Category Archives: The William Tell Show

* There can be no dialogue with toxic speech.

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Debate opposing views, don’t label them hate: Column

Over the weekend, I very nearly un-Friended a church member on Facebook.

This woman is a pillar of the congregation, exceptionally gifted, and holds several important offices.  But she frequents certain web sites that spew forth racial hatred, and she Likes certain items, and they show up in my Timeline.  I will never voluntarily expose myself to such material.  (Related:  Change your diet.)  There can be no dialogue with it:  even to take it seriously is poisonous to my soul.

The First Amendment will not protect me from it.  On the contrary, hate speech is normally protected.  As are lies.  As is verbal bullying.  And heckling.

One can choose, however, what one pays attention to.

Milo Yiannopoulos is a troll.

As likewise are Ann Coulter and Joan Walsh.

There may be no lawful way to silence them, but those persons and organizations (such as Young Republicans) who sponsor them, hire them, and give them gratuitous platforms, may be persuaded that the nation deserves better.

Reblogged 2023-12-07.

o @Sweet Dolls

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(TMZ deleted the comment below.)
@Sweet Dolls

First, you have no basis to suppose anything about “my people,” such as what color they may be.

When you depart from the subject matter of the article — what the rappers recorded, what the white kids did in the video, what the students did who posted it online, and Barry Bonds’ reaction — and speculate instead about commenters’ education or lack thereof, job or lack thereof, skin color or even sex life — that’s personal, and has no place in any discussion that can advance the black agenda.

Free speech, yes. Useful, no.

There are no small number of well-meaning white folk out there who have never knowingly intended black folk any harm. Not that they really matter much.

The question is rather whether you yourself will perpetuate, among black folk, the kind of self-loathing manifest in lyrics such as “I f*****d your b***h, n***a.” This is hardly the language of one who owns oneself as a child of God. A change of heart on that front will make all the difference in the fortunes of black folk in this country.

* Orthodoxy

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White Americans are nearly as blind to their racism as ever before

An orthodoxy is a system of ideas that adherents insist one must accept without question.  In other words, a set of dogmas.

Every media outlet has one.  It may be implied or explicit; flexible or rigid; narrow or broad; but it’s there.  It defines what ideas that media outlet will allow to be expressed.  In publishing media, it determines what will and won’t get published.

An obstacle facing me in my hopes of getting published, is that I seem somehow always to run afoul of a given media outlet’s orthodoxy.

Continue reading * Orthodoxy →

* Housing the homeless ain’t that easy

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For a long time, I have balked at seeking transitional housing, mainly for two reasons:  (1) There must be a thousand buildings in Baltimore City serving that function, each with its own application process, eligibility criteria and rules — not to mention desirability.  There’s no way to find “the right place” without going to each one in person. (2) I have heard too many credible horror stories of negligent house managers and conflicts with residents who abuse substances, abuse the property, and abuse each other.

Fortunately, the case manager at the clinic appears to have equipped me with the very short list of highest-rated outfits.

Last week’s City Paper cover story sets forth a microcosm of what is, in fact, the big picture:

A new program for the city’s homeless leaves them struggling amid a chaotic system of care

Continue reading * Housing the homeless ain’t that easy →

* Live and let live: Ishmael

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Wednesday  2016-01-06

“Live and let live” is a Recovery principle.  In recent weeks, it has been “in my face” from many different directions:

  • Recent challenges I’ve faced in managing my own feelings, have made me less judgmental of others who seem to me not to manage their feelings well.
  • Pastor and I are not on the same page concerning the concept of justice.  He is thus prone to say certain things in sermons that I don’t necessarily want to hear.  But I am in no position to demand that he abandon what is, for him, an honest and impassioned point of view.
  • Something in Jamilah King’s 12-16-15 .mic article hurt my feelings.   I have not yet re-read it to determine what specifically it was.  But if the mere expression of an opinion about social conditions can evoke that response from me, it does not bode well for what I hope to accomplish as William Tell the talk show host.  William Tell must be able to “Live and let live.”

Ishmael showed up at the shelter for the first time last night.  When he joined us in the crowd across the street waiting admission, his face said he’d already had a hard day.  Something told me he might be a screwball.

Continue reading * Live and let live: Ishmael →

* The great questions of our time

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In recent weeks it has been a matter of some chagrin to me that my Yahoo! News feed keeps bringing articles from major outlets that prove in my estimation to have far less merit than my own; while my own work continues to be ignored.

Frankly, it seems to me that my work is on a par with that of the Washington Post columnists.  I see myself as in that league.  If I can find my way there, my goal would be not so much to set forth my own views, as to alter the direction of public discourse; to influence, perhaps even at a national level, the way people talk about the great questions of our time.

Continue reading * The great questions of our time →