I don’t have to be to work until 7 PM tonight. The only thing I had to day was an early morning doctor’s appointment and I’ve pretty much had the day to myself since then. So far I’ve done nothing. Blogged a bit earlier, played some games, watched “not another teen movie” on DVD and took a nap. Right now I turned on the scariest show on earth, CNN’s “Talkback Live.”
Right now the subject is if tiles painted by the parents of the Columbine high school massacre can contain religious symbols. It’s a public school. Well, it’s been dumbed down to a religious symbol issue. The parents were told that the tiles can’t contain such things as religious symbols, anything that would remind kids of a massacre, anything controversial at all. They agreed to it and the controversy is about some father who decided to put thirteen crosses and a bible verse on his title. Uh DUH, total violation of the rules he agreed to. So he sued when they said “hey, no way.” He’s making the press junket now to back the court case.
I don’t care what religion you are. If it’s a public school and you agree not to put religious symbols in your tile, you don’t put up a tile that’s screaming Christianity. Crosses scream that. A bible verse on top of it screams that. It would be the same as putting Stars of David up. If you’re suing to include (or to exclude) religious imagery you must include (or exclude) all religion. I don’t buy that this is a religious persecution issue. I think It’s a “you agreed to the rules, now follow them and stop being a baby about it on national TV” issue.
But that’s the ease of getting on TV and having an issue in this day and age. I watched “the Larry Sanders Show” on Bravo last night and it was an episode from the first or second season. Larry (a talkshow host), wanted to spice up his guest lineup since it seemed like he was seeing the same faces over and over. His booker booked a controversial performance artist on the show without seeing his act first. The guy went on to do a segment that talked about inappropriate things. He was booed off stage and the audience interrupted the interview afterwards with taunts.
Larry wants to put on a rerun since the audience responded so badly. His producer agrees. They go to the network and the network says “oh, umm, your call we don’t see anything inappropriate here.” They pull the show, blaming the network for it (hey, Larry & his producer weren’t heroic at all, that’s one of the joys of the show), and air a rerun. Suddenly it’s a censorship issue. The press is going after the show for pulling the segment. Censorship is thrown around by people like Tom & Rosanne Arnold (okay it was an OLD show). They finally apologize to the guy for pulling the segment and ask him back on the show. He refuses, and ends up doing his segment … on the Jay Leno show. The interview afterwards is how lame the Larry Sanders show was for pulling him. Instant celebrity.
Anyone can get on TV. Controversy + People Acting Stupid = Your 15 minutes of Fame. Just remember that.
k9