Welcoming Words - and Borat

Thanks so much for the huge welcome from everyone! I now have lots of new bloggers to call friends and blogs to read. It's a wonderful thing.

To address some of the responses to my blogs so far: I firmly believe that adversity only makes one stronger. I try, every day, to follow my parents' example, and realize that I really don't have it so bad. Some days are harder than others, but on a day like yesterday, when I saw that young man in a wheelchair, looking stunned at where fate had put him, it's easy.

I saw an article in People magazine last week or the week before about a young Marine who had gone to Iraq, performed his first tour of duty, then returned to the States and proposed to his sweetheart, who said yes. Before they could wed, he was shipped back to Iraq again. The second time there, he didn't fare so well. The Humvee he was riding in hit an IED (I'm not sure what that stands for, other than a bomb) and it blew up, severely burning him from the waist up. He lost his nose, his ears, his mouth, one eye, all of his hair, and was left with only two fingers on one hand. When they shipped him back to the States, his fiancee went to see him, and said she was relieved that he still looked the same, except he was black all over. That was before the first surgery, when they had to remove all the burned skin, which pretty much removed his face. That stalwart and loyal young lady married him anyway. She says she doesn't even notice his scars anymore, that his heart is still the same.

No, I'm definitely not going to feel sorry for myself!

Now, enough about me. I've got another question for all the bloggers out there.

What do you all think of this Sacha Baron Cohen guy and his "Borat" alter ego?

Well, since this is my blog, I'm going to be the first to weigh in.

I am a firm believer in freedom of artistic expression. With that said, however, I feel uncomfortable when someone's idea of artistic expression tramples all over someone else's feelings. I know we aren't obliged to tippy-toe around, but I think a little good taste and empathy would go a long way sometimes. I don't think the two college kids who are complaining that the film crew got them drunk and then goaded them into saying things that are less than discreet (not to mention worlds away from PC) really have a leg to stand on - after all, no one poured the booze down their throats. No, my sympathy is for the dirt-poor Romanian town whose occupants were invited to take part in a "documentary", paid a measly $3.30 or so, then asked to take barnyard animals into their homes and allow them to urinate and defecate all over the place to illustrate the hilarity of living in a third-world country. That's just an example of the extent to which this film went to to ridicule people who have little or no choice in the quality of their lives.

Whew! That felt good.

My opinion doesn't matter, though. I want to know what YOU think! Before you begin, let me answer the inevitable question: no, I haven't seen the movie, and I don't intend to. I'll give my twelve bucks or thereabouts to charity, where maybe it will do some good.

Now, let's hear it people! Talk it out!