Canning Cynthia McKinney
Nation magazine colleague Ari Berman gives Cynthia McKinney her walking papers. And not a minute too soon. Back after 9/11 McKinney revealed her inner wackiness when she told an equally wacko radio interviewer that Bush might have been in on the 9/11 attack.
Kudos to Berman as it’s infinitely more important that McKinney be challenged by The Nation than, say, National Review.
How long, by the way, until we see a South Park episode dedicated to the free-swinging Georgia Congresswoman? Damn soon, I’d guess, given her cozy relationship with show alumnus and Scientologist Isaac Hayes.
April 5th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Marc, see Steve Gilliard’s comments on this on his blog. He finds her a blowhard but also notes that blacks, and black women, are treated differently by police and this inability of white liberals, like you and like me, to see this difference is so much racist crap. Is it not possible that both sides have to answer some tough questions? When was the last time a WHITE Congresswoman was grabbed? McKinney has been around since 1992 and they didn’t recognize her? Give me a break!
April 5th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Well RLC, I could take a cheap shot and say that a white liberal like you understands nothing about Mexican immigration. But I wont because it would be a cheap race-baiting shot.
In that same context, thank you very much but tell Steve Gilliard to save the bs and the cheap race politics lecture. Every day of the week cops exercise arbitrary power influenced by their own biases. No one was shooting or handcuffinf McKinney. She deserves NO special treatment because of her skin color or gender in this matter. If a mistake was being made — which is possible– all she had to do was calmy stop and show some ID who she was and the whole thing would be over.
Next time a cop stops you unfairly, see — even as a privileged white male [sic]– how far u’ll gte by pushing or punching the cop. Give me a break while ur at it.
April 5th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
I don’t believe in character assassination, so to tell me that McKinney appears “loony†to white middle-class liberals, means nothing to me. McKinney is not alone in her skepticism, regarding the events surrounding 9/11—in fact, a 9/11 Commission was formed because the families of victims were troubled by many unanswered questions.
If one is not a believer in conspiracy theories; but is a believer in the unquestionable incompetence of our intelligence agencies, then perhaps what appears as a conspiracy is just really slapstick stupidity.
Those who believe there was a plot, are making the assumption that the government is extremely clever, not willing to believe intelligence agencies, can actually be so stupid. Now the way to alleviate paranoia, from a person taken by conspiracy theories, is to let them observe the workings of our federal agencies; they then will realize that those little FED rascals are too Mutt and Jeff to carry off plans of such complexity.
What the FEDS are guilty of is MALIGN NEGLECT and what Bush is GUILTY of using 9/11 as an excuse; 9/11 gave Bush and his Gang the excuse to do “their thingâ€: Afghanistan, Iraq, the crackdown on civil liberties at home, the supression of the Freedom of Information Act by reclassifying thousands of documents.
Now as far as McKinney is concerned—as Shakespeare would say “MUCH TO DO ABOUT NOTHING!â€
You guys might find this website entertaining; it will take your mind off of McKinney.
http://www.alternet.org/story/14873/
Top Ten Conspiracy Theories of 2002
p.s. Since we’re into cheap gossip–let’s discuss the guy from Homeland Security, who was arrested yesterday for internet child pornography.
April 5th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Just another piece of gossip–Off topic–but interesting, William F. Buckley–sort of endorsed Hilary today; he said she is a “consequential woman.” Now what the hell does that mean–consequential woman, that sounds like a title from a Dominick Dunne Novel.
Do we need another reason not to vote for Ms. Clinton?
The Democratic Party better realize( el pronto) women are not concerned with a candidate’s “Gender” but with the candidate’s “Agenda.”
April 5th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Eleanore: Do you have ANY idea how ridiculous you sound in shrugging off criticism from “white middle class liberals?” It’s like the whimper of a dying dinosaur. It’ stupid. And it’s inherently racist.
Cynthia McKinney is a fool. That’s something that is immediately evident to people of any color. To say that it is a figment of white men’s imagination insults them. To say, conversely, that her aberrant behavior is somehow normal to black people is even worse.
You need to get out of the library and sniff the air of the real world, gal.
