Monroe Anderson

In Search of Intelligence in the Multiverse. Not this dubious dozen, not this year

 

                    2007 Keystone Props

George W. Bush–For seven long years of being stuck on stupid. When the worst president in our nation’s history isn’t incompetent, he’s dishonest or foolhardy.

Dick Cheney–For not being a straight shooter in any right, at any time.

 

Ann Coulter–For her statement on Donny Deutsch’s CNBC show The Big Idea which says it all: "That is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews."

Leona Helmsley–For taking her “Queen of Mean” moniker to her grave by leaving a $12 million inheritance to her pet dog.

Alberto Gonzales–For instituting cockeyed hiring and firing practices in the U.S. Department of Justice and not having a clue what “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” means.

O.J. Simpson–For not being content to have gotten away with murder, insisting on retrying his luck over some of his tacky sports memorabilia.

Katt Williams–For wearing a noose around his neck as a fashion accessory with his shiny pink suit and at the BET Hip-Hop Awards while introducing two of the Jena 6, Bryant Purvis and Carwin Jones.

 

Andy Young–For mouthing his squirrelly theory that screwing a lot of black woman makes Bill Clinton more black than Barack Obama.

Roy Pearson–For flaunting his foolish judgment by attempting to take a small Korean cleaners to the cleaners in insisting on a $57 million lawsuit over a pair of his pants.

Bill O’Reilly–For decrying “the anti-Christmas jihad,” for exclaiming that surprisingly black people at Sylvia’s in Harlem are no different from other people and for blow-harding other disingenuous neo-con banalities on his nightly Fox Cable ego show.

Rush Limbaugh–For the mouthpiece of the right-wing's ever-predictable hypocrisy and his racist buffoonery, most notably his airing of the dumb ditty, Barack the Magic Negro.

Erik Rush–For taking his screwball right-wing Christian blog from dumb to dumber while lusting for his 15 minutes of fame by comparing Chicago’s Trinity United Christian Church, where Barack Obama and thousands of other middle-class African Americans from the Windy City worship, to the Branch Davidians because of its pro-black mission.

Cowardly is as cowardly does

 

    There he goes again. In his statement on the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from his Crawford, Texas ranch, President George W. Bush said that “the United States strongly condemns this cowardly act by murderous extremists who are trying to undermine Pakistan’s democracy.”
    I’m not sure whether the president intentionally or unintentionally uses English like it’s a second language but it’s not the first time he’s misused the word coward. Right after the 911 attacks, he called the terrorists cowards.
    In both today’s murderous attack on Pakistan’s most popular politician and the 2001 horrendous attacks on the twin towers at World Trade Center and the Pentagon, “cowards” is hardly the best description.
    Fanatics, of course. Kamikazes, yeah. True believers, most likely. Crazies, for sure. But cowards, no.
    I can’t imagine a coward commandeering a jet plane into a New York skyscraper or wading into a crowd of political supporters before firing off a couple of rounds then blowing himself up. Warped, no question. Cowardice, don't be silly.
    A coward is someone who freezes while reading to young children when he learns that there’s been an attack on the nation he leads, then flies around hither and yonder for hours before ordering Air Force One to land so that he can show that the decider’s in charge. A coward is someone who has benefited more than most from his nation’s freedom but uses his father’s connections to get a safe and cushy job as a national guard pilot while others, less fortunate and less connected, go to Vietnam to die. A coward is someone who’s afraid his legacy is going to highlight his incompetency so he pigheadedly refuses to bring the troops home, while hiding behind patriotic jingoism.
    But I could be wrong. Pakistan is critical to our war on terror. Let’s see if Bush thinks enough of that country and a fallen member of its most powerful political family to show his respects.
    Never mind. Lucky for President Bush, the incredibly courageous Bhutto's funeral service happened so quickly there was no way for him to display his courage by attending.

