Hang In There, Dr. Bennett!




I've been awake going on 27 hours now. This is how I reset my sleep cycle. If I need to get used to going to sleep at a different time than my body is accustomed to, I simply skip a night of sleep, and then the next night I have no trouble falling asleep at the new time. Weird? Maybe. Masochistic? Quite. Still, it's better than sleeping pills. I don't even mind the headaches and stomach pains so much. However I am writing this from school, and in about an hour I have to drive home, which is about fourteen miles from here. I'd better get some caffeine in my system.

Anyway, that aside, I really feel bad for Bill Bennett. I don't agree with all of his positions, but this guy is in no way a fringe right-winger, nor an extremist by any measure of the word. I've listened to his radio show and cable news musings countless times, and if anything, he's one of the more honest, decent, level-headed Republican figures out there. He is certainly not a racist, although in the minds of some, a racist is a word for anybody who doesn't enthusiastically embrace the Democratic agenda. Case in point: Al Sharpton. On a recent episode of The Factor, Rev. Sharpton accused President Bush of being against black people, and when asked for an example as to why, his response was "affirmative action." Well, I'm against race-based preferences. I think they demean women and minorities and only hinder their progress in this society. Does that mean that I am against black people? That's like saying that a person who opposes PETA is against animals. Then again, I'm sure that some of my friends on the left would agree with that notion as well. How far we've come...

But back to Dr. Bennett. Some news outlets, like the UK's Guardian and our own MSNBC (which I regularly watch, by the way), have actually omitted key portions of Bennett's controversial observation to make it sound as though he actually advocates the abortion of black babies. Now I'm not much for the big "liberal media" conspiracy these days, but that is just shameful, regardless of where you may stand on the issues. The man was arguing what a horrific thing it would be to use abortion for economic benefits, and he's absolutely right.

And then there are other outlets, like Media Matters, which have noted Bennett's entire statement, but proceeded to attack him nonetheless, arguing that his implications about crime and race were inappropriate. Well, that may be true, but I can say from experience that when your job is to speak extemporaneously in a debate-like format, you're bound to misspeak from time to time. It happens. It happens to Democrats; it happens to Republicans. Perhaps Dr. Bennett would have been better served had he replaced the word "black" with "poor," as I might have done. So yes, in that regard, you can argue that his comments were insensitive, but racist? I fail to see how it is racist to allude to the overwhelming statistics about the relationship between crime and race. For more on this, I refer you to this great recent article by Larry Elder. The numbers are staggering. Now I'm saying that race is to blame for crime, and I don't think that Dr. Bennett was saying that either. I would attribute crime more to poverty and illegitimacy, but the sad truth is, a disproportionate number of African Americans are poor and from broken homes. So Bill Bennett was right. Race may not be the "cause" of crime, but it is most definitely a huge factor, so let's not ignore the elephant in the room. Dr. Bennett was attempting, in the spur of the moment, to concoct a worst case scenario, an illustration that was, well..."morally reprehensible." And judging by the media's response, I think he hit a homerun.

Finally, a few last words about the media. Where was the public journalistic outrage when Hillary Clinton made her insensitive comments about Ghandi? When Jesse Jackson referred to Jews as "hymies?" When Louis Farrakhan praised Adolf Hitler? How about Howard Dean likening African Americans to mere blue collar servants? I'm starting to think I should re-examine this whole liberal media thing...