Anna Nicole

Last week saw the untimely death of Anna Nicole Smith. The really sad thing to me about the death other than the obvious is how the media is turning it into a circus. It's like no one has any respect for the woman. For whatever people want to say she was, a model, a golddigger, an intoxicated media figure or whatever, she was a person and a human being who deserves some dignity and respect in death. Just like when her son died a couple of months ago, because of his relationship to her, the media was jumping everywhere and not even caring about the fact that a mother had lost a son. How do these people sleep at night? However, at least Anna won't be losing anymore sleep over them, R.I.P.

Stop Hatin'

This past Saturday saw the playing of the annual Pro Bowl of the NFL where all the All-Stars of each conference come out to compete against one another for the last game of the year which is purely exhibition. I saw a reporter talk to LaDanian Tomlinson on how his relationship was with AFC team coach Bill Belichick who Tomlinson had criticized after San Diego's loss to New England in the playoffs. Tomlinson told it like it was and said that he let some anger boil over because of a player dancing on the Charger's logo after the game to show disrespect and he said that he should have directed his anger solely at the player and not at the coach. The reason I am commenting on this is because after that altercation, everyone wanted to come out saying that Tomlinson had fooled everyone into thinking he was some nice guy when he is actually a thug at heart. Personally I think some of the comments are racially motived. Not every bulky brown skinned African-American is not a thug as some people would like to think. The bottom line is that everyone gets angry from time to time. No one can say that they don't. The NFL's sportman award is named after Walter Payton and I'm sure he blew up from time to time. Stop hatin' all you sportswriters who just want to attack someone when their not at their best. To those critics, I bet you wouldn't say all that stuff to LT's face, would you.

Why The Stupid Satire?

It seems that it the media, all ethics are dead and gone. Where are the Ted Koppels, Tom Brokaws, Peter Jennings, and Walter Kronkites. It seems like every story you here in the news now days has to have a cheap and taudry twist to get any coverage. It is damn near cartoonish. Everytime I watch the news, in order for a story to get any coverage there has to be some juicy plot twist in order for people to pay attention, or at least thats what the media wants you to think. When I was younger, my grandfather saw me reading a tabloid newspaper which at the age I knew was fake but the stories were entertaining, and he asked my why I read such trash and if I believed in such nonsense. I told him I knew the deal. Nowadays, it seems like all the serious media outlets have turned to such outlandish stories to get reader attention. Why, I don't know but everything from the evening news to CNN, ESPN, the E! channel and even some newspapers have begun milking scandal and legend instead of getting to the journalistic truth. I guess these days dollars speak over truth and justice.

Can't Get Right

This week in Pine Bluff, Arkansas the Royal Arkansas Hotel closed. This is especially disappointing because that meant that the ABA Arkansas Rivercats season was over because the hotel was their headquarters and home. Why is this hotel in so much dispair. It is supposed to be one of the elite in the city yet the hotel has changed hands more times than I can remember. You would think a hotel connected to a convention center should have no problems but that just tells you how bad the economy of Pine Bluff must be. Also they had some dumb regulations in the hotel to where they might have done themselves in like if you live in Pine Bluff you can't rent a room. I thought that was special occasions but that was all the time. Why not rent to residents of the city. What's the big problem. Oh well, they'll have plenty of time in bankrupcy court to figure out what went wrong.

Celebrities

Why is it that these days in the news it seems that more and more attention is given to celebrity activities than the real news action. I would care more about a controversy concerning my safety because a serial killer is on the loose than is Britney Spears broke up with her latest boyfriend or if Paris Hilton is feuding with Nicole Richie. I thought it was okay when they just talked about the stuff on the numberous entertainment shows, but some of these people's affairs are taking precedence over real news in the headlines. Some people can tell you the name of a celebrities pets and relatives but can't tell you a ballpark figure of the number of people killed in their own town. Maybe politicians, criminals, and other serious news subjected people need to put out an album or put out a sex tape to have people pay attention to them.

History Made

Tony Dungy became the first black coach in NFL history to win a Super Bowl on Feb. 4, 2007. After all that has happened to him in the past few years including putting together a Super Bowl caliber team in Tampa Bay only to get fired before reaching the promised land, and having his son commit suicide, the man has nothing but class and I have to admit I reached a new plateau of respect for him. Where some coaches are overbearing, cold, and sometimes downright rude, Dungy matches none of that. In my opinion, that's the type of representative the black race needs.

Saving Isiah

I am really tired of seeing all of the strife of the use of the word faggot by "Grey's Anatomy" cast member Isiah Washington during a private dispute with a fellow cast member about another cast member. Due to heat he has taken from producers and others Washington has entered counceling. Number one, how did the press and everyone else get wind of what was said during a private dispute. The person Washington was talking to must have had a vendetta against him for all of this to reach the press. Number two, who can say that they have never made a derogotory comment about someone rather it be related to race, sexuality, or otherwise. How many whites can say they have never used the words nigger or coon. How many blacks can say they never used the words cracker, honky, peckerwood, or redneck. Dealing with sexuality, how many people can say they never used the words fag, dike, lesbo, queer, shittydick, or any other derrogatory term. Because Washington is in the spotlight everyone wants to have an opinion knowing they have said something they shouldn't have said in their lifetimes but now everyone wants to act self-rightious. Also, take the fact that some people have embraced some derrogatory terms such as nigga, redneck, queer, and others. Leave Washington alone. All he is guilty of is being famous.