I know a Muslim group recently threatened you guys (or threatened that someone would threaten you guys) if you ran a South Park episode depicting a picture of the prophet Mohammed (pictured here), and I wanted to say thanks for at least giving it a whirl. No religion is above any other, and all are legal fodder for mockery. I'm hoping that you'll be able to extend your Muslim/Jew/Santa/Christian/Scientology bashing to something that happened earlier in this week: Helen Thomas' tirade, more specifically the response to it.
Helen Thomas, at the ripe age of 89, recently told a camera wielding rabbi that she thought the Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go back to Germany and Poland." Helen Thomas, a Lebanese immigrant, was swiftly outed from the White House Press Corps and forced into retirement for her statement.
Were her statements appropriate? Sure, they were her solicited opinion. She wasn't speaking on behalf of anyone. A man approached her with a camera and asked her what she thought about Israel. Odds are if I were a Lebanese immigrant who had to deal with Israel's periodic occupation of my country, I'd probably say the same thing. But that's not the point.
What's bothersome here is how quickly she was rushed out the door. After a decades (many, many decades) long career in journalism, Thomas said something as inappropriate as, at one point or another, all our aged, somewhat out-of-touch grandparents have said. Instead the viral video of her statement was quickly book ended with remarks indicating that she wanted to restart the holocaust because she's a zany Jew-hater.
I don't think that's true, and more to the point, I don't think it matters. Just like it's socially taboo to draw a picture of the prophet Mohammed, it's apparently equally taboo to share your opinions on the plight of Israel.
I understand that Helen Thomas is held to a different standard as a figure working in the public spotlight, and we should all be careful what we say into a stranger's camera. And Hearst Corporation (didn't they help orchestrate a war once?) can fire whomever they like. What I don't like is a person, be it Helen Thomas or whomever, getting blindsided by a man with a camera, being asked their opinion on something, and then being punished for sharing it. Was hers a politically savvy answer? No, but she's old!
So, what can you do to help? Remind us that old people, by virtue of being old, get a blank check to say whatever they want. They are bellweathers of former generations, telling us how people used to think and challenging our current belief structure. Sometimes it's downright racist, but censoring such people isn't going to make those beliefs go away, it will just damage the national dialogue that advances this great country and this great planet.
More so, the one part of the world that's been at relatively constant war for many millennium is probably the one part of the world that could use a reality check, a sense of humor, and a respect for open dialogue more than any other; and each side seems diametrically opposed to any of it.
So help us. Make us learn to laugh at things old people say.
Sincerely,
The Fourth Corner
P.S. Also, if you could put this guy in one of your episodes that'd be awesome.
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