Blaska's Blog has no tolerance for anti-social behavior
Our progressive/liberal friends (for they are our friends) have reduced Moses' 10 commands to one: Be not judgmental. Which is the anti-commandment, when you think about it.
Seinfeld parodied the concept in his "Not that there's anything wrong with that" episode.
That is why I took notice of my old friend Doug Moe's column in Wednesday's State Journal. Doug surveyed a New York Times article on the perils of sagging pants.
Clyde Haberman wrote about a young man who had shot several people in New York City in a dispute over drugs, and then tried to flee. "He ran to the fire escape," Haberman wrote. "But the low-slung pants he was wearing fell down, police said. He tripped over them, took a tumble and landed with a thud in the building's back yard. "There you had it," Haberman wrote. "Death by trousers."Haberman noted: "Could there be a better argument for hitching up one's pants?"
Well yes, actually, there is.
We'll get to that in a minute. One need not go to New York to find idiots unhoisting their own petards. We have them in Meadowood.
Police Incident Reports
But here is the better reason: wearing sagging pants is degrading. It extols the prison culture. It is anti-social, sexist, and borderline obscene.
For the past year now the Squire of the Stately Manor has insisted that anyone who is wearing his pants down around his ankles, grabbing his crotch, and spewing the M-F and N words cannot have good self-esteem. The conscience of the community has written that anyone who cares about these young people, who is not willing to say "the problem is easily ignored," will do an intervention.
Do I have to make the case that "looking like a fool with your pants on the ground" as the American Idol rapper sang is something more sinister than, say, the mullet hair style?
Yet, at one time or another Emily Mills, Jason Joyce, Dustin Beilke, and Jack Craver have lambasted my stand. And those are just the Isthmus stable of babblers! Throw in Madame Brenda and Mike Basford and god knows who else. Some would say they "have a high tolerance for for antisocial behavior."
Let's go to Haberman's article in the NY Times:
"I was on a subway train, and there was this young man," State Senator Eric Adams of Brooklyn said. "His behind was showing, literally. He had underwear, but even the underwear was sagging. All the passengers were looking at each other in disgust, but nobody was saying anything."
For Mr. Adams, that silence was deafening. Now he is speaking up. He began a campaign this week to do something about the saggy bottom boys and the adults who have "a high tolerance for anti-social behavior," whether out of indifference or fear.
Under his sponsorship, messages intended principally for young black men went up on several billboards in Brooklyn. Raised trousers mean raised respect, they said. The senator also posted a video on his Web site. To doleful background music, it shows a series of offensive racial stereotypes over the years: minstrel performers, Aunt Jemima, watermelon-loving Negroes - and, the new addition to this sorry lineup, sagging pants on African-American men. (NY Times 4-1-10: Droopy pants can kill
State Sen. Adams says "insidious spectacle ... is not a fashion trend. ... I say to our youth, you can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants."
Here in Madison, black businessman, religious minister and youth volunteer Jim Monroe told me last summer, "If you think of yourself poorly you will treat yourself poorly."
Now, I confess, Blaska is not of African descent. I blame my parents for that. But that does not excuse anyone for tolerating anti-social behavior. I am a man and real men don't act like fools. They take responsibility for their actions. They are courteous and neat (except when watching football and drinking beer in their rec rooms). They show respect for the ladies (except during bachelor parties and those are held indoors).
The Squire of the Stately Manor has no tolerance for anti-social behavior. Not a virtue no matter how you spin it. That is why, two summers ago, I pointed at a baggy pantser in the Meadowood drug store and commanded: "Your pants are falling down. You look like an idiot. Hike 'em up, son." He did.
During the last presidential campaign, The NY Times quoted the eventual winner:
"Brothers should pull up their pants," Mr. Obama said in an appearance on MTV just before his election as president. "You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What's wrong with that? Come on."
Still think the saggy pants thing is so inconsequential?
See also Treating Yourself Poorly. It's good reading.
