Submitted by Gordon Crump, Apr 11, 2007 08:30

Seth Gitell makes several fair and valid points,but, in my opinion, fails to get to the main point.It was an excellent piece, but I would go farther.

The Don Imus affair should not be glossed over because, it has a deeper meaning, freedom of speech is at the heart of it.

As Mr. Gitell points out, the words complained of have appeared often in rap routines,TV dramas and comedy routines, on commercal television and in some newspapers and many magazines,. They can no longer be taken serously. If many in the black communities can use them in this regard, so can Don Imus. There is no Constitutional nor legal foundation for allowing blacks to have special privileges in this regard. That is pure poltical correctness. Whites are regularly insulted in these routines and they give the insults the weight they deserve---none.They do not run to a white Al Sharpton to gain a little TV time.

Blacks were put upon in our earlier history, but for the past 50 years, their rights have been guaranteed. They do not include special language privileges. Whites threatening protests, violent or not, would be put down with a warning about conspiracy. For blacks to be equal, means they obey the same laws and are subject to the same societal limits as the rest of us. If they want to feed the objectionable words into the English language through kndergartenish rap games,etc.; fine. But don't whine when the results come back with a fury.

The gap between that segment and the law-abiding, educated, good-citoizen blacks is a wide one and we should make the distinction in such flare-ups as the Imus business. Dr. Bill Cosby, one of the first in modern entertainment to use his opportunities and play by the rules of the society which spawned him, tried to tell us; and reaped only scorn from much of the black minority.

Imus is boring and I don't listen to him. But he has a right to speak. If his words are not what blacks and many whites want to hear, too bad.

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