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Joe English is not connected to the not-right Republican presidential candidates

    Getting the wrong information can occasionally be a good thing. Here I am sitting on the beach at the Silver Sands Resort in Duncans, Jamaica with my laptop at hand. My friend, Joe English, told me that 56K internet access here costs $8 for half an hour, something that seemed to be not worth the effort or expense.
    Joe, a retired, rich-enough Westside Chicago real estate baron, loves Jamaica. He comes here every two or three weeks for 10 days or so. This is his 105th visit in the past 18 years. He has stayed in nearly 20 of the 90 villas for rent at Silver Sands. He knows some of the locals and some of the bigwigs. So I figured he’d know what he was talking about when it comes to the costs of things. As it turns out, Joe got it half right. It is 56K access, but if you have your own laptop, it’s only $5 an hour.
    But I am on vacation. And the sandy beach, the blue water and the Red Stripes have not exactly put me in the mood for research and writing. I am reading though. Right now, I’ve got What is What, The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers. It’s a novel about one of the Sudan’s Lost Boys, his journey to escape and, as a result, to Atlanta. If you’re confused by how I’ve just described the book, I understand. You’re going to have to Google the novel or check it out at www.amazon.com if you want an expanded explanation of what’s going on. I’m 25 pages in and fascinated.
    I’m also reading Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail ‘72. I’m amazed at how many parallels I’m discovering between then and now. The least surprising is that the Right is still wrong.
    Take my word for it. My latest column for Ebonyjet.com explains some my misgivings about, and observations, on the Republican party’s presidential field. I’ll have more to say as the campaign continues.
    I’ll be back sometime between tomorrow and the day after Christmas.

Voice Your Choice
In the presidential race, Republicans, once again, leave us no choice in the matter. A cursory review of the content of their character.
Friday, December 14, 2007
By Monroe Anderson

    The two-party pool of candidates for African American voters boils down to this: There are the Democrats, on the one hand, and there are the Democrats on the other.
    As far as the Republicans candidates are concerned, blacks need not apply.
    This was again obvious in September, when Republicans Willard Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain and Freddie Thompson decided to pursue other interests rather than appear at the All-American Presidential Forum hosted by Tavis Smiley.
    These men were only taking the cue set by their latter-day GOP saint, Ronald Reagan, seven presidential elections before them. In 1980, the star of B-movies and former California governor kicked off his campaign for the general election in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the infamous site where three civil rights workers–James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner–were murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen during the civil rights struggle16 years earlier. This was Reagan's not-so-subtle signal to white southerners that closed minds think alike. It was also the beginning of the Republican party's "Southern Strategy" that resulted in the last of the Dixiecrats turn-coating in droves to join the GOP.
    In his Mississippi speech, Reagan announced that he believed in states' rights and that "we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the Constitution to that federal establishment." He promised to "restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them."
    Nearly three decades later, Republican candidates are still trying to win one for the Gipper. Consider:
    Romney–When the former Massachusetts governor gave his speech defending his Mormon religion, he neglected to explain how he had tolerated the church's official racist policies. It wasn't until 13 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was passed that the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints got around to no longer officially excluding blacks. And while Romney's explaining what he knew about the church's racist practice and when he knew it, he should also explain why there are no blacks as top-tier advisers on his campaign staff.
    Giuliani–He made national news when four of New York's finest cornered Amidou Diallo, a black immigrant from Guinea, in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building. The plainclothes cops fired 41 shots at Diallo. Unarmed and not a suspect of any crime, Diallo died while trying to go home. Guiliani is now running on 9/11 and his boast of cleaning up New York but when the city's blacks speak of "Giuliani time," there's no nostalgia.
    Ron Paul–For some reason, the Texas congressman is the highest polling Republican presidential candidate among blacks. Surely that won't hold when word gets out that he has informed his closest supporters that "our country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists -- and they can be identified by the color of their skin." Small wonder he has become the darling of the Ku Klux Klan and the Skinheads.
    Thompson–The former U.S. Senator from Tennessee, off-and-on actor and lobbyist, in a speech to the Federal Society, an organization of radical right jurists and lawyers that has pretty much hijacked the nation's jurisprudence system, said: "We need judges and justices who understand that imposing racial quotas is really a denial of what America is all about."
    McCain–His anti-civil rights voting record is right there with the worst of them. He's been rated zero percent by the ACLU. In July 1995, the Arizona senator voted yes on banning affirmative action hiring with federal funds. As a member of the U.S. House, he voted against the Dr. King national holiday.
    Mike Huckabee–The Southern Baptist minister has not exactly been at the forefront of issues that concern African Americans. But his active courting of black leaders and ministers back in the late 1990s was enough for him to garner 48 percent of the black vote while he was the governor of Arkansas.
    Compare them with the Democratic field where there's an African American, a woman, a Mexican American and a fistful of other candidates who are not antediluvian.
    So choose carefully in the fast-approaching primary elections because you'll have only one choice next November when the general rolls around.
    Monroe Anderson is an award-winning journalist who penned op-ed columns for both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. He is a regular contributor to Ebonyjet.com.

