Because I just can't keep my opinions to myself. And I found some new drama to write about.

The one thing I did *not* want this blog to become is a political blog.  There are three things ‘proper’ people don’t discuss; money, sex, and politics.  Since I’ve talked about two of the three on here (much to my mother’s embarrassment) I might as well go for the trifecta.

The problem is, when it comes to politics, I don’t claim one true party.  I usually just pick an issue (or one comes to the forefront) and I start shooting off my mouth, spouting opinions, without much thought behind it all. Politics isn’t my strong suit. Never has been.  And usually when I open my mouth, I prove that point time and time again. And I get in trouble.

But not Juan Williams trouble.

When something this big comes across the air waves (and by this big I mean it’s being covered by MSN, CNN, FOX, NPR, The View, Oprah, and God.. you know the regulars) I itch to jump in with both feet and spout off an opinion.  But first… I always go look up words, get definitions just so I make sure there is some validity to my ranting.

For those of you who don’t know (and maybe don’t care?) Juan Williams was just fired from NPR for something he said on The O’Reilly Factor. O’Reilly got himself into a bit of hot water with Barbara Walters and her gang over at The View last week, over something he said regarding Muslims and 9/11 and was looking for validation and support from Juan when Juan said this:

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

I am not going to get into the right or wrong of NPR to fire Mr. Williams.  That’s a whole legal issue regarding contracts and termination and breach of contracts and I don’t have time to find and dust off my law degree from Cracker Jack school of law and marketing.  Besides, what’s done is done, and it’s not going to be undone, and Fox News jumped in and offered Mr. Williams a three year multimillion dollar contract for doing what he was already doing by being on Fox News Sunday and voicing his opinion.

Here’s my two cents worth on this whole topic.   First of all, Bigot is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as

a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance

and just for good measure, Dictionary.com defines Stereotype as

a set of inaccurate, simplistic generalizations about a group that allows others to categorize them and treat them accordingly

Let me say this.  We all stereotype people.  We profile people.  We all have preconceived notions about groups of people based on characteristics they share, be it color of their skin, color of their hair, size of their boobs, or penis, the clothes they wear, the books they read, the car they drive, the music they listen to.  If we didn’t the advertising world would so be out of business.

He admitted on national television a truth that many of us hold.  And that is, he admitted to feeling nervous when he sees a group of ‘Muslims’ in the airport/on an airplane.  It’s nothing against those people personally.  It’s nothing against Muslims as a whole.  It’s a normal visceral reaction to a group of people who changed our world forever.  When you think of Michael Jackson, (before he died) somewhere in that thought process was ‘child molester’.   When you think of Michael Jackson and young boys… well let’s not go there.

Mr Williams was honest.  In this world of Political Correctness, we are so damned afraid of everything.  Afraid of saying the wrong thing, writing the wrong thing, wearing the wrong thing, because we might, *gasp* offend someone.

Fuck that bullshit.

What would have made Mr. Williams a bigot would be if he had acted on those feelings.  He didn’t run screaming from the airport. He didn’t deplane.  He didn’t cause a scene. He didn’t point at them screaming “TERRORISTS!!!”.  He acknowledged to himself that yes, he has those feelings, he was aware of his surroundings and went on with his day/life business as usual.

Just like most everyone else does.

Would this have been such a big deal if he had said   “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I go to a strip bar, I got to tell you, if I see women who are very skinny, and have big boobs and skimpy clothes, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as strippers , I get horny. I get excited.”?