An Open Letter to Oprah Winfrey

Dearest Oprah:

I heard about your comments to the BBC about how racist we are against President Obama.  Many "hate" President Obama simply because he is black.  Well I don't "hate" President Obama at all.  While I have seen him in person on a few different occasions, I have never actually met the man.  It is very hard to "hate" someone who you never actually have met.

What I do despise are his policies and I, for the life of me, don't get his worldview.  That somehow I am responsible for the saving of the collective soul of America.  That no matter what I do for charity I am still somehow not doing it the right way, because I am saying that it isn't the responsiblity of the government.  I have always respected your works towards charity.  You should be an inspiration to many around the world because you have taken what you have been so blessed to earn and use it to help those less fortunate.  If it were up to Obama you would paying a much higher tax rate and the government would be taking care of it.  Well, attempting to anyway.  You would have far less to give away those free cars.  Remember those, the ones that people were so upset about when they found out they had to pay "taxes" on?

Another thing that has left me scratching my head in your statements is you.  You happen to be one of the richest black women in the country.  Did you get any of that money from the white people who are so racist that they "hate" President Obama?  I mean how could you have become so successful and rich beyond your wildest dreams if this is such a racist country?  For that matter how did this racist, horrible country elect a black man that they "hate" not just once, but twice?  It blows the mind, I mean how can that happen?

I stopped watching your talk show years and years before you decided to move onto other things.  But one of the interviews I did watch was when you interviewed President Bush after his book was released.  One of the things that struck me at the time was your utter lack of knowledge that President Bush couldn't just order the National Guard in Katrina, well at least not without violating the law.  I guess you have forgotten the hate and the vitriol that surrounded President Bush and the cries of racism about killing the black man in NOLA.  Were the people who did this racist against white men?  Was it liberal "white guilt" that propelled the calls of Fascism and the Hitler mustaches?

I have thought long and hard about the question if this country was ready for a black president.  I have long ago come to the conclusion that the answer is no.  But I would suggest to you that you are part of the reason why.  Simple dissent of any policy initiative against this president is called racist.  You don't like Obamacare, raaaaacist.  You didn't like the spending of almost a trillion dollars of borrowed money in a so-called stimulus package, raaaaacist.  You were against Cash for Clunkers, raaaaacist.  You have a problem with the debt almost doubling in the time that President Obama has been in office, raaaaacist.  I can only assume that President Obama has been perfect, has yet to make any mistakes, and deserves no criticism whatsoever.  Heck, there is even republican/conservative "cord words" now.  Who knew?  I mean if you are a supporter of the 10th amendment, you want Jim Crow and slavery to be reinstated in this country.  Didn't we just get a lesson on state rights just yesterday with President Obama's "fix" to the millions of people who are losing their health insurance?  The insurance industry is one of the most heavily regulated in the country.  The states will have to grant exemptions for them in order for the  "If you like your plan, you can keep it. period." promise to be fulfilled.  It isn't as simple Obama's magic wand!!!!  Imagine that, Oprah.  He isn't omnipowerful.  He can't, just with a stroke of the pen, change laws and regulations.  Those state laws about insurance regulations must be raaaaacist too.

I will concede that people in this country are still racist.  I will further concede that it has real world effects on some people's lives.  What I hope that you will also concede is that "many" of the opposition that is there towards your good buddy, President Obama, is the normal political process in this country and it isn't unique to him.  It is actually a testament to how far we have come.  But people like you and the Sharpton all blacks are a victim crowd, can't seem to accept that.  It must be racist.  What else could it be?

I have to wonder Oprah, were you this quick to cry racism when Clarence Thomas was attacked in the hearings for his seat on The Supreme Court?  Did you cry out for Presidential Nominee Herman Cain?  Do you weep for Allen West and the racism he faces when he gets called an Uncle Tom and a race traitor?  I am not sure I have ever seen those statements from you.  Did I miss something?  Maybe I did.  I don't follow you all that closely anymore.  I can't imagine why that this Oprah.  Oh, it must be raaaaacism.

Oprah and Lance - The Interview

Last night part I of the Oprah "No Holds Bar" interview with Lance Armstrong aired. I found myself compelled to watch.  I don't think it is a big secret that I am a huge sports fan.  I can't say I like all sports, but I do like many.  Cycling is not something that I would watch, ever.  But, as a cancer survivor I was always in awe of Lance Armstrong.  He was a hero to me.  

Which of course was mistake #1 that so many of us around the country made.  But he wasn't just hero for winning, he was  a hero because of all the people who he did help with LiveStrong, and LiveStrong will continue to help; at least I hope they will.  

