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From Denny: Now we enter the den of The Media Stupid, courtesy of the compromised New York Times. There seems to be a rather nasty bunch of writers over there these days, a sharp detour away from the stable of interesting intellectuals they once sported.
The current group has too many members who are all about plagiarizing letters to the editor (like what happened to me one too many times so I quit reading them years ago, then started up my own pack of blogs as a copyrighted version of letters to the editor. Hey, it works for me.)
Their other favorite tactic now is ripping an Olympic athlete just days before competition. How un-American can you get to criticize any athlete representing your country just before competition?
Smile while you promote yourself with satire
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Well, for good or for bad, I sport relatives from both New York City and the South, like here in Louisiana. I can speak to the regional bigotry and arrogant attitude of New Yorkers toward Southerners. I am forever running diplomatic interference and refereeing all that Bad Mojo.
Too many Northerners are like actors from the hit TV show "Lost" and clueless about what is true vs. contrived perception, courtesy of exaggerated Hollywood movies. While I won't go into a long diatribe about Southern culture, both old and new, I will say that the New York Times stepped onto a serious land mine with that nasty article about Lolo Jones.
Where they get the idea she is a lame athlete is unrealistic. She grew up in Iowa with a white single working mother, abandoned by her black father, often homeless. She loved sports so much she lived with various families who took her in while she pursued the possibility of an Olympics bid. The drive necessary to keep your head in that situation was tough enough. Then a year ago she underwent spinal cord surgery. You expect the usual knee surgeries for many athletes and hamstring issues but back surgery?
She went to LSU, yes, a Southern university, where she was well accepted in spite of bi-racial heritage and received 11 All-American honors in addition to six SEC championships. When she was graduated she launched into the career of a professional track star, focusing upon entering the Olympics. It's well known she failed to qualify for the Beijing 2004 Summer Games.
More hard work and determination propelled her past that disappointment. Lolo Jones rose to be the United States number one 100 meter hurdler in 2010. That year she was ranked as number two in the world.
Lolo Jones isn't all about being a media hound as the New York Times accused her. Back in 2008 she donated her prize money to a single mother in Iowa who was homeless after floods ravaged the area. She could identify.
Another charitable moment was when she gave a new pair of running shoes to each member of her high school track team. Lolo donated another $3,000 to go toward indoor practice hurdles and improvements for the school's track.
Lolo Jones is primarily known for four things beyond her athletic ability: she is biracial, she is beautiful, she is actively involved in a Christian ministry and she also made the decision to remain a virgin until she marries even though she is now age 30.
And that's where all the team jealousy starts. Lolo Jones didn't even medal, literally losing by one-tenth of one second, and yet team mate Dawn Harper is jealous of Jones. Harper complained how she thought her personal story was far more compelling that Jones' and was bitter about how the media pushed Jones to the top of the Attention Meter while she was left in the dust.
How petty can you get? Harper got the gold; what else should be bothering her? Just how much of a media hound is she? Yet the New York Times chose to single out Jones for being a media hound when it's clear almost all of the Olympic athletes are guilty of the same need for excessive attention. That goes to coaching and just plain self-absorption - the malady of youth and the entertainment industry, mostly bad coaching in my estimation. These athletes are under enough pressure; they sure don't need any extra piled onto them.
Funny Cat Philosopher Curty on how best to acquire Inner Peace. Be sure to check out the funny photo.
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Then there is the Pretty Girl Syndrome. A woman is "damned if she does and damned if she doesn't." Everyone wants to be her, be close to her, offer opinions about her - whether true or false, admire her and then tear her down. A good-looking woman has to really choose her friends wisely as too many women - and even men - are prone to jealousy and petty back-stabbing as evidenced by this New York Times sports writer. Sad but true, it's a fact in our American culture of bullies which seems to get worse with every generation.
Some are angry Lolo posed somewhat nude for ESPN. Well, excuse me for being an artist. I find it a lovely nude, tastefully done. There is nothing pornographic here. After viewing the photo my husband commented that the sports folks just wanted to show off the athletic look and returned to his football game. Trust me; if that photo was in any way sexy he would have ignored the game. :)
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And then there's the Christian aspect. How New England loves to hate those in the South who profess a faith in God. Two words: Grow up. While I am a real Christian I'm also a liberal politically. Not everyone who professes faith in God is a nut job from the Sarah Palin camp of loony sayings and poor study habits. No, I have never written a cheat sheet in permanent marker on the palms of my hands. OK, couldn't resist that reference. :)
And, yes, I have plenty of friends who are atheist and agnostic. Their arguments and complaints are always the same as I've been listening to them for years. Often they are the victims of obsessively religious non-spiritual parenting or abusive teachers and parents so I offer them a healing listen and loads of patience.
None of it bothers me because I prefer it when people question and seriously doubt anything to be true. It's the best way to create true spiritual development. There is nothing more stupid than someone who just accepts something to be true because of tradition or someone else claimed it was true. Discover for yourself. Go on the journey. Explore and decide for yourself. That's real spirituality.
Of course, I don't get criticized from my non-believing friends, mainly because I have zero interest in converting them. I'm more interested in helping others on whatever life journey they are traveling. (It's an honor to do so in my book.) We have some great discussions of which they frequently leave scratching their heads and wondering how to counter that argument, then grinning sheepishly after realizing how immature some of those arguments sound. It's one thing to think it inside your head; it's quite another when you say it out loud. What a difference. Like I said, I take it in stride. It's just part of the process of growing up spiritually.
Which brings me to Lolo Jones' declaration to remain a virgin until marriage. Hey, it's her choice. Why should anyone care what she does or doesn't do? Because it isn't what everyone else is doing? Again, her choice to make. I don't think anything wrong with her decision. Hey, it's better than saying, "Hey, I want to be a raging whore when I grow up!" Come on.
And, if you think I'm the only journalist angry about Lolo's ill treatment and garbage style cheap shots from the New York Times, check out the following:
From The Daily Beast's David Roth: "And there she was, in Sunday's New York Times - on the day before her first Olympic race, and on her 30th birthday - on the receiving end of one of the most misguided and weirdly uncharitable pieces of poison-pen sports writing in recent memory. For all the perils of Olympic insta-fame, this was one that Jones could hardly be blamed for not having seen coming."
From Deadspin's Isaac Rauch: who took issue with Longman for "stuffiness, high-handedness, and general cluelessness." His headline to the story was this: What Did Lolo Jones Ever Do To The New York Times? "The thrust of the article is that the attention the media has lavished on Jones is not commensurate with her achievement, and (this part is key) Lolo Jones is somehow at fault for that. Basically, that Lolo Jones is a #fraud."
From Sports Illustrated's Sarah Kwak: "wondered why any sportswriter would criticize an athlete for being too open and honest."
From Slate's Alyssa Rosenberg: "commenting how New York Times sports writer Longman chose to completely ignore the cultural context and marketplace in which Jones and other Olympians live. All of this criticism of Jones builds to the implication that she is somehow undeserving of not just the attention she receives, but a spot in London at all."
And the commenting sections, yep, you guessed it. Everyone heavily in support of Lolo. Now, let's hear a cheer for the New York Times dismissing Jere Longman. What a mean-spirited putz.
Check out Awkward TV while Gold medalist Dawn Harper shows off her jealousy of Lolo Jones:
Smile while you promote yourself with satire
* * * Please support Warriors Pearl Foundation - helping homeless female military veterans come home. Visit Denny Lyon Gifts @ CafePress.com - - see what's new!
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