Crushing Eggshells

One of my favorite Radio Hall of Famers is a guy named Art Bell. Not long ago he wrote a book called The Quickening. In it he described a period of time when things move more quickly and eventually reach a tipping point: terminal velocity. Like most things this depends on your point of view but that time seems to have arrived.

This week Ed Esposito, Eric Mansfield and Megan Mahoney from WMFD-TV in Mansfield were invited to talk to high school and some college students about beginning their careers in broadcasting. This was sponsored by Z-TV, the University of Akron campus television station and its teaching general manager Phil Hofmann. As I looked into those young faces I saw apathy and interest, boredom and excitement, I saw those who just wanted a day away from the routine and some who really wanted to make a living at work in the media. We were separated by two generations and I could not help but wonder if they felt the same rush of history. Probably not.

As barriers fall I listen intently for the sounds of change. For one thing we are going from a president that was not only a walking punch line but added select malapropisms that will be with us for years. Now we have a new central character in the seat of power. He was swept into the White House with a solid majority, by he has two choices in this job: be great (like Mt Rushmore great), or, well, there is no other option.

Back in February I wrote a piece describing this moment as giving the nation and the world permission to stop dealing with race like some wicked game of Operation; pick lightly at the topic otherwise you touch off a wave of offense and accusations. Presidents are by nature fair game. 43 men have been subjected to ridicule, literally at the highest levels. In recent history the smallest anomaly filled comedy shows and became part of pop culture. From Nixon's slump to Ford's falls, every one of them had something. Now we have Obama. I tend to think that this president will present more fuel for that fire than the color of his skin or his African name. Yet from the Italian prime minister we have the first toe-dip into the subject. He mention how tanned our new president is. By the way, black folks do tan. Then the president-elect himself called himself a mutt while describing the kind of dog he wanted for his daughters as they move into the White House. Not bad.

For the most part Presidents are fair game. Without being mean and nasty – trust me there are already millions of internet pages devoted to that kind of vitriol – there are plenty of opportunities for good natured ribbing. It would be worst to tip toe around all the massive changes that are flooding toward us. Just as Art Bell talked about in The Quickening, things are changing at a blinding pace. There is no time to parse every work and worry about whom we might offend.