Middle-aged Director of Anti-Bullying Charity Born Yesterday

Middle-aged people were usually born several decades ago, but it is possible to be born middle-aged yesterday. As you can see from the following news story, 'Apprentice' slammed by anti-bullying charity’, Claude Knight, director of the anti-bullying charity, Kidscape, was born yesterday and, turning on the TV for the first time in his fresh life, watched The Apprentice. To his great horror, he discovered that it showed public humiliation. As newborn director of an anti-bullying organization, he declared that The Apprentice was making it seem like public humiliation is acceptable, and condemned the show for encouraging bullying. It’s a good thing that he hadn’t tuned in to American Idol, or his young brain may have suffered a stroke.

The article didn’t mention the fact that Mr. Knight was born yesterday, but the astute reader can readily deduce this. Had he not been born yesterday, he would have seen the public humiliation that Eliot Spitzer was put through a couple of weeks ago, to everyone’s glee. If it is okay for adults to enjoy former Governor Spitzer’s humiliation, kids will certainly get the message that it’s okay to publicly humiliate kids for their faults and weaknesses.

And Mr. Knight may have noticed the public humiliation that our former President Clinton experienced for his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. And let’s not forget what was done to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

And with all the humiliation that gets dished out on a daily basis to President Bush, Britney Spears, and the endless series of people who adorn our newspapers, tabloids and TV screens, kids will certainly think it’s okay to humiliate the ordinary kids they see every day.

And Mr. Knight certainly would have come across the most egregious show of all, America’s Funniest Home Videos, in which members of a live audience laugh their heads off while watching people falling off roofs, getting hit by baseball bats, kicked in the balls, and being victims of all sorts of humiliation and violence. Imagine, a “family” show implying that it’s okay to laugh at human misery!

In fact, had Mr. Knight, who is so sensitive to aggression and humiliation on TV, been born decades ago, he would certainly have noticed by now that there is hardly a show on TV that doesn’t feature aggression and humiliation. With so few shows portraying people always being nice to each other, he would have concluded that the entire media is promoting bullying. Lets hope that Mr. Knight continues on his noble crusade and gets all our beloved entertainment pulled off the air.

And when he gets done with TV, let’s hope he’ll tackle movies, radio, newspapers, magazines and literature. And the Bible. Bullying must be stopped at all costs!