But the arrogance of the man is truly stunning.  A few highlights lowlights:

LA: "I didn't know everybody. I didn't live and train with everybody. I didn't race with everybody. I can't say that. There will be people that say that. There will be people that say, 'OK, there are 200 guys on the tour, I can tell you five guys that didn't, and those are the five heroes', and they're right."
OW: How were you able to do it? Walk me through it. Pill deliveries, blood in secret refrigerators… how did it work?
LA: "I viewed it as very simple. There were things that were oxygen-supplying drugs that were beneficial for cycling. My cocktail was EPO, but not a lot, transfusions and testosterone.
"I thought, surely I'm running low [on testosterone following the cancer battle] but there's no true justification."
OW: Were you afraid of getting caught? In 1999 there was not even a test for EPO...
LA: "No. Testing has evolved. Back then they didn't come to your house and there was no testing out of competition and for most of my career there wasn't that much out-of-competition testing so you're not going to get caught because you clean up for the races.
"It's a question of scheduling. That sounds weird. I'm no fan of the UCI but the introduction of the biological passport [in 2008] worked.
"I'm paying the price and I deserve this. That's okay. I deserve it.
"My ruthless desire to win at all costs served me well on the bike but the level it went to, for whatever reason, is a flaw. That desire, that attitude, that arrogance."

There is a part of me that really feels that society is just as much to blame as Lance Armstrong is.  I am in no way trying to remove his responsibility for what he did, but this made me think:

LA: "I understand that. And while I lived through this process, especially the last two years, one year, six months, two, three months, I know the truth. The truth isn't what was out there. The truth isn't what I said, and now it's gone - this story was so perfect for so long. And I mean that, as I try to take myself out of the situation and I look at it. You overcome the disease, you win the Tour de France seven times. You have a happy marriage, you have children. I mean, it's just this mythic perfect story, and it wasn't true."

Now, it is perfectly true that Lance did a great deal to keep that myth going and was also responsible for helping to create it, the fact remains that our society wanted him to be "perfect", wanted him to be the "hero", the man we could all look up to and strive to be like.  There is this prevalent  thing in our society that we look at sports people as some kind of hero's.  Little kids grow up thinking "I want to be like Mike".  That isn't just unhealthy for our children, but it is also very unhealthy for that person as well.  The expectations of having to stay on that pedestal must be very exhausting, as well as almost impossible to do.  I mean just look at Joe Paterno.  Now, I personally know Penn State grads who refuse to accept that Paterno had anything to do with the cover-up and he was just the fall guy.  I think the evidence is quite clear that he was more than that.   

Our children hear so little about the true heroes in our society, the first responders, the people who volunteer their time at homeless shelters to help the needy, the teachers who use their own funds to help keep the classroom stocked with the proper supplies,  the neighbor who comes and brings the little old lady who can't get out much on her own, some soup when she is ill, and countless others that do the right things everyday without any press and without huge payoffs from corporate sponsors.  

I think one of the biggest lessons of this whole mess is that our society continues to put our admiration in the wrong places.  Lance Armstrong never deserved all the praise he got even when people didn't know he was cheat and a liar.  He rode a bike well.  Granted, that isn't something that I could do, but can he make a really good cheesecake that people just love to eat?  I can.  

It is time that we start teaching our children to value different things.  To strive to be a good person, not the best athlete.  We should be teaching them to be kind and considerate, to realize that there is a whole world out there we people are less fortunate than they are, and it is the not only the right thing, but the Godly thing to try to help.  

I sincerely hope that LiveStrong will survive this.  I am glad that he walked away from the board so that the work can continue.  We need research into cancer, we need services for people who don't have family members to help them during their illness, we need a place that people who can't afford the expensive medications to turn to so that their much smaller life compared to Lance Armstrong can continue.  That smaller life usually isn't as full as the arrogance that Lance has so clearly demonstrated and is now paying the long over-due price for.  

Decision Points - Dubbya Steps Out

President Bush is making the rounds to promote his book Decision Points.  I am about half way through with the book and I have watched several of the interviews he has done this week.  Surprisingly, I have found the Oprah interview to be one of the best.  I suppose the reason for that is the fact that while she isn't a fan of his politics, or one would think since she is a fan of Obama; the Anti-Bush, yet she was very fair in her questioning of him.  I am no fan of Oprah so this came as quite the surprise to me.  She seemed to go out of her way to point out that she didn't understand many of the decisions that he made surrounding Katrina.  She admits that she lacked the knowledge that he didn't have the constitutional authority to do anything until the governor of Louisiana gave it to him; many days after the levees overflowed.  This is something that is widely misunderstood by the American public.  I have yet to reach this part of the book as of yet, but I am interested in hearing his account of the story. 