April 5th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Marc,
You totally misinterpreted my “point”–it was my opinion, whether you agree with it or not; that the incident with the police at the Capitol, is not such a significant news story. Mckinney, could have made life easier for herself, by appeasing the police, she didn’t–so what!
I still think the Homeland Security Guy, arrested for enticing a child on the Internet is so much more interesting.
And please don’t turn it around to make me look like the racist–I wasn’t the one who made her look like a loon.
There are many who are preceived as “fools” on the HILL. Where do we begin and end.
p.s. I’ve sniffed enough air to know when something stinks!
April 5th, 2006 at 7:10 pm
“Now what the hell does that mean–consequential woman, that sounds like a title from a Dominick Dunne Novel.”
Great line, Eleanore!
April 5th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
Has anyone let the Homeland guy off the hook? I think not. The McKinney thing is of the sort akin to Al Gore being strip searched at the airport. How would it play if he belted her one in the kisser for hassling him? It’s a no brainer unless less you’re the type who thinks the US government was behind 9-11. Or Israel. Give us all a break. I’m with Cooper on this one.
April 5th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Look, Cynthia McKinney is the only person on Capitol Hill who’s had the balls to call for a Congressional investigation into the death of Tupac Shakur. So of course they’re trying to diss her.
“As you know, Rep. McKinney called for the legislation during the Congressional Black Caucus ‘Brain Trust’ panels on ‘Countering Culture: COINTELPRO Attacks on Political Musicians’ that addressed the remaining unsolved murders and strange deaths of Paul Robeson, Jimmi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, among others, and government attacks on the Hip Hop generation.”
John Judge
Special Projects Assistant, Rep. McKinney
McKinney may be short-tempered, but you can’t deny that she’s also abrasive. Her perspective is innovative and unique – to a fault – and she never fails to shoot from the lip. Rather than marginalize her, I would like to see the GOP reach out to McKinney- she and Dick Cheney should get together for a few beers and a round of quail hunting. I’m sure some lingering issues could get resolved fairly quickly. (My money’s on McKinney coming back. Marc can set odds.) She’s served on the House Foreign Relations Committee, so if the Democrats regain the White House I think they could make history by appointing her as the first black Secretary of State.
Oh…wait a minute.
April 5th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
I think I am going to wait for all the evidence to come in on this one. Let me see the camera story, there is a good reason why alot of people are running around with “babycam” on their person these days – and I have no doubt that at such a sensitive area that there is surveillance to overkill.
There have been more bullshit stories than you could even imagine made up by those who “protect and serve,” that is just a fact of life (perhaps not your life). Let the facts unfold, and than we can all make our informed judgements. That is all I have to say.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Actually, Marc, the Nation wants McKinney out more than most conservatives do. She’s good for an embarrassing action every few months or so. Conservatives can point at her, and say, “Gee she’s a Dem, aren’t they all nuts!”
April 5th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
Commander Cooper, I just wanted to write to say KUDOS TO YOU for having the integrity to write what you have here and McKinney.
I may be a conservative sympathetic to Bush, but I have to hand you my highest praise: Principled, fair and courageous liberals like you are KARL ROVE’S WORST NIGHTMARE.
(Not to mention that I like to shock my more Hannity-like GOP friends by telling them that, when push comes to shove, I would rather be represented by decent, fair liberals, such as Dianne Feinstein, than pig-headed, dictatorial conservatives, such as Tom DeLay, any day of the week.)
April 5th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Before I’m put in the position of someone nudging me into a debate over whether Biggie Smalls deserved what he got, while Tupac was a victim of the System, I’ll override my earlier smart aleck response by siding with Marc on this one.
I don’t know what actually happened at the checkpoint to Cynthia McKinney, but – in the spirit of Tommy Lee Jones – I have to say that I don’t care. Her response was stupid and turns her into even more of a poster girl for “whatever” over at FOX News than she already was for her previous various and sundry over-the-top antics.
