The Business I Want

This writer has never understood why folks get so caught up in the personal side of the lives of people who are famous for any number of reasons -- their political office, artistic ability, sports skills, or whatever.  How does society equate being a superstar of any ilk with being an upright human being with no faults or frailties -- especially when no such human being exists?  (Actually "human being" and "faultless" should not be used in the same sentence.)  Why do folks cry foul when a known person is caught lying, cheating, prostituting or stealing, just as many others do daily?  Don't we know that of the 100% who engage in such acts, 99.9% know better and do not care enough to stop themselves??

Enough of my rant -- this is where I'm headed:  Sitting here at my desk with the Golf Channel on for background noise, I perked up and sat at attention when I heard Tiger Woods say, in response to a reporter's question:  That's none of your business.  Mr. Woods sat still, calm, and in just few seconds (though I'm sure for the reporter it seemed like days -- at least, hours), the female voice who was designating whom should make a query to him, prompted the next reporter to speak.

After the press conference, another reporter asked someone else about the appropriateness of Tiger's response, and seemed to be disappointed that the man agreed with the way the question was handled.  

Everyday we awaken, there is a scandal brewing, one is about to be exposed, and one is in its beginning stages.  These are the things about which folks want to know.  Why?  

Everyday a couple celebrates a wedding anniversary, a healthy baby is born, a student passes a test, someone sees for the first time, someone gets a second chance at life with a newly transplanted organ, someone realizes he/she was not put on earth to live a self-centered life, that an unshared life is a waste life.  These are the things folks do not care to hear about.  Why?

Rather than dwell on the shortcomings of others -- whether Tiger Woods or the man who killed is wife or the woman who sells her body on the street corner -- if we're going to dip into someone's business, can it be to encourage, uplift, and even challenge them to do and be better, and to let them know that they are loved (even while their behavior is abhorred)?  That's the business I want.

After all, as we gossip about and gawk at them, someone is gossiping about and gawking at us.

Amen.

Palin the Pathetic - Part I

For those of you are at least of average intelligence -- male or female -- despite your political leanings in one direction or another -- surely you must be as embarrassed as I about having this woman take the stage in a major political arena. She has energized the Republican Party. She is fresh. She is new. She's a hockey mom. What is the big deal with that? She is ill-read -- ill-informed -- in no way articulate -- an airhead. Okay -- each of those is a really big deal.

In my earlier years I worked with women like Palin. They had the look. The packaging was okay, but the product sucked. (You know how it is when you buy a hugh bag of potato chips and it's only a quarter full -- and there's a little message on the back of the bag: THIS PRODUCT IS SOLD BY WEIGHT, NOT BY VOLUME.)

When I was a purchasing agent in the late 1970s I requested a "temp" to help me overhaul what was supposed to be my files, which I inherited, of course, from some inept Palin-looking person. Who did they send me? Another Palin lookalike. The next day she did not show up, nor did she phone in. When I called the agency and expressed my disappointment, after an empty apology I was told that they had someone else but she was definitely "backroom" material. I asked: Can she type? Can she file? Does she speaking English? The answers: yes, yes, and yes. Well send her! The woman who came was not a Palin cutout; instead she was a plain-looking, middle-aged Asian, who followed my instructions precisely and left me with a set of organized files that brought me a added dimension of efficiency.


So what? Can you imagine the thousands -- hundreds of thousands -- of woman and men -- who are denied opportunities for which they are well qualified -- because they are considered backroom material -- while the Palins of the world -- inept, unintelligent, inarticulate though they are -- get to be not just mayor of a tiny town, but governor of a state. And stupidly, rather than surround herself with folks who are intelligent, articulate, competent and capable of doing a job -- hands out perky positions to her high school buddies?



And folks wonder why I am supporting Mr. Obama.