Double standard is twice as wrong Columnist...

Double standard is twice as wrong

Columnist Steve Smith, resident moralist, has made his decision:

Janet Jackson alone is responsible for disturbing public morality and

making it impossible for parents to teach their children to make

thoughtful, self-respecting moral choices.

Justin Timberlake is a guy, incapable of thinking with his head

when his hormones are in action, doing the guy thing; he doesn’t need

to ask whether ripping off a woman’s clothing sends the wrong message

to the girls and boys watching an athletic event. Would it matter to

him if he had daughters or sons? No, he’s a guy. Is he doing it for

the money, without regard for moral issues? No, he’s a guy.

But Janet Jackson is a woman. She has a duty to show girls that

women don’t have to take their clothes off, or let a man do it, to

get attention. Does she have daughters and sons? We aren’t told, so

it clearly doesn’t matter; all women should think first and only as

caretakers of children. Did she make money for doing it? Double shame

on her; she has enough money.

Do we want to teach girls that it’s always their fault, they must

be sending signals? Do we want to teach boys that they just follow

their nature? That it’s just a guy thing?

Let’s consider the possibility that Timberlake and Jackson both

made choices for which they are morally responsible, performed in a

way we find inappropriate and possibly disturbing to children

watching it. Parental outrage has made itself felt. Those who planned

the event have heard how the public felt about it, both the angry and

the indifferent.

We who are parents are responsible for raising children to make

thoughtful moral decisions, respectful of themselves and others. As

citizens, we are responsible for our own actions and for creating a

society, which protects the vulnerable from the powerful. In talking

over events with our children, we demonstrate our values and explain

them and hope to transmit them, but until we have perfected our

society, we can’t expect it to give our children the role models of

our choice.

Just like their parents, children make mistakes and suffer the

consequences, testing values in their actions. And as we respect and

teach independence and thoughtful consideration of moral choices, we

can expect that our children’s decisions will not always be ours. As

we do our best, they will do theirs, trying to live the moral life.

ANN HEINEY

Newport Beach

Candidate’s political career is marred

As we know, 70th Assembly District candidate Cristi Cristich lied

(sorry, but that is what happened) in a mailer concerning Rep. Chris

Cox. In a Daily Pilot interview on Feb. 11, Cristich “agreed to send

a correction (retraction/apology) to all voters who received the

mailer.” Her campaign stated “a correction letter would be mailed to

70th District voters.”

I’m waiting. It has now been more than a week and I haven’t

received any mailing from Cristich relative to her improper action

concerning the congressman.

Cristich started her “political career” leading the Republicans

for President Bill Clinton. It appears that she should end her career

now.

GEORGE COFFIN

Newport Beach