...and not a little STUNNED. It's so wonderful to be surprised by finding integrity in our country from time to time, right? Monday, I almost blogged about how OJ Simpson was donating the suit he wore when he was acquitted to the Smithsonian Institute. I wondered if America'd stooped that low that anybody'd want to see it again let alone have it featured at that revered museum of learning.
Well, tod
ay,
this article says
the Smithsonian doesn't WANT IT. HURRAH! Do you think they should have had it there? Wouldn't that be rather like the
National Enquirer's nomination for the Pulitzer Prize for their uncovering of the John Edwards scandal?
Shouldn't certain institutions, like the Smithsonian or the Pulitzer, try to keep some semblance of dignity? But, then, of course, some will say
"that's YOUR idea of dignity...what's wrong with ....(dare I say) SLEAZE?" Maybe we really don't recognize sleaze anymore. What do you think?
z
11 comments:
Hi Z,
Well sleaze may be ok for some dingy pawn shop, but not the Smithsonian.
Thank goodness they refused the murderer's suit. Even infamy is too good for him. At least he's cooling his heels in prison. A small consolation at best.
When he kick's the bucket, they can bury him in that suit, and good riddance.
Pris
At least someone still has some class...
Have a friend that's joining the Smithsonian this month after a year of being out of work.
The OJ verdict represented the total failure of American Jurisprudence in my opinion. I say "good for the Smithsonian"!!! I'm sure he can find some tacky museum, somewhere, that will want it. Dillinger has one in Chicago and one in Nashville, IN that displays his personal effects... but they aren't in the Smithsonian.
HAM
Z,
I believe there's been a general erosion of civility and decorum in our society over many years.
I recall many years ago as a kid growing up in East LA (I believe you mentioned being an LA person as well?)carrying on in the street with friends. Loud and using foul language.A man opened his window and threatened to kick our butts if we didn't sit down and shut up and wait for the cops to get there.
What did this group of street-wise barrio kids do? We shut up and sat down on the curb and waited for the cops to come. An adult had told us to do something, so we did it.
Eventually we realized the cops weren't coming and we melted away. Point is,we were raised to respect adults.If we'd told our parents some man had threatened to kick our butts our parents would have done it to us first then made us go apologize.
I hope nobody reading thinks "yep, it's the liberals. Yep, it's the Democrats".
Nope.It isn't. It isn't political. My family, all the people I grew up with were liberal union hard working Catholics. Z you may have conservative roots but it would be the same hard working religious background.
It's a lot of things. Constant media digging into everything.We may not have agreed with our President years ago but we respected the office. No more, no matter the party.If a politician picks their nose it's reported. Disgusting TV reality shows, permissive because it sells. Parents working long hours. The America I grew up in, that we grew up in-isn't around much these days.
Z, I'm not trying to make a political statement here, just that we on the left and you on the right have far more in common than we sometimes think.
I do go on somtimes huh? Sorry!
I'm with you, we need to maintain a little class in the Smithsonian
Today, there are 3 teachers in South Central LA (very large minority) who had, among other signs, their kids carry signs of OJ, Rodman and RUE PAUL! I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT THE PARENTS WERE OUTRAGED THAT TEACHERS WOULD THINK THOSE WERE BLACK HISTORY MODELS FOR THEIR KIDS!
Pris, it was terrific they refused it...I was so appalled the day before when I learned it was being donated there and couldn't believe they'd want it!
Tom, tell your friend we're thrilled he or she's employed...All the best. To a good future! I hope you're enjoying your new job, too.
HAM, DIllinger stuff would be fun to see...maybe it's that it happened so much longer ago, but there was something so particularly sleazy about OJ; maybe it was because he'd been such a popular sort and then to do THIS....
OSO..you can never say too much here!
Yes, I'm in LA, nice to know you're an East LA'er...you still in LA? I have to admit I got kind of emotional reading your comment..those were the days when kids actually respected their elders, or at least were afraid of them. How do we get that back?
Oso, some day I'd like you to tell us why you went LEFT ...didn't you say you'd been on the Right before, or am I confusing you with someone else? Nothing you wrote sounds LEFT to me...
I have to admit, Oso, I think a lot of that permissiveness with kids started with leftists "i'm okay, you're okay" silliness..I think they've done a lot of bad to our country.
So, Oso...if you don't mind and you have time, tell us how you're different than I am, you did a BEAUTIFUL job reminding me how much we have in common. Thanks for that...it really did touch me, reading your words..of better times.
CHuck...if only all institutions would show that class.
Don't recognize sleaze anymore??
4 words: Nobel Peace Prize 2009
Good old Smithsonian;
didn't they turn down Monica Lewinsky's blue dress too?
Tackiness, tawdriness, unbridled vulgarity and zest for juicy scandals have been woven into the fabric of American Society for a very long time.
The Smithsonian is a repository of things uniquely American. It is not place devoted to presenting only the brightest, best and most beautiful things America has produced.
When I first visited The Castle as a ten-year-old, I was struck by its carnival-like atmosphere -- something closely akin to an exhibit put on by P.T. Barnum.
I'm not sure that gruesome and embarrassing artifacts produced by famous and distinguished American malefactors do NOT belong there. After all -- like it or not -- they are part of who we are.
I imagine the Smithsonian rejected O.J. Simpson's "gift" because of political-correctness. They were afraid NOT of its tastelessness, but of its capacity to reflect badly on black people in the minds of many.
~ FreeThinke
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