Reality Out of Sync

So, Tiger Woods apologizes to the golf world for (and I can’t say this any more clearly than as it’s put down here) getting caught cheating on his wife. Not for actually doing the cheating, he doesn’t need to apologize for the actual cheating. At least, not to the golf community or the public for that matter. An apology may be owed to those from the general public that were actually involved – for being dishonest, I suppose – but then again that may not even be necessary. The only person that really needs to hear an “I’m sorry.” is his wife. Even that should come only if he’s actually feeling bad about it.

The reason Tiger Woods is apologizing for getting caught cheating on his wife is because America has screwed up values. Well, let me rephrase that. People have screwed up values. I can happily say that when I was a child, I didn’t have a role model that was a celebrity. My family system didn’t work that way. I didn’t watch a whole lot of television either, so maybe that has something to do with it. I remember saying to myself, “Man, I want to play basketball like, Jordan.”  and “If only I could hit as hard as Mike (Tyson)!” That’s about as close as I came to looking up to someone that was a celebrity, in particular a sports figure. At my ripe old age of 29, I feel it’s unhealthy to let children look up to Hollywood and sports celebrities. This is something I’ve blogged about before by the by. Parents shouldn’t be encouraging their kids to want to be like someone else. They should be instilling values that they themselves (is this even a valid phrase? I say it all the time, or rather I guess I think it often and it always seems like I should have just chosen better phrasing…well whatever) possess.

Back when I was a wee lad of 15 or 16, my friends and I were sitting on the porch (or stoop if you like) and were talking to my dope dealing neighbors about boxing. The question came up from the neighbors during a particularly heated moment of “Who is the better boxer in this upcoming fight?”. “Is so and so (I don’t remember who the boxer was) your hero?”, and all three of us spoke pretty much in unison. “I don’t have heroes.” We each said it a little differently, but we each meant the same thing. That was the kind of mind set we’d been raised with. Heroes are for people that don’t have the strength to be their own person, to seek out self improvement for the sake of improving or at least that’s what I suspect.  I think it’s partially lazy parenting too. Parents don’t want to engage their children or put forth the examples in which they want their children to live. Instead, their children seek other influences to fill in the gaps that their parents leave. So you have the media telling you to look up to this celebrity or that celebrity, and you have impressionable minds doing exactly that. Now Tiger Woods has to apologize to the world because he got caught cheating on his wfe, nevermind the fact that it shouldn’t matter if he cheats on his wife (present or past tense). He’s a golfer people. Admire his golf skills. Let your children admire his golf skills, but seriously don’t further encourage this behavior.

People fail on a regular basis, but that’s not always the public’s business. Tiger cheating on his wife is a Tiger and wife issue. He shouldn’t be apologizing to his fans nor to the golfing community at large. He should not be put on a pedestal about how to live your life and parents shouldn’t encourage that with their children either. Let that man play his game. Parents, stop being stupid. Celebrities aren’t paid to be role models (at least they shouldn’t be paid to be role models), they are paid to do whatever it is they do, be that sports, acting, or charity work, etc. My grammar is atrocious today, but I’m not going to fix it. I’m tired and lazy.

This is how it should start - and hopefully end!

Between Tyler Perry, BET, and movies that Hollywood produces like Precious I am just about sick of black television and movies. I’ll start with Tyler Perry. I just am not seeing the talent. Slapstick comedy about black households should be the last thing blacks should be seeing in theatres or on television. The Cosby Show was a good comedy, that gave pretty decent examples (for that time period) on how an affluent black lifestyle may or should be. It was genuinely funny, and it wasn’t mirroring really abusive behavior that occurs in many of our black households then nor today. Oh, I’ve worked in the health care field, yes abuse is still rampant in black communities whether it’s perpetrated by family members or simple black on black (non-family) violence in our ghettos and neighborhoods. I don’t know Tyler Perry, and I know many people that enjoy his work – I don’t know why – maybe they’ll come explain that sort of thing to me here; however, I really believe/think he shouldn’t feed and perpetuate what I view as really poor black behavior in such a light hearted way.

