Thursday, January 28, 2010
Things That Make You Go Hmmm...
I could write about my continued watching of Lost and how I think the fate of Rousseau's science team was a big portent of the season finale. I could write about what everyone will agree was, at the very least, the best-delivered State of the Union address in the last ten years. Instead, I'm going to ask you to read this piece from former NBA player and, as of today, former ESPN contributor Paul Shirley and discuss. If there are no comments, I'll just give my thoughts tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
About the only thing nice I can say about the article is, I didn't notice any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. The next time Paul Shirley has a thought, he should probably just keep it to himself. Talk about basketball. He doesn't know what he's talking about, he clearly didn't do any research into the subject, and he's apparently incapable of feeling empathy (which, by the way, is the definition of psychopathy). Disgusting.
-Tom
I think the only comment I feel comfortable posting is that I find it somewhat ironic that one of his arguments is that adults should take responsibility for living in risky areas, yet he lives in the middle of tornado alley.
My biggest issue with what he says specifically is that he uses history as his guide, but totally ignores history. Maybe there are historical reasons why Haiti is so poor, such as how the US and other countries refused to recognize the country for decades after its independence for fear that their slaves would be empowered by the slave rebellion that led to Haiti's founding. His "those people are lazy and stupid" argument, to paraphrase, is the same argument a member of the KKK would make. Shirley isn't being racist, just ignorant, but he ends up at the same place.
I believe one of the classic embodiments of privilege is not having to take the effort to learn anyone's history but your own - and then failing to learn your own history as well.
Sadly, there will be more than a few on the interwebs who think that Paul Shirley is a brave voice who speaks truth to power.
-doug
Post a Comment