Not a particularly enlightened, or enlightening, time we're living in these days.
Pressed to offer at least one upside, though, I'd give you, in a spirit of half filling the glass, this.
We do seem to be making progress, alphabet wise.
Salisbury, Md. City Councilwoman April Jackson took to Facebook Thursday night and posted a controversial comment.
Jackson's comment read: "Ya'lls President is RETARDED... He's far pass the Holly Center."
"I just used the Holly Center as a place I know where people have mental illness. I stand by what I said about (President Trump)..." Jackson said. "Maybe I was wrong for using the Holly Center to say something about (President Trump), but I stand by what I said about him."
Salisbury Mayor Jake Day said this comment was out of character for Jackson.
"Having spent time with them, I know that the patients and providers of the Holly Center are incredible, valuable and loved," he said. "This statement, while insensitive and careless and indicative of the pitfalls of social media, is not indicative of the heart or values of the April Jackson I know."
Sandy Miller of Salisbury found the comment "disgraceful."
"I think it's a disgraceful statement. Very inappropriate. And not something she should be posting on Facebook," she said.
Janet Johnson of Princess Anne said: "Bringing up a disabled child and hearing that word all the time is sickening."
"The Holly Center kids are just as important as anybody else and that (comment) is an insult," said Bonnie Patterson of Salisbury. "She's needs to be out (of office) and resign."
Jackson's post lingered on Facebook for nearly 12 hours before she took it down and replaced it with a post that read: "Well I've been told I can't say what I want on Facebook...Are you kidding me? But Trump can insult people all day everyday...Wow!"
For listeners and/or readers of the blog site who ain't from around these here parts, a little backstory/context:
The Holly Center is, per the blurb on their own website, a "state operated 24 hour residential training facility for individuals with developmental disabilities", located in Salisbury, Maryland.
Salisbury is a city in, and the county seat of, Wicomico County. It is the largest city in the area of Maryland that lies on what is known as the Eastern Shore, that being the peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. This largest city is also described as a quiet, small town but that description comes from a website called bestplaces.net and, obviously, "largest city" isn't usually a term that inspires tourism on the part of travelers seeking a more Norman Rockwell, Mayberry-ish experience.
Maryland, of course, is a state in the United States, that I'm sure you'll all remember from your fifth grade civics and/or American history classes. For those of you who weren't all that scholastically inclined, it's the state where you'll find the Ravens and the Orioles.
There are a number of issues raised by Councilwoman Jackson's exercising of her prerogative under that sometimes impish, sometimes zany, always amusing amendment, the First Amendment. Or as Ms. Jackson might refer to it, if only just to piss Donald off, "Amendment Numero Uno." In fact, the issues in what is seemingly a brief statement, number sufficiently to merit their own categories.
Let's take them one at a time.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
There is something both clearly offensive, and, at the same time, satirically comic about politically incorrect comments being made... by a politician. It can't help but conjure up visions of bad grammar coming out of the mouth of an experienced English teacher along with the temptation to offer up that tried and true truism, "you had just one job". If the comment in general doesn't meet the pretty loosey goosey current criteria for PC fail, then there's certainly no sidestepping the sting of Jackson's use of the word "retarded". I mean, come on, you don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know that word has been officially faux pas for a while now. Even as non-politician a cultural contributor as fictional Oscar winning actor Kirk Lazarus was savvy enough to advise and counsel that you simply "never go full retard." Meanwhile, speaking of grammar gaffe......
GRAMMAR GAFFES
I'm a New Orleans boy by upbringing and I fully understand both the regional affection and conversational charm of the colorful contraction "y'all". But if you're a public figure, and especially an elected public figure, issuing statements cayenne peppered with colorful contractions is, at best, a slippery slope and, at worst, an invalidation of any statesmanship that you might later want to profess. Again, top SAT scores are not required to comprehend that there would have been little or no inspiration generated had that iconic call to arms come in the form of "ask not, what y'all's country can do for y'all, ask what y'all can do for y'all's country."
And while we're at it, let's not give Jackson a pass on her use of the word "pass". In the context she was likely using it, there are only two conclusions from which we have to draw.
1. Auto correct yanked her original intent right out from under her flying fingerprints and her intended use of the correct word, "past" got committed to posting history as "pass".
2. She actually meant to use the word "pass", in which case yet another very large can of worms arrives ready to be opened, this one labeled "the state of education in America in the 21st Century and why said state might be correctly referred to as "deplorable".