Going to some sun and fun

It looks like Christmas here in Chicago. The snow is falling. The lights are twinkling. The hawk is howling. I'm taking my younger son, Kyle, to Jamaica. We'll be back Christmas Eve. We're staying in an area that's away from the tourists, where the locals live. It costs $8 for half an hour of 56K access.

I'll be posting back here in the winter wonderland somewhere between when the Christmas gifts are being unwrapped and the leftovers are being warmed up.

While I'm gone, be sure to click on the Tina Turner YouTube video below. Once it ends, there are many others available. They're all worth watching.

Happy holidays.

The Good Ike Turner

In her heyday back in the 1950s and 1960s, stand up comedian Jackie Mabley was billed as "the funniest woman in the world." Moms Mabley, as she was known, had a vaudeville and chitterlings’ circuit beginning that eventually landed her 20 comedy album recordings and appearances in movies and on network TV.

One of Moms’ running routines revolved around how much she loved young men and how little use she had for old ones. "Ain't nothin' an old man can do for me," Moms, who died at 81 in 1975, would joke, "but bring me a message from a young man."

There is still one Moms Mabley joke I find myself repeating from time to time. It goes like this: "They say you shouldn’t say nothing about the dead unless it’s good. He’s dead. Good."

I thought of the Moms Mabley when I learned that Ike Turner had died Wednesday and read what a representative of ex-wife, Tina Turner, had to say: "Tina is aware that Ike passed away earlier today. She has not had any contact with him in 35 years. No further comment will be made."

Ike was eight years older than Anna Mae Bullock. At the time they met, she was a teenager. He renamed her Tina Turner, married her, gave her second billing in their dynamic R & B duo and physically abused her all along the way. The gist of the rise of their world-renowned rock star career and the fall of their troubled marriage is depicted in Tina’s 1993 biopic, What’s Love Got to Do with It?

At 76, Ike died a Grammy-winning music legend with some historians debating whether his "Rocket 88," recorded in 1951, was the first rock and roll song. But for all the good Ike Turner did professionally, he’ll always be remembered as the fool that beat Tina Turner away.

This is a message the old can pass on to the young: In these modern times, the good things you do publicly can be buried by the bad things you do privately.