I say this in the same spirit that I criticized the Mexican flags thing at the anti-Sensenbrenner demos. There are all kinds of reactions and emotions that are justifiable on a purely personal level – it’s possible McKinney’s reaction falls into this zone – but once you enter the public sphere and take responsibility for trying to convince people other than your die-hard supporters that you’ve got a case on the issues that’s worthy of, at least, a fair hearing, the emotions that matter aren’t yours but the people who you need to address with your message. Period. End paragraph.
I could care less if McKinney feels like some capitol cop should have recognized her, new do or no. The facts are that she’s prone to acting out scenarios that turns her into a lightening rod for validating her critics and making her seem petulant, if not crackpot. Not the skill demanded of politicians. (Dictionary defintion of “politic”: “marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness.” McKinny ? Not !
My anecdotal contribution to the battle of the white, middle class liberals on the McKinney question is that my wife, who shares what I perceive to be McKinney’s class and definitely shares her race – and can match her bad attitude and sharp tongue when crossed along certain lines that are more common than most people would like to think – “can’t stand the …… (expletive deleted).” (As I said, this is andecdotal and I’d be the first to tell you that my dear wife isn’t always right about everything….the last to tell HER, but the first to tell you.)
Certain shit that might be defensible if you’re Jane Black dealing with some half-assed security guard doesn’t play when you’ve got the media on your ass and you’re supposed to represent at least a cut above the average pissed-off person-of-color down the street. I’m not asking for Congressional representatives to be pristine heroes, but they shouldn’t act stupid or arrogant when they’re dealing with small potatoes. McKinney characterized this as “much ado about a hair do” in a rather weak encounter with Soledad O’Brian that I caught over at Arianna’s. If that’s the deal, she blew it. If she’s not bigger and more dignified than a security cop – and she lets push come to shove when it could easily have been avoided – she’s a drag on anything worth defending that she purports to stand for.
April 5th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Without retracting a word I said about McKinney, who’s one of my least favorite “liberals”, here’s an (old) profile of her that shows the Representative (and her father, who’s been characterize roundly as an anti-semite) to be – duh – a more complex person than she’s often portrayed. (I’m trying to be fair and, hopefully, revealing of her as a human being, not defensive of her role as a public figure.)
http://www.atljewishtimes.com/archives/1999/110599cs.htm
April 5th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
While we’re on the subject of “objectively stupid people” in public life:
http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2006/04/karen_hughes_vi.html
April 5th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
The lady is indeed a wack job, and I certainly don’t admire her for some of the aforementioned reasons (how courageous is it to call for an investigation into Shakur’s death when your district is about 70% black)?
The worst part of all is that, much like the right enjoys doing, she is cheapening the concept of racism by haphazardly throwing the term around like some crazy trump card. She does a disservice to the its victims in ways that I hope she realizes one day. Forunately, the state of Georgia can count on John Lewis as being a much more honorable champion than this unhinged woman.
April 5th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
The nastyness by which some folks are going after Cynthia McKinney — and they do this without knowing what really happened, just what some in the media SAY what happened (without being there themselves) — is emblematic, I suppose, of blogdom. But it just doesn’t sit right with me (for what it’s worth).
Let’s check out what another Nation columnist, John Nichols, wrote about McKinney a year and a half ago:
“McKinney was battered throughout the early months of the 2002 election season by right-wing political operatives and their allies in major media – as well as conservative Democrats – because she dared to ask tough questions about what members of the Bush administration knew before Sept. 11, 2001, about the threat of terrorist attacks.
“As we now know, McKinney’s questions were troublingly appropriate – since it has turned out that Rice and other Bush aides knew more than a month before the assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network were determined to launch devastating attacks on the United States.
“McKinney’s “crime” was to ask the right questions at the wrong time – i.e., before official Washington had decided it was appropriate to examine how and why the Bush administration had failed to respond to pleas from former White House anti-terrorism czar Richard Clarke and others for a more aggressive response to an increasingly obvious threat. Her punishment was ridicule, political abandonment and defeat for re-election in the 2002 Georgia Democratic congressional primary.”
She has stood alone as the only member of Congress to seriously cross-examine Rumsfeld about WMDs in Iraq. She fought to defund Project Prometheus, the nuclear propulsion rocket. And of course she sharply questions the U.S. government’s official conspiracy story concerning 9-11, and is demanding answers.
