Dignity and disgrace
One story Harlan Ellison told long ago has just come back to me, in connection with events in the last few days. Apparently, in the remote days of his youth, Ellison had been - incredible but true - a stand-up comedian. And there came a night when "none of the material flew. I could not get the crowd to respond, try what I might. You could have dropped that bomb on Iran... sitting right up to the stage there was a man with the most insulting sneer on his face I had ever seen. In despair, I went after him with the usual comments about people who sneer, etc. The man stood up, looked at the crowd and said: 'I am not sneering. I caught a piece of shrapnel in my face and that is the way I always look.'"
Needless to say, concluded Ellison, I said goodnight and crawled off the stage.
Well, even though Ellison is the egotist we all know him to be, there is nothing "needless" about saying that he felt ashamed of himself that night - which is what he felt. Perhaps that was the expected standard of behaviour at that time, but in that as in many other things, we seem to have gone downhill. And I wonder whether Ann Coulter will today have the grace, not to crawl off the stage, but at least to admit she was simply plain wrong. Only a few days ago, she made a cheap hit with a conservative audience, or at least with part of it, by calling the handsome presidential candidate John Edwards a homosexual. Although she tried to get out of it by an equally cheap witticism - she would not, she said, insult any homosexuals by comparing them with Edwards - it was clear to everyone that she was, one, appealing to flouted male vanity by calling up Edwards' good looks and care for his personal appearance, and, two, deliberately calling Edwards a homosexual because her public can be trusted to dislike a homosexuals. I wonder whether she is even beginnign to be a bit ashamed of herself after we saw John Edwards' wife of thirty years, the mother of all his children, stand by him as he pledged to continue his campaign and gave a painful and dignified description of the cancer that is likely, at some time in the future, to kill her. IN the face of this evident, unforced display of mutual love and loyalty, can we expect an apology from Coulter? EXclude me while I don't waste any time hoping.
Needless to say, concluded Ellison, I said goodnight and crawled off the stage.
Well, even though Ellison is the egotist we all know him to be, there is nothing "needless" about saying that he felt ashamed of himself that night - which is what he felt. Perhaps that was the expected standard of behaviour at that time, but in that as in many other things, we seem to have gone downhill. And I wonder whether Ann Coulter will today have the grace, not to crawl off the stage, but at least to admit she was simply plain wrong. Only a few days ago, she made a cheap hit with a conservative audience, or at least with part of it, by calling the handsome presidential candidate John Edwards a homosexual. Although she tried to get out of it by an equally cheap witticism - she would not, she said, insult any homosexuals by comparing them with Edwards - it was clear to everyone that she was, one, appealing to flouted male vanity by calling up Edwards' good looks and care for his personal appearance, and, two, deliberately calling Edwards a homosexual because her public can be trusted to dislike a homosexuals. I wonder whether she is even beginnign to be a bit ashamed of herself after we saw John Edwards' wife of thirty years, the mother of all his children, stand by him as he pledged to continue his campaign and gave a painful and dignified description of the cancer that is likely, at some time in the future, to kill her. IN the face of this evident, unforced display of mutual love and loyalty, can we expect an apology from Coulter? EXclude me while I don't waste any time hoping.