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December 05, 2003
Rantings and ravings for a
Rantings and ravings for a miserable, snowy, windy, blizzardy evening:
1) Of all the lamentable, contemptible trends of the last few years, there is one that stands head and shoulders above the rest as the worst trend in all of popular culture. Think about it - what trend could be so henious that it outpaces body piercing, the rise of hip hop culture and music, athletes routinely leaving college early to turn pro, reality television, and Disney musicals? It's a simple answer: radio stations that play all Christmas music for the six weeks preceding Christmas.
When I was a kid, radio stations would occasionally interrupt their usual programming with a new Christmas song by a contemporary artist - U2's "Baby Please Come Home For Christmas," George Michael's "Last Christmas," or that ubiquitous Paul McCartney one. As the years went by, new songs joined that pantheon - my favorites are the Matchbox Twenty song "A New York Christmas," and any version of Adam Sandler's "Hannukah Song." (I also still really like the U2 song.) But for a proud Grinch like me, the best part of the whole thing is that we only had to suffer through one of those songs for four minutes every hour, and then the station reverted to its usual format.
No longer. At some point, some bean counter at ClearChannel decided that there were ratings in going all-insipid, all-the-time, and initiated "all-Christmas" formats - stations begin playing Christmas music 24/7 as early as November 10. And since they are no longer just filling four hours a minute, but rather 24/7, we don't just get modern attempts to bring a contemporary sensibility to Christmas music. We're tortured incessantly - either by creaky, dusty, moldy oldies by Burl Ives or Andy Williams, or has-been modern singers whose last hit came a decade ago - like Amy Grant, or Phil Collins - trying to see how much pain they can inflict by covering those moldy oldies. It's still three weeks before Christmas, and I am already SICK of "The Christmas Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."
Four of the twelve presets on my car radio have been rendered useless until 2004. I hope that whoever came up with this format idea gets a six week case of diarrhea, followed by an embarassing yet inexplicable genital rash.
2) I'm as big a supporter of diversity and civil rights as you'll ever find. But there's nothing like some people crying wolf to turn off even the staunchest supporter, like me. A news item this week has left me disappointed, angry, and mistrusting of civil rights leadership in this country.
The story was the case of Nathaniel Jones, the 350 pound man who died after an altercation with police in Cincinnati. The first video of the incident certainly seemed damning - the police were hauling off on the guy with metal nightsticks. It certainly LOOKED like an Ohio version of Rodney King. And sure as shootin', the civil rights leadership was out inflaming the community and demanding "justice." But as the week unfolded, look what we've learned... the guy was jacked up on powder cocaine and PCP, and more of each was found in his car. He'd been videotaped outside a White Castle a few minutes before, behaving bizarrely, marching around the parking lot like a soldier, and rolling down a hill outside the restaurant. Another video of the incident shows Jones lunging at police officers, and he can be heard on the police video calling the cops "white boy, redneck." The coroner has concluded that while Jones died as a result of his clash with police, he had no internal injuries from the nightsticks - only bruises on his lower body.
And yet, the civil rights leadership are still yammering about police brutality and "demanding justice" and saying the cops were out of line - and felt free to go over that line because their target was black. Oh really? Let me see if I have that argument straight: police are called to a scene where a man has behaving bizarrely; upon arriving, they are confronted by a man twice the size of any one of them, who lunges at them and shouts a racial epithet; the man is high on drugs that are known for causing violently aggressive behavior; and the coroner's report would seem to indicate that the man's injuries were not inflicted in such a way as to injure - but rather to take the big man's legs out from under him and incapacitate him. What the heck were the cops supposed to do, feed him some warm milk, pat him on the back, and send him home to mommy?
Imagine if the situation were reversed - if black cops responded to a scene where a 350 pound white man was skied up on PCP and coke, where he'd been acting bizarrely for the last 30 minutes in front of many witnesses, if the white man lunged at the black cops and called them racial names - and if he was twice the size of the cops on scene... if those black cops had then beaten the white man and he'd died as a result, do you think the civil rights community would be screaming about police brutality?
Being black in this country has historically cost people their rights, their freedoms, and even their lives. In some places, it still does. I won't argue that racist cops don't still exist, or that race doesn't have an effect on societal perceptions, or that police brutality doesn't sometimes still take place. Sure, they do - and in those cases where it's legitimately a problem, action must be taken to address it. The civil rights leadership and community are right to point out cases where being black is the only "crime" committed. But being black in this country - and the shameful history of the black experience in this country - does not entitle one to exemption from the laws of a civilized society, nor does it mean that one can do whatever he wants, even to the point of threatening a cop, without any reprecussions.
Let's face it, folks... Nathaniel Jones showed no willingness to abide by the rules & laws of society - so why is it that some people expect those same rules and laws to protect him? He lunged at a cop while high on PCP! No one deserves to die (ok, so a few do, but that's a topic for another rant), but I'm sorry... Nathaniel Jones had some sort of beatdown coming to him. Not anything that would cause him injury, but the police were *certainly* justified in using force to subdue him. And if he was so obese, and had so many drugs in his system, that such force resulted in his death, well then... he shouldn't have been on PCP and he shouldn't have lunged at a cop.
Real, honest, legitimate incidents of racism happen every day in this country. The police use of a level of force necessary to subdue an aggressive drug suspect who'd lunged at an officer and called him a racist name is not one of these such incidents. Worse yet, the civil rights leadership is discrediting themselves, and doing a disservice to those who truly ARE victims of racism, by labeling this incident as such. This wasn't Police Run Amok; this was An Aggressive Druggie Threatens Cops and Got What He Deserved. It wouldn't matter to me whether Jones was black, white, purple, red, green, blue or plaid... he was on drugs and lunged at a cop. I'll side with the police every single time on a case like this. And by claiming that the police response was racist, "leaders" of the civil rights community are making it harder for the average white person in this country to believe that police brutality is really a problem, or to believe other incidents when they come to light. It's a shame that these so-called "leaders" are undermining their community and their cause in this fashion.
3) 6 inches of snow so far in New York today. I will say it one more time for the record... WINTER SUCKS.