Return of the Invisible Man

        The renegade Republican, Alan Keyes, has popped up in presidential politics. Again.
    Although he announced his candidacy in September, and unlike four of the top-tier Republican candidates–Willard Romney, John McCain, Rudolph Giuliani and Freddie "Fred" Thompson–showed up at the All-American Presidential Forum hosted by Tavis Smiley, the radical right’s rare black man has not really been seen on the scene.
    So his appearance in the Des Moines Register's Republican presidential debate Wednesday was unanticipated and unappreciated by the GOP’s usual candidates. Largely ignored by the other presidential hopefuls, Keyes managed to get in his two cents worth yesterday, creating a debate debacle, because in the Register’s October poll, he pulled two percent of likely Republican caucus-goers. Two percent was the magic number, making him eligible to verbally mix it up with the rich, well-heeled white boys.
    Keyes brought his firebrand attitude to what would have been a sleep-inducing display on nation hugging, flag waving and platitudes uttering. "These folks represent the very elite who,” Keyes pointed out in the debate, “year after year after year, have destroyed our Constitution, betrayed our rights and undermined our strength created by our people in the world."
    The full-frontal attack was classic Keyes. He flaunted it in his first bid for the Repub presidential nomination in 1996 and the bid after that in 2000.  I saw him clash and clown here in Illinois in 2004 when the Marylander ran a carpetbag campaign against Barack Obama for the U.S. Senate. As he added to his growing list of loses, Keyes was extraordinarily entertaining, if nothing else.
    After checking out the better-financed, better-polling Republican field, I wouldn’t mind seeing an Obama-Keyes rematch next year in November. That would be history repeating itself–and historical.

Andy Young's old school politics

I had planned to stay out of the Andrew Young, Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton fray. That was before I watched the video. Then, I couldn't resist. Here's my latest ebonyjet.com column.

              

Youngian Psychology
analyzing andrew young is easy. getting him on the couch is a different matter.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
By Monroe Anderson

While Oprah Winfrey was putting together the final touches on her travel plans to Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire where she'd help Barack Obama draw record crowds at his campaign rallies, Andrew Young's video was going viral.

So by now, you may have seen –or read-- Young pontificating on why he thinks Obama is too young to be the next U.S. president and what he thinks of Hillary and Bill Clinton. "I want Barack Obama to be president," Young says on tape. "In 2016."

Young expressed concern that while Sen. Clinton is surrounded by quite a few black advisors Obama has very few, a concern, he said, because, "To put a brother in there by himself is to set him up for crucifixion."

Candidate Obama, like candidate Clinton, and unlike candidate Mitt Romney, has enough top advisors who are black, to help keep the Romans at bay. The experience-versus-inexperience argument pales just as much as the light-on-black-advisors argument. A President Obama administration will be drawn from the same Democratic pool of advisers as would a President Hillary Clinton or a President John Edwards administration. President Obama could appoint former President Bill Clinton to a cabinet position -– something his wife would not be allowed to do by law.

In the video, which is a recording from a September 5 TV interview on Atlanta's "Newsmakers Live," you can see Young saying what I'm embarrassed to say that he said. But while I was embarrassed, others were incensed. The Jack and Jill Politics blog was so turned off by Young, who went on to describe Bill Clinton as "every bit as black as Barack," that it declared: "Andrew Young, I Hereby Revoke Your Black Card."

Personally, I prefer not to kick Jimmy Carter's former U.N. ambassador to the curb but rather, respectfully assist him to a permanent sideline seat where all cameras and microphones are banned.

Andy Young, after all, is a civil rights icon. He bears many scars from the early struggle. He was a lieutenant in Dr. Martin Luther King's movement. He was at the civil rights leader's side when an assassin's bullet struck him down at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He was a comfort to widow Coretta Scott King for many years after her husband's death. And he went on to establish a successful political career of his own.

Andy Young has not only lived history, he's made it. He may have, as that old axiom goes, forgotten more history than Obama knows. And that may go to the heart of the matter.

Young, I fear, has forgotten too much. He's apparently forgotten how Maynard Jackson, at 35, was considered a young Turk who should wait his turn before attempting to become Atlanta's first black mayor in 1973. Had Jackson waited for more experience, then Young may never have become Atlanta's second black mayor.

Young has obviously forgotten that Bill Clinton was 46 when he became president -– one year older than Obama is now. Or that the U.S. Constitution only requires that the president be 35 years old.

