Thursday thought - fueled or fired?

Too often I just shut up. Sometimes you can't stay quiet. I've never listened to or seen Don Imus. Only briefly seen Howard Stern. They're in the same league as Rush Limbaugh in my book - name-calling, offensive, impolite, rude, arrogant, witless media personalities. They must have their fans as evidenced by ratings and the $$$ they command. Imus for certain has some new enemies. The rats are jumping ship.

All of these on-air personalities are protected by this little thing we call "free speech". I continue to try and make sense of the senseless. I probably feel its a bigger deal than some and a smaller deal than others. Sadly, its what we are as a citizenry - at least in current US culture.

It's hard to put into words how deplorable and uncaring his recent comments are to me. I can only imagine how it feels to be a young woman on the Rutgers basketball team. The public uproar will quiet him for a while. Given the benefit of the doubt, his apology is sincere. More on that later. He's horribly confused trying to equate being a "really nice guy" with being racist. They are not even remotely connected. The main story should make us all stop and think.

MSNBC fired him - or won't co-broadcast him - whatever the hell that means. Soon every major broadcast (NBC? CBS?) company will ditch him. Sponsors and advertisers are running like mad. Should he be fired? Probably. Will he find work again? Undoubtedly. Should he be made to shut up? Nope.

Here's what I'd like to happen. His face to face meeting with the team goes well. He should be nervous as hell. He realizes, through conversation, that he's part of a big racial wound in the world - and particularly the US. He goes on to be an advocate for understanding differences and sensitivity toward one another. We all become part of the solution to actually living what we believe to be true in a democracy - that all are created equal. That gender, race, color, creed makes no difference. It's hard work and we don't care for the really hard work.

Update: From AP on Friday AM . There is also a Friday PM story from the AP via the SF Examiner which I'm not going to link (copyright and all that jazz) - you can read it in the paper in the morning :) - or online right now at your favorite newspaper site.

Essentially, the team accepted Mr. Imus apology and is in the "process of forgiving". As I rambled on above, this singular incident is not only an individual problem for Don Imus but societal as well. I am eternally hopeful that somewhere in the mess is a spark toward change. Alas, there are many who feel firing was too harsh. I say "tough".

And here's a fine blog entry on MP's Daily Fix by word wizard, Eric Frenchman, long time Rutgers Women's Basketball Team fan.

What do we want to learn?

Did you know March 8 is International Women's Day?

Yes, it may seem a silly question. Yes, it may seem a poor heading for a post. And yes, it may have been more appropriate to have this up yesterday or the day before. But something odd happened to me at a Toastmasters meeting yesterday - and its worth a blog post.

Yesterday was International Women's Day 2007. Every year on March 8:

"...International Women's Day (IWD) is the global day connecting all women around the world and inspiring them to achieve their full potential. IWD celebrates the collective power of women past, present and future."

In some ways, it surprises me is there is not more notice given this day - at least in the US. In other ways, it's not so surprising. Our male dominant culture - dare I say sexist - often times views recognition of women's power as threatening? insignificant? propaganda?

What got me thinking about empowering women - again? still? - was a posting by Frank Sennett - a Spokane blogger. Last month he put up a good summary of his newspaper story at Women in the Blogosphere. The full story can be found here. To summarize, reports and stats may say the "Men continue to dominate the blogosphere's most prominent real estate" but he share's pretty convincing evidence that ain't the case! And I certainly find myself reading and interacting with terrific blogs written by women.

Then I stumbled onto Shawns post at The Good, The Bad, and The Green. WOW! Here is a guy can put his own journey in perspective. Read it if you dare!

Which leads me to the question posed during Table Topics. TT is a portion of the standard Toastmaster meeting where you are given a couple minutes to speak extemporaneously. Its a nervous time even for accomplished and confident speakers. Think on your feet and try to speak:) The Topic Master queries - "Bob, what is the one stereotype of women you most often hold?"

Can you say adrenaline rush? or heart pounding horror? I took a deep breath. Imagine a schoolyard filled with women. Each woman represents a male held stereotype - fickle, flighty, moody, weak, object, trophy, maid, domineering, emotional - you get the idea. Throw a rock into the yard and whoever it hits - I am guilty of holding that stereotype. Let me stress, its not about guilt. I'm a male in a sexist culture. Its about recognizing biases. Must have struck a chord because I won the award for Best Table Topics! (I sure was shaking!)

I celebrate the uniqueness of each individual and the wonder of gender differences. But this is about equality and recognizing we ain't there yet. Every day we have the chance to get closer. Thanks for allowing me the chance to jump on my podium.

How Green are you today? Tomorrow?

Today is a blog publishing day! Hooray! And for a change of pace, I ran into this video about a scooter from Piaggio - they call it MP3. No it doesn't play music but it sure looks like it sings! Its got 3 wheels.

Its a little bit spendy ($7K) but a trick little machine. The video runs about 4 1/2 minutes. If you want to read about it - this is the spot. All sorts of video here, too.

I'm a tree hugger - plus I sing folk songs and bluegrass. This little vehicle has been around all year and I'm only just now seeing it? A quick Google search returned blogger postings beginning May 2006.

I know its impossible to keep track of everything - but how can we expect to change the world (and help preserve Mother Earth) when cool items like this seem to be secrets? Is it marketing - intentional or poor? Is it failure of mass media? Is it only a US phenomenon? I'm curious - feel free to rant if you choose.