As for me, I think Cynthia McKinney is great.
Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party
April 6th, 2006 at 12:11 am
Glad u enjoyed Mitchell’s posts here Reg (
)
There won’t be anymore. Some day I will tell u why. It’s about the above turgid and tedious postings.
April 6th, 2006 at 3:33 am
McKinney is a “fool”, “whack-job”..etc.
She didn’t have the opportunity, but it’s not difficult to figure out which way *she* would have voted on the Iraq War.
I’ll give you a hint. It’s the opposite of John Kerry, Hillary Clinton or the other “sensible” and “rational” Democrats of whose ranks the “white middle-class liberals” reading this blog and dissing McKinney will likely be busy supporting in the next election.
More “fools” please!
April 6th, 2006 at 5:01 am
I’m willing to cut McKinney some slack: It’s very possible she thought that cop was a Jew.
April 6th, 2006 at 6:29 am
I don’t understand why very busy and important people like our elected representatives should have to subject themselves to checks of any kind. It demeans their status as servants of the people and more importantly, of themselves.
At least the Security Guards we pay to secure our government buildings had sense enough to accommodate their ‘special’ needs by providing a special line that allows them to bypass the magnetometer as well as any contact with ‘those people’ in line that pay them to represent them.
In addition, each special Security Guard in their special line is given special training to identify by site all over 400 of our special people so they don’t have have to identify themselves at all, a great time saver and ego builder. They apparently agreed to assist their special guards memory by agreeing to wear a special pin on their clothing to identify themselves as special. But as we have learned, sometimes they don’t wear it and sometime at the same time they have camouflaged themselves in a wacko hairdo.
This “McKinney Incident’ guard had the unfortunate luck to not only not recognize Ms McKinney’s…..pardon me, Congresswoman McKinney’s… I’m so sorry, as a member of a special class, but added insult to ego injury by also failing to recognize her two other special classes she quickly pointed to , a black and a woman.
April 6th, 2006 at 8:23 am
1) Regardless of the facts, the coverage of this story has been incredibly racist. We wouldn’t be hearing about the Isaac Hayes thing unless this story was blown out of proportion
2) Even if McKinney had struck the cop, she may twell have believed she was being attacke.d Before the story took off painting her as a villain, the capital police apologized to her.
3) As noted, while she is kind of out there (though Cointelpro was and probably is real,) she is an effective and strong legislator, good on foreign policy and has high grades from labor and progressive groups.
4) That this was a setup was entirely possible. That Ari Berman and Marc Cooper would slander her without conceding that she is innocent until proven guilty- and that they are ignoring context – speaks volumes. Especially Berman, who is not known normally for this type of slander, and who I cordially communicated with over a piece I wrote for Cpunch a few years back, should be ashamed of himself.
April 6th, 2006 at 8:58 am
John Lewis has asked her to stop the press conferences. I hope no one accuses him of being a racist.
April 6th, 2006 at 10:05 am
Why did Marc Cooper remove from here the actual transcripts I’d posted from Cynthia McKinney’s questioning of Donald Rumsfeld, and other related matters?
It’s easy to show someone is insane if you only characterize them and don’t allow others to see their actual words.
Censorship on this list? Seems so.
Mitchel Cohen
April 6th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Certainly I can see what makes people think that Cynthia McKinney is out of it, or even “racist.” But personally I don’t think she is either one. The interview that reg posted (thank you, reg, it is a very interesting account) includes an interview. In it, McKinney provides some insight into her view of her role. Paraphrasing Ellen Goodman, she opts for the model of a congresswoman who has “one foot inside the door and one foot outside…” That is how she performs her job, and I think it is good that some, if not all, in Congress think that way.
My view of McKinney is strongly influenced by former Congressman Andy Jacobs, Jr. He represented Indianapolis for about 36 years, and was himself a maverick, though considerably more conservative than McKinney on all but war and peace issues. He loved Cynthia McKinney, and was anxious to tell you so. Andy is brilliant, fair-minded and pretty much always right, so Cynthia McKinney has a lot of credit with me.
