C’mon, aren’t we ALL just like Joe, Serena & Kanye?

Yesterday as I was driving through the parking structure to get to my Doc’s office, this car in front of me was going like 2 mph & of course I was running late.

Without even thinking about it, I said out loud, “c’mon you jerk!  What on earth is wrong with you??”  And then I heard a little voice from the back seat.  It was Ransom.  He said loudly with an adamant tone, “Jerk!”

Oh, the shame.

I told him what I said was wrong and mean and I apologized both to him and the woman who never heard me.  I told him we shouldn’t call people jerks, etc. etc.

Oh, the guilt of being a bad influence on your very impressionable 3 yr. old son.

It got me thinking about the regret Joe, Serena & Kanye are feeling in the wake of the very public displays of emotion.  In some ways, I’m choosing to relate to them because I’m a very ‘high F” on the Meyers-Briggs (in other words someone who processes nearly everything through my emotions).  In a nutshell, I’ve made an arse of myself more times than one can count because of public displays of anger, emotions, lust, pride, grief, passion –you name it really & I’ve likely embarrassed & shamed myself in every way possible.

I’m choosing to relate to them because they let what they were feeling in the moment dominate their sense of right and wrong.  I’m choosing to relate to them because anger is a powerful emotion and one can easily be carried off by it.  And lastly, though I don’t know what it’s like to be a public figure, I’m choosing to have grace on them because their careless mistakes are being played out in front of millions of people, something I’ll never have to experience though I make similar mistakes often.

Here’s what I’m not saying: I’m not saying what either of them did was a.o.k.  I find all of it to be completely irresponsible and wrong on many levels despite the fact that they could be right.  I.E. Maybe Beyonce should have won.  I.E.  Maybe Obama’s plan will include immigrants.  I.E.  Maybe the ref was being too hard on Serena.  Who cares.  There are socially acceptable ways of interacting as human beings, therefore I do not excuse them but I do ask that we stop judging them so harshly that we don’t see how we are just like them.

I was disappointed today to read many of the hurtful things that are being said about Kanye today.  The article was called Kanye sparks an explosion of racism.  The gist: a bunch of people doing the same thing -via twitter- that Joe, Serena & Kanye did: acting out of anger.  But these folks are cowardly responding anonymously through racial slurs…

ODV1985: kanye west is monkey ass n****r! and should be lynched! taylor swift i love you girl! (these people are going somewhere in life)

JacobFredG: I realy hope I dont have any black followers and if I do just stop following me, Kanye West is a stupid n****r!

trevbandito: Watch’n the VMA’s and decicided to look up the word “N****R” In the dictionary, and low and behold was a pic. of Kanye West!!!!!!!!

Here are just 3 of the millions & millions of anonymous tweets.  Lord only knows all the angry things said about Rep. Joe Wilson in regards to his racism towards Obama and on and on.

I just hope we are all able to see that these tweets, our own angry facebook status updates (I admit before I knew what happened exactly I called Kanye a “poor loser”) and whatever other context we discuss this need to be grounded in the idea that participating in that behavior makes us no better than them & maybe even worse.