Bush has continued with his very classy act of keeping his mouth shut regarding how his successor has handled the presidency.  Something that I wish President Carter would learn.  The job of president is a very difficult one.  The decisions that you make quite literally affect the daily lives of millions of people in some cases.  Since there is no way to make that many people happy you will always face criticism.  The country has become more and more polarized, so that criticism can overly harsh at times, something that Bush learned all too well. 

The book is very interesting and gives insight to his decision process.  It also will give an open-minded reader the realization that he wasn't as stupid as the press and people on the left portrayed him to be.  It will also further the belief that many had that he was just a regular guy who would be interesting dinner companion.  For those who read the book with the pre-conceived notion that he is some sort of evil idiot, this book will do nothing to change that, with the possible exception of his inability to go into New Orleans immediately.  Another thing that comes through with his press blitz is the humanity of the man.  You can disagree with his policies, but he is a man who has deep humanity.  There are many things that I didn't like about President Bush's administration and many decisions that he made that I would have done differently, but I still admire the man.  The pictures of him dealing with the families of 9/11 are real.  He connected with the American experience in a way that is necessary to be an effective president.  Sadly, something that I don't see in President Obama.  Obama may not be cold in person, but comes across as detached to what the average American feels. 

I am looking forward to finishing up the book over the next week to read about his decisions on TARP.  I think that even this has soften a bit since it was first administered.  At the end of the day, TARP will not cost the taxpayers anything; as the interest paid has made up for those that may never pay it back.  The problem of the precedent that it set is a different issue altogether and how the money has been used in ways it was never supposed to be by an over zealous congress will also cause many to never accept this policy.  Sadly, I was unable to find any embedable clips of the Oprah interview, but below is the interview he gave to Bill O'Reilly.  It is rather long, but interesting.  O'Reilly went after his decisions about TARP much more so than many other of the interviews that I have seen. 

Sarah and Oprah - Much Ado About Nothing

I had not really planned on taking up this topic, but it doesn't seem to want to die. Sarah Palin will be going onto the Oprah show. The episode will air the day before her book comes out for release. Palin fans are upset that she would go on the show after not being invited during the election. Oprah fans, who are not conservatives, are upset that she would give "that" woman the time of day.




It is easy to see why Oprah would have her on. Since the time of her open expression of love for all things Obama her ratings have gone down. This may very well not be connected, but I have feeling that they are. Many stay at home moms are conservatives. Stay at home moms must be a pretty large part of her audience since if you are working 9-5 you’re not home to watch.



Oprah fans are very, let's say, committed. I know someone who uses her DVR and has an Oprah marathon every weekend. She reads every book that Oprah recommends, gives to the charities that Oprah features on her show. She is a total fan, and would probably faint if she were ever to meet her.



I have watched her show in the past. I also will admit to reading a few of the books that she has recommended. While reading those books, I have found many of them to be depressing, so I have stopped. Someone in my life actually appeared on her show a few years back. I think that was the last time I watched it in fact. I don't dislike her show; I just don't think the topics have much relevance to my life.



Oprah had never in the past talked about her politics. If it was an interest for her, she kept her beliefs to herself. This is a good thing. She obviously has a great deal of influence with people. Oprah's more liberal fans are outraged that she would give Gov. Palin such a platform to hawk her new book.



Fans of Sarah are just as committed as Oprah's. People felt that since Oprah had opened herself up and publically backed Barack Obama, she, for balance sake, should have had on Sarah Palin. Especially since immediately following the announcement of her candidacy, she was the hot ticket for the big interview.



Let's be honest here, Oprah is not a reporter. She doesn't have to be fair or balanced. It is her show, and if she chose not to have candidates on, that is her right. She didn't have the Obama’s on once he won the nomination. So in reality she was being fair. So the Sarah side needs to get it over it. If they didn't like it, they could stop watching.



It appears that many people did. As I said her ratings have slumped since last summer for the first time in her shows history. So Oprah's fans need to get over it too. Oprah will get the conservative/independent audience that is interested to see how she handles herself. Her ratings will greatly improve that day. It is very possible that people that stopped watching her show for this reason may start watching again.



This is about money. Oprah needs ratings, and Sarah has a book tour to conduct. In most cases book deals require a certain amount of personal appearances. This is a help to them both. Everybody just needs to get over themselves. They are doing their jobs.