by Ed Anger
COVER OUR EARS…BUT NOT WITH DIRTY HANDS!
I’m madder than a jockey riding a carousel at how backwards our country has been going. While the federal government strips away our most cherished rights, we micro-manage the rest — nutty things like banning cellphone use in schools. (How about using common sense on that one, people? This is not the Gaza Strip! Quick call or text between classes, not during. During gets it confiscated. The end.)Remember Peter Finch in the movie Network, screaming that he was mad as hell and not going to take it any more? Well, ironically, in our upside-down world, it was the networks that had no intention of taking it anymore from the Federal Communications Commission — the group that attempted to maintain an antiseptic, one-size-fits-all theory of broadcasting. After costly court battles, the justice system has told the FCC that they are hunters without a license: they can no longer fine broadcast networks for offensive language or material that issues from their stations.
Hallelujah! That’s the thing about the United States: you are free to say what you like and I’m free not to listen. If a firefighter on a news show swears while commenting about an arsonist, or a talk show host just feels like ripping a guest a new one, they’re free to do so. And you are free to mute the TV, turn the channel or pick up your copy of Anne of Green Gables instead.
Honestly, folks, we’ve gone too far in this new American trend of over-protection. Hand sanitizers have replaced perfectly useful sinks. Prescription pills have replaced old-fashioned bed rest, drinking liquids and sensible eating. Even fast food now has ‘nutritional information’ on the greasy wrapper. Who wasted their time demanding that waste of type? Does anyone who sinks their pearly whites into a French fry imagine it’s doing them any good? Are you drinking a strawberry shake for calcium? If anyone believes that, chances are good they aren’t capable of (or interested in) reading the dietary data.
Friends, we’re so distracted with safeguarding our beaches (which is important) that we’ve lost sight of the entire coastline (which is important, too). We’re so navel-focused that we miss the real trouble when it comes, like Katrina or Big Brother Bush.
Well, one step at a time. I’m glad the FCC got put in its place. The day we let a bunch of moralistic bureaucrats tell us what we can or can’t hear, what is appropriate for us to see in our own homes, is the day that we take another step away from Democracy.