Flipping the Switch

Popular wisdom has it that once you are an alcoholic, you are an alcoholic forever. Even if you haven't had a drink in 50 years.

I think that once you are a racist, you are a racist forever. You can't flip the switch.

Ferguson, Missouri is about a mile from where I grew up. The racism that is on display today in the media is the racism that surrounded me in my formative years. Only it was worse then.

So, yeah, I'm a racist. I don't say racist things or do racist things anymore, but the crap that got ground into me in the 1950s is still in there. I lacquer over it the best I can, as most educated people of my generation do. That makes us "recovering racists," I guess.

If I could flip the switch, I would.

It's Time

At some point in time, a singer - any singer - reaches a tipover point where the audience enjoyment at seeing/hearing that famous person is more than counterbalanced by the cringe-generating sour notes. 

To say it a simpler way: Paul McCartney should quit singing in public.

If his recent performance on the SNL40 program would have been on the old Gong Show, the gong would have been quickly and mercilessly beaten to death!

Paul -- Sit back and bask in the rarified fame-air reserved for ex-Beatles. It's time. I would much rather admire what you were than feel sorry for what you are.