MaDD Blogger

Early morning wake up

I am still very concerned about Bill Bennett's comments from last week, so concerned in fact that I downloaded the entirety of his broadcast from this past Fridays program. On this show Mr.Bennett mentioned the fact that he had been flooded with calls and angry emails about his statement one of which of course was mine. Bennett began answering calls and talking to people but of all the calls I believe I only heard 2 which were of the thought that he was in fact a racist. I for one do not believe Bill Bennett is a racist but his statement struck an uneasy nerve within me which I'll explain later. Bennett also read a few of the emails that he got. I had hoped that he would read mine but I am now sure that it is resting quite comfortably in the dead letter piles along with hundreds of others.

While listening to the broadcast, which was actually pretty good compared to other conservative radio I've listened to, Bill invited anyone who sent one of those angry emails to call in to the program and that as long as they were able to talk in a civil manner their dissenting voice would be heard as well. Since this was a download the show was already well over at this point but I made a decision right then and there that I was going to call Bill Bennett and talk to him on his Monday morning broadcast.

Cut to Monday morning. Bill's program starts at 6AM EST an hour ahead of the Central time zone so at 5AM I'm ready to go. I pick up the phone and dial and the call screener picks up and asks me to please hold. I wait for about 3 minutes the screener comes back and asks me what I'd like to talk to Bill Bennett about. I tell him that while I don't believe that Mr.Bennett is a racist that I was offended by the comment or rather the fact that I truly believe that Bill Bennett actually believes what he said. Let me clear in saying that I do not believe that Bill Bennett was calling for the abortion of all black babies and he clearly stated that it would a morally repulsive thing to do but let's look at one line of the statement since this is the reason I made my call:

"I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, (Okay let's stop right there for a moment. If Bill had just stopped talking right there I would have simply chalked it up to a hypothetical debate and been satisfied. Bennett himself points to this part of his statement as the part that a lot of the press leaves out and that he deliberately said that line so that no one could infer that he approved of such a thing. But I can't help but notice that even when he points this out he often omits the last few words that come right after saying that it would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do so pay attention kiddies, here's where it gets fun.) but your crime rate would go down.

"But your crime rate WOULD go down." seems like an innocent set of words now don't it? But if you take Bill at his word, that he was simply arguing "Reductio ad absurdum" and that he threw in the last bit to make sure that no one thought that he approved of such a thing why then throw that first part of the statement back in with no new rebuttal on the ass end? This is why I think that Bennett while saying that it is morally wrong actually believes what he said and he even mentioned some crime statistics and what happened in New Orleans as back up for his original statement as have many others that defended the statement. I honestly don't think that most people who agree with Bennett's statement realize what the statement itself would actually involve and my next blog entry will focus on shedding some real light on this statement and it's implications on society.

Once I tell the screener what I believe and why I want to talk to Bennett all of a sudden I feel like I started getting the run around. I literally talked to the screener for over 10 minutes who was explaining to me that I had "Called too early and that Dr.Bennett needs a moment to warm up before he really starts taking calls.". We keep talking as I was hoping to convince him to let me on air and he basically tells me that the statement has gotten way out of hand and that nobody understands what Dr.Bennett meant and that he was just speaking in the hypothetical which I again told him that I fully understood, my only problem was that I think that the good Doctor actually believes that bullshit. We keep going back and forth and the screener tells me that everything has been taken out of context and that Bennett clearly doesn't believe that but he has to let me go because he has other calls to answer.

I was at this time streaming the program on KSKY.com and less than 5 minutes after he hangs up Bennett takes his first call and I'm like "What the fuck man? I thought you said it was too early to be taking calls!" I certainly would have waited the extra 5 minutes to get on air as by this time I had been on the phone for over 15 minutes and Bennett just kept taking call after call. He even tells one caller to hold while they do spots and that he would be the next caller after the break. They let this black dude on who was much angrier than I was and Bennett talked to him and another black guy who frankly sounded like he was kind of slow which is sad because he wasn't very articulate and while he agreed with Bennett he really did sound as if he had down syndrome and his speech pattern was near childlike. Bennett made sure to let everyone know that this guy was black which is something that the screener was asking callers and when I first told the screener that I was black and that I didn't think Bennett was a racist he got very excited until I further explained my posistion. 

I'm just really disappointed. I think if Bennett had heard me I would have a better understanding of his views and thought process. I do think I made the screener uncomfortable with some of the stuff I said and maybe the screener thought that if I got on air and Bennett answered the two questions I had prepared that he would end up in the headlines again and he may well have. Race is extremely difficult to talk about in a way that people are comfortable with.

I guess that outside of my next blog entry which I'm hoping will be the last on the subject that I'll be done with this. You gotta move on sometime don't you? I just wish that I had gotten on air. Maybe I should have just called Imus.