspired, attuned, and enriched by luminaries whose luster shines like a green ring on cheap piece of jewelry.
When Trump trumpets all other potential candidates with racist, bigoted innuendo, when Beck can beckon bastions of brainless people to read the Bible his way with his definitions, when Snooki earns thousands of dollars for nothing more than lewdness, drunkenness and disrespect for anyone but her, it makes me wonder how and why. When cartoon characters with little moral, ethic or conscience no longer just appear on Saturday mornings, and are viewed anytime any where on our 24/7 cable world, and a majority of people think they are real, I worry. And most importantly, I become confused why?
In my 61 years of life I have witnessed cultural icons who were the talk of the town, who heralded headlines, who had their 15 minutes of infamy, yet America at the time seemed to be smart enough to know bogus from bravery, histrionics from honest, and fact from fiction. Americans were willing to find the core of concern and delete the bias and bigotry from any BS shouted and instead of lingering on every word of inaccuracy laughed them off.
As woman in 2011, I have to now listen as others tell me the right way to treat my body, my reproductive rights, as a LGBT I have to listen to others tell me how I can't marry, can't raise kids, can't fall in love, as a middle class person I have to listen to others telling me I am greedy, I want more than I deserve, I am lazy, as a non-Evangleical Christian I have to listen to others explain that THE true God does not care for me, that the Constitution included the phrase that this a Christian nation, as a person with disabilities I have to listen to others yelling at me to find another entrance, it's okay to be excluded, and as senior citizen I have to listen to others who say, yeah, yeah, yeah so you paid into a system promised to keep you alive, but too bad now!
And when I look to find my role models, my hero's I first have to sift through thrice married men who cheat on the wives, unwed teens who glamorize having babies, wealthy entertainers, who make millions of dollars while screaming that the working class receive too much, politicians who do as I say but never as I do, and people so eager to find the differences between all of us rather than spend a single minute on trying to pursue what makes us the same.
At 61, I have never felt like someone in the beginning of the autumn years of my life ready to settle in, settle down, I have never pooh-poohed what is cool, what is new, what is hip, and have embraced concepts that seem foreign to me but might have purpose and practicality. But somehow, I can't understand why the crop of men and women who earn top billing, headlines and flash points on the news seems to do so for the negative and never the positive?
Is it just me?
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