Monkeys in the Trees

I feel like Andy Rooney this morning. He's the guy on 60 Minutes who gripes about everything. He must be 100 now, and he's been griping as long as I can remember. Mostly, he gripes about silly, trivial things. It gripes me that he gets paid to do something that I would gladly do for free. And he really needs to trim his eyebrows.

But, this post isn't about irritating, overpaid commentators. It's about rascism. I despise rascism. Actually, I despise intolerance and bigotry in all its forms. I especially despise it when members of one minority hate members of another. When gay people make racial slurs, or black people make homophobic remarks, I actually find that more offensive than the same remarks by white rednecks. When you've been the victim of intolerance yourself, you should know better.

I also hate it when people are so ultra-sensitive that they see rascism, homophobia, or whatever behind every remark or action. This brings us to the topic of today's post. I read this week that one of Obama's delegates had been charged with disturbing the peace or something silly. The article didn't mention the delegate's race, but I'm assuming she was white. Apparently, this lady had seen a couple of black children climbing in a tree. Fearing for their safety (and the safety of the tree), she told the kids to quit acting like monkeys and get out of the tree. I don't know where the kids' mother was while they were climbing in the tree, but she either overheard the remarks or was told about them. Regardless, she called the cops.

I don't even know where to start on this one. First of all, the mother of the children should have been watching her children. I know that kids climb trees, but it's not the safest thing to be doing.

Secondly, I forget where this happened, but are we living in a police state where people can be ticketed for making innocent remarks? The judge wisely threw the case out, but it's incomprehensible that the cops actually issued a citation.

Thirdly, I realize that "monkey" has been used as a racial slur in the past. Does that mean that the word must be stricken from our vocabulary? Monkeys do climb trees. It's not unreasonable to compare children climbing trees to monkeys. If the children happen to be black, that doesn't make it a racial slur. If the same woman had passed these kids walking down the sidewalk and exclaimed "Look at the monkeys!", I could understand the mother's concern. That's not what happened. This lady is a delegate for Obama. I'm guessing she's not a rascist.

Finally, the lesson here is "mind your own business". Instead of confronting the children herself, the lady involved should have called the authorities to report child endangerment and destruction of city property. If social services in this place is as gung-ho as the police force, the children would be in foster care now.