August 18, 2000
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August 18, 2000 |
How did we ever survive as a nation before Dr. Laura took over our
morals and our behavior? I have to confess -- with a lot of
embarrassment -- that I listen occasionally to her anti-feminist,
anti-single mothers, anti-abortion, anti-divorce, anti-working women,
anti-gay and lesbian, pro-censorship diatribes on the car radio when I
am out in the afternoon. Who knows! I might get a moral vision that
would change my life if I don't run into a tree.
Dr. Laura Schlessinger is the number one female talk show hostess on
radio. Why anyone would call her for advice I have no idea. Tom
Teepen captured her essence in his column when he wrote, "This woman
could curdle the milk of human kindness at 100 yards and never break
stride." Her version of right and wrong is so rigid that rational
thought is absolutely forbidden.
Actually, of course, she is in the entertainment business. Since her
doctorate is in physiology rather than psychology, she cannot practice
legally as a therapist. Therefore her show is designated as opinion.
And boy does she have opinions! She is in a class with Rush Limbaugh,
only he is funny sometimes.
Dr. Laura has made a career out of being rude and abrasive. Aside
from the individual people she humiliates every day on the radio, she
takes on any idea which does not fit her rigid code with all her guns
blazing. For her the world is strictly black and white. There are no
grays. There is no compassion and human mistakes are not allowed.
Certainly we all agree that children need and deserve to be loved and
cherished and cared for. But Dr. Laura considers mothers who work
outside the home, whether they are married or single, rich or
destitute, to be the lowest form of humans. And since she also
distrusts public assistance, one wonders what she expects some of the
babies to eat. She sneers at what she calls the feminist myth that
women can have it all.
Any working mother knows better than anyone else that "nobody can have
it all," but thanks to the feminist movement that she so disdains, women
now have the freedom to make some choices in their lives. There are
soccer moms and female United States Senators. And power to all of
them!
One of Dr. Laura's most hated enemies is the American Library
Association. She has decided that the nation's public libraries are
dens of iniquity, due to porno on the Internet. She fumes that the A.
L. A. has refused to endorse the installation of internet filters in
libraries. Of course they have. Filters do not work for libraries.
The A. L. A., which she calls subversive and worse, states in its
Library Bill of rights, “Intellectual Freedom is the right of every
individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view
without restriction." Sounds pretty American to me.
She is, of course, quite right that there is pornography on the net.
And she is also right in that children should not be exposed to it. But
aside from parents, nobody knows that better than librarians. Most
public libraries, including ours, use only carefully researched search
engines in the children's departments, and do not allow viewing of porno
on the public computers in the adult areas.
And now she is about to take her hate filled program to television - or
is she? Paramount has her scheduled to start a television talk show
next month. But her attacks on gays and lesbians, whom she dismisses
as "biological errors," have triggered formal protests nationwide. A
number of national advertisers have dropped her show, and several TV
stations across the country are already debating whether or not to air
it. Channel 9 in Denver says they have already contracted for it, but
will consider removing it if they are not satisfied that controversial
topics are handled in a balanced manner.
I find her absolute moral rigidity and refusal to acknowledge human
error dangerous rather than entertaining. Jeanne Ostrow in the Denver
Post, said it well. "I expect the show to fail on its own merits.
Hate-mongering isn't a winning strategy. May she bomb, and quickly."