Young may have also forgotten that it's better not to think aloud or to speak loudly while not thinking. The civil rights leader resigned last year from a short-lived position as "image builder" for Wal-Mart. He unexpectedly stepped down after he told the Los Angeles Sentinel, an African-American weekly newspaper, that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had "ripped off" urban communities for years, "selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables."

Young's undiplomatic quote on Jews, Arabs and Koreans was about as helpful to Wal-Mart as his equally undiplomatic quote about Bill being as black as Obama and that, "He's probably gone with more black women than Barack."

The 75-year-old former Atlanta mayor added that he was "just clowning" about that one.

Somehow, I don't think Hillary is amused.

Monroe Anderson is an award-winning journalist who penned op-ed columns for both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. He is a regular contributor to Ebonyjet.com.

                                      

City pays but Chicago's torture cop still at large

    The City of Chicago will have to cough up $20 million to four black men who were tortured into murder confessions by former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Graham Burge and his detectives. It may just be the tip of the iceberg.  Over a two-decade period, Burge and his midnight crew, all white cops, tortured more than 100 black prisoners. The Chicago policemen used electric wires attached to the men’s genitals and suffocation, among other tactics, to coerce confessions to crimes the suspects claim they didn’t commit.
    Burge, who was fired from the CPD more than 15 years ago, lives in Florida off his police commission and on his yacht, aptly named the Vigilante. Civil rights attorneys and some of the city’s black aldermen are still pushing to have the rogue cop arrested and prosecuted for his unspeakable crimes. The local judicial system says that since the torture occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, the statutes of limitations give the bad apples a pass. The civil rights lawyers believe differently. They argue that there has been an ongoing cover-up of the torture case that can be traced all the way up the clout chain to Mayor Richard M. Daley, who was state’s attorney back when some of the atrocities were being administered.
    The case is not closed.
    Here’s a column I wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times op-ed page in the Controversy section on August 13, 2006.

Not too late for charges in torture cases
BY MONROE ANDERSON

This much cannot be contested: Jon Graham Burge was a sadistic Chicago cop who got his jollies by routinely and systematically torturing black men. Cmdr. Burge and his midnight crew at Area 2 tortured more than 100 men over two decades. In some cases, Burge and his detectives tortured the old-fashioned way, using flashlights, blackjacks and telephone books. Many other times they went above and beyond the call of cruelty, hand-cranking a telephone box that generated an electrical current, then putting it to the genitals and rectums of their African-American victims.

These accusations of torture have been an open secret for nearly three decades throughout much of Chicago's criminal justice system. I remember hearing rumors of suspects being tortured when I briefly covered Criminal Court at 26th and California in the late '70s. The Report of the Special State's Attorney, released late last month, dismissed any doubts. Edward Egan, who led the four-year, $6.2 million investigation, found that in the '70s and '80s, Burge and his men tortured suspects into making confessions. The report concluded that the statute of limitations has expired, making it too late to file charges against the bad cops.

This is what must be contested: that time has run out for anybody to do some time for committing or covering up this series of barbaric crimes. The sadistic torture may have ended when Burge was fired 15 years ago, but there was then and there is now a blueprint for whitewashing the two-decades-long actions of Burge and his boys.

Think of it as the everlasting Three-Monkey dodge: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. This is how it worked as a wink-and-nod conspiracy. The police officers at Area 2 didn't hear the screams of detainees as Burge and his midnight crew worked them over in the basement. They didn't see the body burns and bruises after the suspects emerged singing confessions like lovesick canaries. They followed the code of silence if one of them happened to spot the black box used to shock the prisoners when the door to the torture chamber swung open.

The prosecutors in the Cook County state's attorney's offices didn't see the repeated motions from defense attorneys to suppress evidence because their clients had been coerced to confess to a crime they did not commit. The prosecutors in the state's attorney's office saw no reason to investigate the steady stream of cries from civil rights and defense attorneys that the suspects' constitutional rights were being violated. All this went on even when the state's attorney was Richard M. Daley and his No. 2 guy was Dick Devine. Both men managed to see nothing -- except maybe that letter from then-Police Supt. Richard Brzeczek asking them how to handle torture allegations by prisoner Andrew Wilson -- or hear nothing and therefore had nothing to say.

