You Know, I Thought We Were Better Than That.

“I thought we were better than that,” has become one just another tired cliché.  I’ve pointed this out here, but this week while I was traveling another instance of our base ugliness made the news.  I am saddened that so many who view themselves as superior to so many others actually find ways to prove they are not.

On April 17^th Barbara Bush, wife of George H.W. Bush, passed quietly away after an illness.  By all measures, she was a fine woman, wife, mother, and First Lady.  She represented the strength and dignity of those who’ve become known as America’s Greatest Generation.  Before it became fashionable to recognize HIV/AIDS she used her position to bring a humanity to the plight of those infected.  As First Lady, she pushed hard to encourage America to read and be literate.  She was originally from Rye NY and will be buried today in College Station Texas.

Almost immediately after her death was announced, Professor Randa Jarrar, California State University, Fresno, felt compelled to take to Twitter to call Mrs. Bush and the Bush family all racists who deserved to die. She upped the ante when she pointed out she was a tenured professor who couldn’t be fired.  Completing the trifecta of petty, ugly, behavior she gave out the phone number of a suicide hotline for Arizona State University and told people upset with her to feel free to call her and debate the claim, thus closing the line to people who might actually seek counseling before attempting to kill themselves.

She was not the only person who felt compelled to show their ass but is the one I am most aware of.

Hopefully, her university and she will come to find there are consequences to their actions, but I am not holding my breath since so many believe being ugly to one another is somehow protected by the First Amendment and her supporters will claim any critic of her action must be a racist or (xxxxxx)phobe of some kind.