The Problem with Al

In watching the whole Don Imus debacle I found myself, as usual, scoffing at the wasteland that is talk radio.

Rush, of course, has had his share of racist and sexist moments. His ability to pick out portions of news stories and weave them into a liberal plot against the universe is legendary. ESPN had the good sense to quickly fire him a few years back when he demonstrated his racist side as well as football ignorance. As a Giants fan who has seen Donovan McNabb surgically skewer the Giants’ secondary to claim that McNabb was not very good was obviously someone who didn’t watch much football.

Howard Stern, of course, has pushed the boundaries of indecency for a long time. He has moved to satellite radio where he can pursue his adolescent fantasies and use bad language to his heart’s content.

Then there is Don Imus. What Don Imus said was and is indefensible. It was racist, it was insensitive, it was crude and cruel. Imus has been around for a long time. I used to listen to him driving to work in New Jersey in the early 1980's when he did the morning show on WNBC radio in New York City. Something Imus was then, that he no longer is now, is funny. He’s gotten older and meaner. His remarks to the Rutgers’s University Women’s Basketball Team demonstrate that he seems to have realized that his life and style might not be all that cool.

The thing that bothers me more, however, is that once again Al Sharpton has placed himself on the center stage.

Al Sharpton.

He goes by Rev. Al Sharpton. His “Reverend” title is a demonstration of religious freedom in the United States. Attorneys have to pass a bar exam to be able to practice law; Physicians have to pass medical school and take boards in order to practice medicine. In most denominations there is a requirement of four years of college and three years of seminary---studying theology on a graduate school level, before ordination. To get the title “Reverend” requires a lot of time and study.

However, religious freedom means that virtually anyone can use the title “Reverend.” You can get the title via mail order and legally be a minister. Many of the mega-churches in existence have pastors who have been called and ordained and given the title “Reverend” by churches and these folks never did attend seminary. Al Sharpton was ordained at the Washington Temple Church of God in Christ by Bishop F.D. Washington at the age of 10. He had not attended college, he had not attended seminary and he was not formally trained or educated to be a member of the clergy. Sharpton would later go to college for a short time and dropped out.

Sharpton’s big push to the limelight took place in 1987 in Wappingers Falls, New York, a small town close to 80 miles north of New York City, when a 15-year-old girl named Tawana Brawley was found in covered with feces and racial slurs written in charcoal. Brawley, who is black, claimed to have been abducted and raped by six white law enforcement officers. Sharpton jumped to her defense and claimed that Ms. Brawley was a victim of racism and police brutality, etc., etc., etc.

The story dominated the news in the New York metropolitan area. Sharpton appeared almost nightly on the news demanding that justice take place. The little town of Wappingers Falls was seen as a horrible, dreadful place and the police officers were eviscerated by virtually everyone.

And it all turned out to be a hoax. The hospital could find no physical evidence of a rape. Brawley, who claimed that she had been tied up for several days, bore no evidence of this and was well fed and, despite claiming that she was tied up outdoors, had no symptoms or signs of exposure. Furthermore, the writing on her was upside down----an indication that she, herself had written the racial slurs.

For whatever reason Tawana Brawley did this is sad and unknowable. The thing is, as it was becoming increasingly obvious that the story was a hoax it was also becoming increasingly obvious that facts meant little to Al Sharpton. He still railed about this racist attack and has never apologize for his role in this and for the slanderous comments he made towards the police officers.

We recently saw Sharpton concerning the Duke University Lacrosse team and the results were not unlike the results at Wappingers Falls. And Sharpton has yet to apologize about this.

What makes me truly angry with Don Imus is that what he did is what empowers fools like Al Sharpton. Then appearing on Al Sharpton’s radio show, giving Sharpton the higher ground and more ammunition was not only foolish for him, but, frankly, further subjected the nation to Al Sharpton’s theatrics.

Racism and sexism are serious issue. What has become increasingly obvious is that we still have many racial issue and gender issues to overcome. Crass, crude comments still pervade our culture and that is intolerable. But nothing of note is ever solved by fools and charlatans and, frankly, Al Sharpton is both a fool and a charlatan.