Even after Daley became mayor and Devine took his boss' old job, both men remain in the Three-Monkey stage. Both had plenty of opportunities to check out the truthfulness of the charges. Neither did. Maybe they'll get around to it before the next election. Burge and his detectives have continued to lie under oath, denying that anybody got tortured at any time.

The one thing the Watergate and Monica Lewinski scandals taught us is that it's not the crime, but the cover-up that gets you. So here's one more item for Patrick J. Fitzgerald to put on his to-do list: Check to see if former State's Attorney Richard M. Daley, like the current mayor, Richard M. Daley in the city's patronage hiring scandal, was a bad manager with a bad memory or is a bad liar with ethics to match.

Civil rights attorney Flint Taylor is calling for a federal investigation, pointing out the cover-up, conspiracy and perjury while arguing that statutes of limitations don't expire as long as the obstruction of justice and conspiracy continues. That's an argument federal and local prosecutors use all the time while pursuing criminals.

Taylor says Fitzgerald should use the same federal prosecutorial philosophy that sent Al Capone to jail, not for murder and bootlegging, but for failure to pay taxes on his ill-gotten gains.

If the muckraking federal prosecutor listens, then we'll see if what's good for the criminal will be good for those in the criminal justice system as well.

In search of intelligence in the multiverse. Not from this view

Sherri Shepherd, the newbie host on The View, the quasi-funny comedian and the true True Believer, once again proved herself a disgrace to the race. Today on the nationally-syndicated TV show, Ms. Shepherd said that "I don’t think anything pre-dated Christians," in a discussion on whether any religions existed before Christianity. In mid-September, Ms. Shepherd put her ignorance on national display by admitting she didn’t believe in Evolution and didn’t know if the world is flat. If I didn’t know better, I’d think The View has her on the show in a global, evil conspiracy to demonstrate that, unlike co-host Whoppi Goldberg, black women are naturally stupid. (Memo to Ms. Shepherd: The Bible really is a good book but here are three others you should tackle before going on to many more. They are: How to Read a Book, The Origin of the Species and A History of Civilization. Oh, one more must-read for you, Paula J. Giddings' When and Where I Enter.)

 

E-mails about the I-Man

   

    When I wrote my column at Don Imus’ firing in April, I got an avalanche of e-mails. I’m sharing a few of the 363 I received. As I mentioned my Sunday’s post, I argued that instead of jettisoning the shock jock off into cyberspace or somewhere else where he wouldn’t be accountable, we should give him a chance to prove he’d learned his lesson. Well, if we are to take him at his word from his first new broadcast, he has become much wiser. He not only has a black woman, as I suggested in my column, but a black man as well. Since Karith Foster and Tony Powell are  both comedians, we'll have to wait and see if their voices measure up to the mega watt that heir boss projects.

    Time, of course, will tell the tale but the I-Man seems to have become a new man. As you read the e-mails that I received (all were addressed to me, some assumed from the argument I made that I was white) after my April 15 Chicago Sun-Times column, the notion that he’d be a new, improved shock jock was not universal.

   

  Bob Herbert wrote in the NY Times, "The real question is whether this controversy is loud enough to shock Americans at long last into the realization of just how profoundly racist and sexist the culture is." You bet. You go to the court of public opinion with Al Sharpton as the judge and you're going to get lynched. 
    Imus got lynched. OJ is playing golf. Case closed.–KC Remington

    THANK YOU! For having the stones to go against the grain and put into print what most of us feel. Imus is a grumpy old foul mouthed ass, which is why i subscribed to MSNBC (and have cancelled since last thursday). I'm sure this will be a huge victory for that idiot Sharpton at the "Ebony-Awards". I wish i could speak up for Imus at the "Whitey-Awards". OH, wait a minute,  there is NO Whitey-Awards, cos that would be racist against Blacks. Thanks again for your courage to write this article.--Dana Olsvik

    Had your child worked hard to attend college and in the process was a runner-up in a national championship, then was referred to as a stringy haired cracker bitch, you might not have the same attitude.–Oscar Brewer, Jr.

