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September 7, 2000

Dr. Laura of radio talk show fame is coming to television as the new moral voice for the 21st century. She uses her "bully pulpit" to truly bully callers into conforming to her moral standard of behavior and gets rewarded by becoming so popular that she's given her own national television show. Good grief! That's what we've come to as we enter the new millennium, a Dr. Laura?

I am incredulous and appalled. In our search for values she is our beacon of light? In our desire to move beyond the hostility, alienation and rage that marks our current social climate, we choose to follow a righteous bully? It's one thing to cut through the deception of powerless victims to reveal the truth of their power that lies beneath, but to slice them up in the process is abusive. And yet millions listen as callers ask to be bullied into the "light" of what's morally right?

What happened to the sterling quality of integrity? Is it just not violent or dramatic enough to catch station owners' attention? Would there be no following for the voice of integrity? To say that I am envious of Dr. Laura's pulpit is an understatement. I would love to have her forum to use for promoting the fairness and respect that integrity brings. Rather than imposing a morality on someone, I'd love to guide them to an understanding of accountability and truthfulness. To have a nationally watched television program where choices were made and words were spoken that had as their guiding principle fair play, mutual respect, and caring, would be my most desired dream.

Teaching people to have the integrity to claim their own stuff and respect others as they confront them and ask them to claim theirs, is what creates a climate of fellowship and community built on truth and trust. Morality tends to have an imposed subjective quality that often reflects the bias of the group or the times. Integrity is never changing. It discriminates against no one and violates nothing. It is essential truth and in its essentialness only decries violation. Consequently, everyone is safe when integrity governs our speech and behavior. Personal bias, under the guise of moral righteousness, is not allowed. And certainly, bullying is a violation that is not legitimate or warranted to keep people in line.

Unfortunately, Dr. Laura justifies her bigotry by preaching it as morality. This makes her opinion dangerous when she expresses her own prejudices as moral judgments. For example, she commented in a syndicated column in March, 2000, "I believe affirmative action in the area of gender has resulted in jamming people into roles that are unnatural for them and undesirable for the rest of us." The underlining is mine. Note, she makes her personal belief more credible by calling what she doesn't approve of, in this case, affirmative action, as "unnatural", which brings it into the realm of immorality. Affirmative action then becomes an act against nature. Good grief! What arrogance. How frightening this abuse of the moral code. I am not only envious of Dr. Laura's new forum on TV, I am afraid of its influence on public opinion. I hope you are, too.

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