Poor Shirley Sherrod. I see now she wants to meet the president to talk about race. Next thing you know she’ll want a talk show gig.
Hon, it’s not about you.
This story is about the news media. It’s about “journalists” who don’t check their sources, either because they are incompetent, or much worse, because they are malevolent in using anything to promote their political agenda.
And, to a lesser extent, it’s about politicians, who cowed by the news media, fire people without due process.
It’s about our broken systems.
I think it’s the “much worse” side you mentioned. Definitely politicians cowed by the media and especially by the other party whom they beat. The majority didn’t elect them to act like losers who allow themselves to be bullied.
Seriously: I think her story would make a great movie. Forget the recent part, with the “scandal” and all. The part about her father being killed and her becoming an advocate for black people and then realizing that there were white people who needed just as much help. That’s the story, and I think it would be a really good one.
Yes, you’ve got it right. How do you fix the systems, though?
As I was listening to NPR today while I was on my way to work, they were talking about hunger in America (40 million people), and particularly children (10 million). While they were discussing efforts that are being made to fix this problem, I heard a good quote:
“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.” ~Jonathan Kozel
My sentiments exactly…. If enough of us did that, we would make the world a better place. All the hand-wringing in the world over our sorry state of affairs doesn’t fix one single thing. We need to take action, and every effort counts, no matter how small.
There’s that African proverb: If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try sleeping with a mosquito in the room.