    Don didn't cull anybody or anything.  He called an ace an ace, a spade a spade. I too don't care for tattoos, especially on women. Hate that women try to be a man; women should not be allowed to play any sport. America is the only country that supports, promotes women sports activities. The name of the game is money!
    The most unruly member of our body is the tongue. In the good U.S of A. our Constitution allows the American populaces freedom of speech.
    The King James Bible and the Torah blacks are mention in an uncomplimentary manner. The Bible, Torah written by men inspired of GOD.–Doug

   

    I have to thank you your article gave me a much needed chuckle. What black woman in her right mind do you think would go on that show? After how he has talked about Maya Angelou, Gwen Ifill and the girls on that team he has shown a contempt for black women in general.  No black woman had been on his show for years because he had a bad reputation. Why would you expect that to change after this mess?
    And do you think people wouldn't be able to see past the desperate tokenism involved in having this woman on his show? You may not feel he should have been fired however to think that the black community that never supported this man would work to save what was left of his career is crazy.–Valerie Logan

    Thank you for your article on the firing of IMUS. I have watched IMUS every morning for years and have come to depend on the show for my news. It is the only show where you can actually get to know political figures and get some honest, real dialogue. I disregarded his vulgar side (as a non, stick thin white female), and have to admit that I laughed at some, like Cardinal Egan. In any event, his show was personal to alot of people. Guests told stories about themselves and their families and their views on politics and other subjects. It was obvious that IMUS was a caring person and I think if brought out some caring viewers rather than the Howard Stern types. I also think it educated alot of viewers on issues they would never hear anywhere else, while also entertaining them and starting their day with a smile.
         It happened so fast, so unfairly. What other choices are there for his viewers? Fox and Friends? I don't think so. 
    I wonder how African Americans would feel if one day Tom Joyner disappeared for a mistake that discovered as a gotcha moment?
    Once again, thank you for your thoughtful and courageous and honest opinion.–Mary Cass

    imus got fired...and?  who cares, this isn't a blow to freedom of speech, heads up, there is no freedom of speech.  it's just another asshole out of a job, but don't worry.  he'll be back someday making more money than you and i, doing not funny things for not funny people.  and his cancer ranch, wow, those kids must be sooooo stoked to sit on a horse after chemotherapy!--Jonathan Heckman

    I couldn't agree with you more.  The crusade lead by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton was disgraceful.  They should clean up their own act first.  The sensible way to have handled this was a suspension followed by a restructuring of the Imus in the Morning show.  No one is excusing what he said.  But take a look at this man.  He is not a racist.  Left to handle it he would have turned this around to have a positive influence on race relations in this country.  All that has happened here has fanned the flames of racism that lie just under the surface in far too many Americans.  It has been a total over-reaction on the part of too many people.  Thanks for your column.--Pat O'Brien.

    YOU ARE A RACIST WHO IS JUST JUSTIFYING A LONG RECORD OF RACISM, STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND FOR ONCE ACCEPT RESPONSIBLITY FOR WRONG DOING! -KARMA WILL CHASE YOU DOWN LIKE THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST, BE IT THROUGH YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS OR YOUR OWN
HEALTH AND WE BEING--BRITTANY walker

