Finneran: The Crime of the Century

Friday, October 25, 2019

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

PHOTO: Glenn Francis/Wikipedia

Take a moment to consider the lunacy of our age, where the posing and lecturing of perpetually angry fools is taken seriously.

A few weeks ago former President George Bush was seen chatting with Ellen DeGeneres at a Dallas Cowboys football game. They were there in a luxury box with several other guests, presumably at the invitation of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

At some point during the game, the former President and Ms. DeGeneres were actually seated next to each other. Furthermore, they appeared to be enjoying a laugh together.

Oh the horror! Oh the pain! Such scandal! Ellen is a traitor to her woke followers. How dare she do that? How dare she sit next to this vicious grandfather? How dare she be laughing and enjoying a casual Sunday afternoon in the United States of America? Doesn’t she realize the cruel misery that our society inflicts on its citizens?

Such was the outcry from our moral icons in Hollywood. Susan Sarandon, the laughable pseudo-conscience of the world, was incensed at Ellen’s apparent enjoyment. Mark Ruffalo, intellectual, pontificated about Bush and war crimes, finding it impossible to believe that anyone might sit with the West’s version of Adolf Hitler.

Other critics piled on about Ellen’s forfeiture of her LGBTQ credentials, simply by attending and enjoying a game in the company of this hideous monster named Bush.

Wow. Can we get a grip? What’s up with the rage machine? Is it always turned on, sixteen cylinders of vitriol, running smoothly and available on the whims of dim-witted celebrities?

What ever happened to live and let live? Where is the tolerance which is always demanded but never reciprocated by Hollywood’s arbiters?

These frauds thrive in the moral cesspool of Hollywood yet pontificate near and far to the rest of us as to how to think and for whom to vote. They make millions of dollars in make-believe roles while decrying wage inequality. They jet far and wide around the globe while tut-tutting the global footprints of American families driving to the grocery store. They will happily seize and control your thermostat while they fly to Davos to furrow their brow and to fret about carbon. Please note that it’s always your carbon which is the problem, not theirs.

I don’t watch Ellen’s show. I rarely watch the NFL. But if two adult American citizens with vastly different political views can enjoy a day watching a game, it should not become a controversy. It should not call for shaming or cancellation or for any of the other thuggish mob behaviors we now see every day.

My advice to all Ellen’s critics---take a deep breath, get a grip, and get a life.

America’s OK. Ellen’s OK too.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.