BET – oh how I loathe thee. BET has some of the w0rst programming known to man. You’d think that BET would at least be willing to air shows that do not stereotype the black male or the black condition, that we wouldn’t have shows such as Teen Summit, which aired real issues faced by real black teens concerning violence, sexual education, peer pressure and so on canceled. Alas, that’s not that case. On Sunday you can be sure to have gospel being shown though. I’m not really sure about the blacks outside of those I know, but Gospel isn’t something I’m very familiar with or even identify with. It certainly doesn’t target the 18-34 year old demographic that I can tell, unless they are actively being raised in a heavy handed elderly black household. I know of one such house in which some children are being raised this way, and I’m fairly certain they aren’t terribly happy.  I actually fall in that 18-34 year old demographic, and I gotta tell you I certainly don’t find much of the programming on BET even remotely interesting or entertaining.

And then there’s Precious. I’m sure Precious is a good movie, but it’s also just another example of helping white people feel good about themselves for having gone to see it. What I mean by this, is that many whites seem to behave in the fashion that by going to see (and I guess become informed about the “black struggle” as it were) movies that put on zoo like display abusive black environments, that they are some how helping the inequality in this country. That’s not true, you knowing that a majority of blacks live in poorer conditions than your average white family does not do anything to help Junebug learn that getting an education will get him out of the hood, not clinging to gang life to try and survive and playing basketball in the hopes of making it to the NBA.

To put an end cap on this. Blacks need to actively seek better, not mimic the white condition. Blacks can’t afford to let BET tell them what is good (because BET doesn’t fucking know, and you need to get an education I guess in order to understand that). Blacks can’t have role models in the NBA/NFL/etc.  or in Hollywood, because those places aren’t where you should be seeking anything healthy in your life.

Don’t tell anyone, but when mechanics work on your car, they look through your stuff. Also, when computer techs work on your PC, they copy your neat porn and all of your music as well; and, they look at that folder that says “Super Secret Documents-Do Not Open”. You know why? Because we’re curious individuals. As a by-product of this curiosity you should not ever put anything on your PC that you are not prepared to have someone look at when they work on your computer.

I work on computers (haha I bet you didn’t know that!) and generally stay out of people’s personal files. That includes the folders on your desktop that say “DO NOT OPEN”. You know why? Because I don’t get paid to do that, so I don’t. Also, I do not want to make it my responsibility to become embroiled in a lawsuit.

“Lawsuit?” you ask. Yes little cherubs lawsuit. I’m against spying on my fellow man, even if it might stop some sleazy behavior. I don’t like the idea of a police state, but I am against horrendous actions. I just feel I shouldn’t take the place of a police investigator just because I have the ability to do so. What prompted me to talk about this was the following article concerning the Supreme Court declining to hear a man’s case involving child pornography and Circuit City.

If you want to read the article, you have to click the picture. =-P

If you can’t see the irony, you need better glasses. Much like the word terrorist, paedophile (thanks Grant, for turning me in hahaha…..bastard) pedophile has the same reactionary response. So does the phrase child porn. It’s really amazing what little things will set people off into having completely idiotic opinions about something. I read manga. I read a lot of it actually, and although I don’t make a habit of reading things that involve too much tentacle sex someone was arrested for collecting lolicon. Seriously? Seriously. He was also charged, and struck a plea bargain. Seriously.

America is scary in the way it works sometimes. If you believed even half of the things the politicians are saying about protecting your children from predators along with the sensationalism that the media drums up with their paedophile busts you’d never let your kids out of the house or online. Now, it seems that it’s okay to dictate what is obscene for the populace. I don’t think that’s normal. It sounds a little Orwellian to me. I feel cheap using the word, but since I think this is only the second or third time I’ve used it…you’re gonna have to deal. Have a look-see at this article and tell me that’s normal, it reminds me of the big deal with porn way back when. Interestingly, it seems that now manga (or comic books in general) aren’t “real” works of art and have no value other than to demean a target audience? How does that work exactly?

Need I say more?