    Monroe!  God Bless You!!  I read your piece on Imus on Google News.  He is needed more than not, I agree.  While I'm not a big fan of his, to have him removed from his post is beyond ridiculous.  I think Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Louis Faracon are the worst things that could have happened to black Americans.  Martin Luther King I put in the same light.  Instead of trying to lead their people in a positive direction, they'd rather stir shit for their own glorification and gain.  And what gets me is their people actually believe the crap they spew. I am hoping that this thing backfires on them, and even some of their own see them as the useless mouths that they are. 
    While indeed I think equal rights are for all, to me the whole civil rights thing teaches the blacks to not want an education, job, or fathers; just checks in the mail and any excuse to cry discrimination, racism, demonstrate, complain over nothing, and generate one more brain-dead resource-sucking generation after another.  They are in reality it seems
to me to be sealing their own doom, along with our own.
    What I see on BET and other black entertainment channels is about as vile, disgusting and sickening as anything I've ever seen.  I'm 56 years old and that crap should be outlawed I think.  What role models are they? The influence it has on young  people of any color is evident in the way they now act, talk, look and think.  I see America as I knew it when I was young gone forever, replaced by uneducated, lazy, fat, bent- valued, welfare-sucking, Godless, deplorable generations that are killing our country.  The USA will fall from the inside out, not from conquering armies the way I see it. While I'm  not racist I personally believe we've passed the point of no return, and if  we don't wake up and call a spade a spade (no pun intended) real soon, our society is in deep shit.
    I hope you don't get fired for putting your opinion in print, but chances are some are already lining up against you, to pin a racist tag on your butt.  You and the few others who are coming out on this ridiculous crap are about all America has left. I hope some good comes from it all.  Good Luck, and again God Bless You.  I hope some kind of way you have time to read this, and keep up the good work.–Gene

    Imus is wrong and should not have a show at all ever from the day he start his rampage of rude insults! I think that if you can even justify his actions.. then you also should be fired!–Wonderful Spendid

     Monroe, Why would you make such an insulting admonition? Was your intention or motive centered around getting some much needed guidance for future responses to "folks who get second chances and really deserve them."
    I grew up with you, I've watched you become the best at what you do in a number of areas of expertise in journalism one-up-manship. If  you don't have it all, it certainly appears you have accomplished and maintained a level of integrity that should not be questioned by suggesting such a stupid utterance that implies "not putting a muzzle on a pitbull that could possibly rip your throat out if a careless owner felt he was harmless."
    Perhaps you are working too many hours these days and should probably cut back ASAP.(lol) However, lets cut to the chase. Imus insulted a group of black women who did not deserve that kind litmus; attacking the winning ways of not only a team of skilled athletes but educated black women seeking their dreams of becoming  something other than just an athlete.    
   Monroe,  "What are you  thinking....give this guy a way out and surely he'll take it". He deserves exactly what he got, "Fired." I'm still disheartened that his cohorts did not get the ax ,also. Maybe they are five minutes away from career ending assaults that are going to come in the form of "Imus inspired retribution to continue his bullshit message of inclusion and exclusion of straight haired ho's". Are you getting the picture...? You don't need anyone to wonder where it is that you are now coming from at this particular time. Always...accurate and to the point have you come across...Please don't change your ways now because of an idiot who demeaning remarks and worthlessness all of sudden can impact the moral fabric of not only how we feel about our mothers but equally our daughters. Cast the stone where it belongs. –Paul Griffin


    As you stated, put a sharp tongue Black woman who perspective is totally different than Imus and his producer, and they will bow yieldingly to comprehending the derogatory remarks they make. First thing they would do is LOOK OVER at the Black Woman and think six times before saying it. Now there is no one to guard their mouths. If a person has been doing it for 30 years, some one else will find a way to pay them to continue to do so.–David Robinson

    Amen!
    Peoples anger often causes them to miss an opportunity to grow. After
9-11, it would have been very easy to sell this country on making personal changes to end our dependence on foreign oil. Instead of ending our entanglement with the middle easterners, we chose to kill them. Similarly, Imus could have ended up being the greatest example of
reformed thinking on the air. Instead we got more blood in the water. Its as if we never learn.--Corky Coreson