The social media is buzzing about radio commentator Rush Limbaugh’s insensitive comments about Sandra Fluke. There’s no reason to repeat any of his broadcast here. Suffice it to say they are properly categorized as “hate speech.” [WaPo] House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has called the comments “inappropriate,” [HuffPo] and Limbaugh’s “doubling down” calling for the posting of sex tapes, [ABC] is beyond the pale.
According to the Census Bureau, there are 2,723,322 residents of the state of Nevada, and 49.5% of them are female. The Centers for Disease Control 2010 study tells us that nationwide 68% of Hispanic women, 89% of white women, and 78% of African American women have used “the pill.” [DB] We might reasonably assume that these statistics generally apply to women in Nevada. So, for the 1,348,045 women in Nevada we can estimate that some 72% (970,600) have used The Pill. Again, it isn’t necessary to repeat the term used by Mr. Limbaugh to characterize these women.
Mr. Limbaugh has been “excused” for saying, “A Chavez is a Chavez, we’ve always had trouble with them.” He’s gotten a pass, so to speak, for opining that James Earl Ray should get a Congressional Medal of Honor. He called the President of the United States a “halfrican America,” “an affirmative action candidate,” and referred to the NFL as the “Bloods and Crips without weapons.” [NewsOne]
This kind of talk is unwelcome at our dinner table, I should hope such commentary is not allowed at yours. Indeed, I can think of only a few houses in which these, and similar comments, are taken as “funny.” These are not places I frequent. These are not homes which serve as models for family values in respectable communities.
Mr. Limbaugh has his First Amendment freedoms, he is perfectly free to spiel racism and hate, but he is not free to insert such speech in my home. He may be using the public airwaves to disseminate his unattractive, bigoted, views, but he is not entitled to enter our door. Hate has no home here.
No one should suggest that merely because Mr. Limbaugh is a racist, or a misogynist, that he must be silenced. However, when his racism and his misogyny lowers the standard of public discourse then we should, as responsible adults, remind him of the boundaries of civility in a polite society, just as we would admonish a child who inserts unwarranted and uncivil remarks at the dinner table.
As we would frown and tell a child that “That’s not funny,” or “That’s not appropriate,” in the home, we should frown and tell Mr. Limbaugh that his comments on women and ethnic group members are not acceptable. Freedom of Speech has never been a License to Insult and Defame. Respectable homes have standards, and we should strive to make our nation a respectable, and respectful, place to live.
In the interest of raising the standards of our national discourse, in the interest of setting examples for our younger citizens, in the interest of advancing respect for all the residents of Nevada — white, African America, Hispanic, and women — I ask that you take exception to Mr. Limbaugh’s comments concerning Ms. Fluke, and that you ask him to apologize to the 49.5% of Nevadans to whom his discourse is objectionable, tasteless, and beneath any standard of civility.
Desert Beacon 