Rough Week

It was a rough week.

However one might characterize the comments Don Imus made about the Rutgers basketball team, he did actually lose his job for exercising his right to free speech. While what he said was not qualitatively different than things he had said in the past, this time his employer felt he had gone too far. This same sort of humor had in past earned Mr. Imus a devoted following and a lot of money. So what happened?

As morally outraged as I felt hearing Imus' comments, it is the reaction to them that has me worried.

I could not help but feel that "chilling effect" in my blood when I read the statement from CBS President Les Moonves, defending Imus' firing as a necessary blow against "a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people." A chill because while I cannot listen to Imus' program for long, I am a fan of a few other programs many people find objectionable: South Park, Bill Maher, Howard Stern (when I am in the right mood), and most-recently, Borat.

Time Magazine did a reasonably-fine job asking "Who Can Say What?" The article is online and worth your time. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1609490,00.html


It was also a rough week for those of us who read and loved the work of Kurt Vonnegut. His Slaughterhouse Five is among the 100 Most Challenged Books of 1990-2001, as reported by ALA. I read the book in high school because it was on so many best lists and because it had a reputation for being edgy. When I read it, I did not get the edge so much as that overwhelming feeling of despair, shared by so many readers before me and since.

Onward to post your Week 4 lectures.

AB