CSPAN, even as I type, is broadcasting (live) the annual White House Correspondents Dinner. The President has already made his few remarks, and Jay Leno is now performing the keynote. (Traditionally, the keynote is delivered by a well-known comedian or other performer, as entertainment.)
As is the usual for this event, everyone, and everything, is fair game for ridicule. There have been some humdingers, aimed at both sides of the aisle. But what is getting me bent out of shape are the fake Iraq film clips - things like Jay Leno checking Saddam's prostate, and photo booth images of Saddam and the cleric-de-jour making friendly.
If these had been targeted at any Westerner, I wouldn't have batted an eyelash. I would probably have laughed. But to so publically degrade Saddam and an apparently devout Muslim in a manner akin to the recent prison abuses (by US soldiers) in Iraq, and especially offensive to members of that culture, is humiliating - not merely to the subjects of the "joke", but to me as an American, trying to hold my head up under the world's gaze.
We don't need to kick someone who's already down. The only ones injured in such an assault are ourselves.
Posted at May 1, 2004 10:39 PM in Social Order