I think it is good to have someone whose antennae are sensitive, most would say too sensitive, to injustice and evil. She may well be wrong about this Capitol policeman’s reasons for stopping her. She certainly was acting impolitically in making a racial issue out of it. But I don’t think she is a “wack job” and I don’t think anything she has said about the incident invalidates her perceptions on the issues and more than Sen. Robert Byrd’s similar response invalidated the brilliant speech he gave advocating against a war against Iraq.
If the Nation no longer wishes to be associated with Cynthia McKinney, or finds her to be irresponsible, its position is appropriate. I, however, think it is unfortunate that one of the braver and more perceptive voices in the wilderness will be less widely heard.
April 6th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:
*29 have been accused of spousal abuse
*7 have been arrested for fraud
*19 have been accused of writing bad checks
*117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
*3 have done time for assault
*71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
*14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
*8 have been arrested for shoplifting
*21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
*84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year Can you guess which organization this is?
GIVE UP YET?????
IT IS THE 535 MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS. The same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.
The NOSY NATION gotta do this story!
Maybe, Cynthia McKinney is actually a step above the rest!
April 6th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
McKinney ‘apologized’ today. But exactly who did she apologize to?
A true and wise leader, when asked by an officer to stop, would turn around, comply with instruction, properly introduce themselves and THANK the officer for doing his job.
Better to make a friend, than an issue.
April 6th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
“Maybe, Cynthia McKinney is actually a step above the rest!”
Assuming your “statistics” are correct, except for for your first asterisk (which involves accusations of spousal abuse…) and fifth asterisk (assault), all of these alleged acts of wrongdoing are less serious than punching a security guard.
Still, in the absence of cameras and an eyewitness, we don’t know how hard the security person grabbed her arm. As comically unfounded as it may have been, she may have been struck with sincere fear.
April 7th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
You America-haters make me sick. This crazed woman (Democrats win slave-votes from blacks) beats brave cop almost to death and you defend her
Marc Cooper is good – critical of McKinney but where is the alternative plan??? Typical libdemcom cowardice failure to provide new ideas. Don’t you know all your fault?
I also blame libs for Darfur and the Mongols and the death of Jesus. Oh wait that was the Jews understandable that some hate them even though it is wrong?
Freedom!
April 7th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
[...] Marc Cooper notes an article in “The Nation,” perhaps America’s most prominent leftist publication, taking Cynthia McKinney on an obligatory trip behind the woodshed. Cooper writes, “it’s infinitely more important that McKinney be challenged by The Nation than, say, National Review.” [...]
April 10th, 2006 at 8:43 am
‘As for me, I think Cynthia McKinney is great.’
Me too! She should be hte next Dem nominee fro President.
April 11th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
As so much misinformation about Cynthia McKinney and the incident with the cop is being plastered to this list, I offer the following quotes from McKinney herself about this incident:
“I have served as a Member of Congress for more than 11 years. Throughout my tenure in Congress, I seem to evoke memory loss, especially from certain police officers who claim not to be able to recognize my face while I go to work everyday, representing the people of Georgia’s 4th Congressional District …
“Why my face is continually unrecognizable can only be answered by these offending police officers. Capitol Hill Police are given face recognition instructions as a part of their official training. Capitol Hill Police are required to recognize, greet, and distinguish Members of Congress as a part of their official role and responsibilities. In fact, according to the US Capitol Police, their mission is to protect and support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities. The US Capitol Police mission statement makes no distinction about selective application of its mission depending upon whether a Member of Congress is black, woman, or has a new hairstyle.
“But, honestly, this incident is not about wearing a congressional pin or changing my hairstyle.
“It is true that I have changed my hairstyle. It is true that at the time I was not wearing my pin. But many Members of Congress aren’t wearing their pins today. Just in the last hour, at least eight Members of Congress have been spotted speaking from the well of the House without their pins and even more have been seen on the Hill today not wearing their Congressional pin. How many of them were stopped by Capitol Hill Police? Do I have to contact the police every time I change my hairstyle? How do we account for the fact that when I wore my braids every day for 11 years, I still faced this problem, primarily from certain white police officers?
