I’ll admit I’ve never been an Imus fan – I spent years fighting NPR’s liberal newscasters on the way to work and now have settled with Woody P. Snow and Cindy Rippee for my morning entertainment. Still, it’s hard to avoid all the recent news concerning Don Imus and his total disregard for anyone who may be different from him – and especially in the race and creed categories. I respect his right to his opinion – obviously I have mine too – but public name-calling and racial slurs should NOT be allowed. Apparently Imus thought he could laugh it off, offer up a somewhat sincere apology and go back to business as usual. Fortunately business as usual was going to hit CBS and MSNBC in the bank account so they did the right thing for the wrong reasons – they canned him to preserve their advertising $! Whatever!
Now it’s time for Imus to do what was drilled into my head from an early age (my daughters can attest that they got the same lectures) – take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for your own actions! Don’t blame anyone else, act like it’s no big deal when it really is or be insincere if/when you apologize – and don’t add insult to injury by then knocking anyone who disagrees with you.
Now, how about if the DA in Durham, NC steps forward and takes his own Personal Responsibility for what he did to the Duke lacrosse team members? And Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton need to keep quiet for a change. Amen!