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES WORTH NOTING
While it arguably falls in with the other grammar gaffes, let's simply pile on generically with the observation that those to whom Jackson is referring when she says "y'all's President' is clearly not all that clear. One assumes, giving it a couple seconds thought, that she is referring to any and all who recognize, support and/or endorse Donald Trump's current title. Put less verbosely for those who still aren't fully grasping the whole peninsula between the Chesapeake and the Atlantic thing but own both Ravens and Orioles big foam fingers, if you are a fan of Trump, then you're retarded.
Note, please, that I'm not saying that. But people are saying that. Terrific people. At least, people who Salisbury Mayor Jake Day think are terrific. Along with, of course, the terrific, terrific people at the Holly Center.
And, then, there's the primary pellet in this little poop pile of a controversy. The boiling down to essence of the infraction. The wielding of Occam's Razor to shave us to the skin of the skinny here.
A fully formed, assumed to be fully matured adult woman elected to a position of leadership in her community who expresses her dissent of and/or disdain for a man elected to a higher position of leadership in her nation via the format, and in the prose, she would use if she were a middle school aged child venting her teen angst with a passionate burst of "you are soooo lame".
Because every good story, though, even a comedic story, employs a plot twist or two, here's where this one thickens.
The issue primarily in play here in the online comment threads where once traditional American debate and discussion now flow more like slimy ooze through a once sparkling stream (giving a whole new sardonic meaning, of course, to the term "babbling brook"), the go-to issue gone to in this incident is the issue that colors the debate/discussion.
Color.
Donald Trump, as you will all remember from the picture on his hourly tweets, is white. More correctly, of course, he is Caucasian because were we to adhere to a strict code of factual correctness here, we would be obligated to describe him as more of an odd shade of orange.
April Jackson, meanwhile, is black. More correctly, of course, she is African-American because black is actually sometimes defined as the absence of color but that's a conversation so packed with existential pitfalls that we'd lose ninety percent of that Chesapeake/Atlantic/Ravens/Orioles audience before y'all could say "y'all."
The primary problem in all of this, of course, has nothing to do with color. But as the dumbing down of "duh land of duh free" continues, it is to the primal which we most often, and most quickly, pivot. It couldn't possibly be about poor judgement or rash comment. Speaking before thinking or, perhaps, just emotional outburst in a moment of all too human frustration.
Nope. Gotta be about that black woman dissin' dat white President. And, then, of course, the return volleys hitting the "resume" button on the now almost decade old black and forth (yes, I intended that pun) relating the adventures of white people dissin dat black President.
And the wheel on the bus goes round and round.
And where it stops?
Well, we all know it doesn't ever stop, don't we?
As promised, though, here's that upside.
As a community, as a nation, hell, as a world, we really do seem to be getting nowhere fast, in fact, even faster than ever before.
But we are making clear and definable progress in our advancement through the alphabet.
Too many people... far, far too many people want to chew and snarl at each other regarding Councilwoman April Jackson's opinion posting by pointing out, specifically, her color and, inevitably, by inference, waving around a fully loaded "N" word.
In response, a more generic approach is offered, but, still easily, and correctly, described as sticking to the theme, bringing us to a letter a little farther down the list, your always socially provocative "R" word. (No, not Ravens...please...try to keep up...)
When, in fact, we're not giving the situation, or ourselves, near enough credit. Because, if you think about it long enough, you realize that we have moved the needle yet another notch.
Welcome to the "S" word.
A grown woman chosen to be a role model, example setter and source of some, if only a little inspiration every now and then, posts a childish pot shot on Facebook complete with insensitivity, inappropriate language and, English teachers, nobody knows da troubles ya seen, bad grammar.
"S" word.
Opponents, trolls and garden variety ne'er say nothin' nicers comment thread their little hoofies to the quick with inane gurgling, borderline illiteracy and masterful tip toeing right up to the line of employing the always inflammatory racial epithet.
"S" word.
Those others who involve, engage or just go with the flow take what appears to be a more civilized tone but still paint with the brush heavily coated with the now generic substitute for the "N" word, the left handed complimentary alternative, the "R" word.
"S" word.
The word defined by your found on every bookshelf, one size fits all dictionary as "having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense."
The kind of intelligence and/or common sense that discourages, even prevents, childish pot shots on Facebook, the spewing of inflammatory and profane racial epithets, the allowing of even a hint of generic rejection of a race for no better reason that it is another race.
The kind of intelligence and/or common sense very much in absentia in this tale of April Jackson.
And in their place, one small step in the alphabet, one giant leap toward two steps back.
The "S" word.
Stupid.
Y'all can see that, can't you?
Of course you can.
There's no getting pass it.
No comments:
Post a Comment