“This morning at approximately 8:57 a.m., I was going to a Budget Committee meeting due to start at 9 a.m. I was rushing to my meeting when a white police officer yelled to me. He approached me, body-blocked me, physically touching me. I used my arm to get him off of me. I told him not to touch me several times. He asked for my ID and I showed it to him. He then let me go and I proceeded to my meeting and I assume that the police officer resumed his duties.”
“I have counseled with the Sergeant-at-Arms and Acting Assistant Chief Thompson several times before and counseled with them again on today’s incident. I offered also to counsel with the offending police officer. I have agreed to try to remember to wear my pin and to notify Capitol Hill police every time I change my hairstyle.”
As on-line commentator Larry Chin explains, this was all to no avail. “The McKinney “slapping incident” has become 24-hour fodder for Fox News and other right-wing Bush psychopaths. Right-wing talk show host Neal Boortz called McKinney “ghetto trash.” The worthless Dennis Hastert rambled about McKinney being a “security” risk. The supremely criminal Tom DeLay, on his way out in disgrace, could not help calling McKinney an “arrogant racist” in his parting shot. Virtually every mainstream news broadcast, from national to local, have repeated the Republican sound bites, exclusively.
“More telling is the fact that a day after the incident, not one Democrat came to McKinney’s defense. Not one.
“This worthless and brutally corrupt neoliberal faction, led by the shameless Nancy Pelosi (no friend of McKinney’s) and the power-mongering Democratic Leadership Council, want McKinney muzzled as badly as the Bush forces do. They spent the better part of the days accusing McKinney of creating a distraction.
“Is the targeted intimidation of a sitting member of Congress a distraction? Or is the shameless deception of the Democrats in this “election” year the real distraction from the truly brutal realities of the “war on terrorism” (which the Democrats enthusiastically support), and a planetary Peak Oil/natural resource crisis, the real distraction? As the Democrats shamelessly claw, shill and collude for their seats on this sinking Titanic called the American empire, they are more than happy to toss an outspoken outsider and maverick to the wolves. It is these Democrats who deserve a good slapping.
“Today, McKinney issued an apology, even though she has nothing to apologize for. The African-American community knows it.
“As Wilbert Tatum wrote in a blistering editorial in the New York Amsterdam News, titled “Cynthia McKinney as role model”:
“Is this country fair? You’d better bet your ass it isn’t. Must Blacks do something out of the normal political process to express their rage, anger and resentment? Once more, you had better bet your ass we should because we are faced with the most hostile government in recent memory, not only a government that is rabid and greedy in the worst kind of sense but a government exploiting a leader who is little short of crazy.
“Cynthia McKinney and Maxine Waters and the other Black women in Congress had better watch out. If they have been targeted, as many of us believe that they have, there must come a defense for them. It must not necessarily come from the Black Caucus or the Black men in the Black Caucus, but it must come from somewhere.
“The Black men are afraid for their political lives. The Black women are afraid that their constituents will lose their lives if they are not protected by those who are supposed to represent them – two different agendas made necessary by this peculiar institution of slavery which we have inherited.
“Retaliation … though foolish it may be, is the only way that is going to give us immediate satisfaction. And don’t we really need satisfaction now? We have lost in every quarter, and the current administration is taking out the losses in the other quarters that remain in this administration. Think about the fate available to us in America now and decide which way you are going to go between now and Election Day 2006. As Edward R. Murrow would have said, ‘Good night and good luck.’ “
April 12th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
marc, i would love to slap that smug shit eating grin right off of your face. and i’d be sure to wear a free mumia t-shirt while i did it.
April 30th, 2006 at 9:17 am
Forgive me if I’m misinterpreting the people who are trying to justify Ms. Mckinney’s recent actions, much less her history…Are you saying to forgive her just because she is Black ? Have we not “dumbed down” enough in OUR society to accomodate people that just don’t get it !!! At this rate there will be no right or wrong, just a matter of one’s point of perception…Forgive me if I’m wrong… .