Settle Down Children
“Settle down children. Settle DOWN!” How often did I hear that command in my youth? Too often, I suppose. Usually, for very good reason, I regret to admit. Usually intoned by my parents, and usually for me being rambunctious, impolite, uncivil or rude. And it usually was well deserved, I’m afraid. Guilty as charged! Shame!…In my defense, however, I was only 7 to 10 years old at the time.
Now, it looks to me that “Settle down children” needs to resurrected in 2016. And not for children. It seems adults are now the miscreants. In fact, there appears to be an EPIDEMIC of rambunctious, impolite, uncivil and rude behavior among ADULTS of late. Adults that should KNOW better. And adults that should ACT better.
I use the term “adults” here with a bit of trepidation, however, because, although that term is age appropriate for the people involved, the behavior I’m discussing is so childish, that using the term “adult” remains a bit of a stretch. However, for want of a better word, we seem to have adults acting in a blatantly rude and childish way. It’s like Americans have become characters from a massive Jerry Springer Show!. And the problem seems especially acute among the liberal and “progressive” minions trolling our campuses and cities. They can often be seen acting out and throwing tantrums of one sort or another. This has become especially widespread as of late because the American Democratic process has been unfavorable to their agenda, and the poor dears are frustrated. Well, boo hoo hoo! Time for acting out, I guess! Time for a tantrum!
Although, the prevalence of this problem is ubiquitous, I’ll discuss two cases in particular.
First case: Earlier today, on a Jet Blue flight, a passenger by the name of Dan Goldstein and his “husband” Matthew Lasner had to be removed from the airplane prior to take off, for HARASSING fellow passenger Ivanka Trump. The term “harassing”, by the way, was Mr. Lasner’s own choice of words that he used in a tweet to describe the incident (Mr. Lasner has subsequently deleted not only this tweet, but, reportedly, his entire Twitter account!). Mr. Lasner also said that Mr. Goldstein was “calm”, but several passengers reported to TMZ that Mr. Goldstein was SCREAMING at Ivanka AND her children. SCREAMING!….Well, there must be something obviously wrong with this individual. If he were a child, a stern “settle down” from the Captain would have been appropriate, but what do you do when this disruptive and childish behavior comes from an adult? It seems to me, that not only should Mr. Goldstein have been removed from the plane, he should have been arrested for disorderly conduct.
Second Case: Last month, Vice President-Elect Mike Pence AND HIS FAMILY went to see a production of the Broadway musical Hamilton. (see my previous post “A Conversation?”, 11/21/16). Mr. Pence was greeted by the audience with shouts and boos as he AND his family took their seats. And after the show, Mr. Pence was treated to a lecture on “inclusion” by the leading man. Unbelievable! Who raised such ill mannered louts?
This juvenile behavior has become emblematic of the liberals and “progressives” that seem to have forgotten (or perhaps never even learned) a code of common courtesy, decency and dignity. Like the Jet Blue duo, the Hamilton incident is a symptom of not just pathological ideology, but pathological personalities as well. And, unfortunately, “settle down children” no longer applies.