"American Idol Gives Back," Simon Cowell Becomes A Pawn, & We Want To See Photo's Of The Starving Americans

A note to Simon Cowell and the staff at “American Idol” re: their “American Idol Gives Back,” charity special:

If the Boston Globe or the Los Angeles Times could find an actual starving baby – or adult for that matter – in the United States of America, you can bet that kid would be on the front page of every edition for a week!

Now, I’m not talking about some kid held prisoner by a psychopath or a drug addict who refuses treatment and housing. And I’m not talking about some kid who is the child of a nutcase couple who refuse to apply for food assistance.

I’m talking about actually finding starving American kids and adults actually facing death because they cannot get food through one government program or another.

I just don't think they are out there.

If they could be found and stuck in a camera frame, the photographer would get a Pulitzer.

During the recent airing of “American Idol Gives Back,” documentary films of starving and ill people in Africa were shown. The charity special was also designed to raise money for the ‘hungry’ of America.

To that latter end, Simon Cowell was taken on a tour of a food pantry. But he was not shown any starving Americans.

[Older readers may remember when U.N. rep's from the former Soviet Union asked to be taken on a tour of America's slums. They were taken into the heart of Harlem and into apartment buildings. They refused to believe these were the 'slums' of which they heard. Unlike the slums of the USSR, the Harlem apartments had radiators, toilets and running water.]

Simon Cowell was almost incredulous when the manager of an L.A. food pantry told him that it was hard to believe that there were Americans ‘starving’ within a short walk of her headquarters.

And no wonder.

Though neither party stated it as a fact, we were clearly invited to accept the belief, or assertion, that there are Americans, in American cities, on American streets, who are, through no act or fault of their own, starving on this very day.

The assertion is not only ‘incredible’ [as in: not believable] and ‘hard to believe’ [as in: difficult to accept Wendy’s recitation of Peter Pan’s abilities], it is a slander and libel [as in: a false statement designed to hurt the reputation of the impugned] on the reputation of the United States of America.

Simon Cowell did well to express some shock and disbelief. Nevertheless, I can see how he could be led to believe that 'starvation of the poor' was another of America's faults.

After all, he lives in a country in which, according to his current Prime Minister Tony Blair, some 100,000 people die each year just waiting for medical care from their own National Health System. We Americans, on the other hand, have been taught that Britain’s health system is a paradigm that America should follow.

Yet, any Brit’ with half a brain knows that the health system of Britain is a disaster compared to that of America.

So, why should not Simon believe that America’s reputation as the ‘breadbasket’ of the world, capable of feeding it’s poor and those of the world, is similarly the result of partial false advertising?

But – in fact – America’s reputation as a ‘breadbasket’ is deserved whereas the reputation of Britain’s Nation Health System as a paradigm instead of a ‘basketcase,’ is not.

I will allow that there are people who are starving in America. These people are of two types: those who are committing suicide and those who are the victims of murderers.

First, the suicides:

I have no doubt that there are those who refuse to apply for or accept assistance of any kind. We only have to go onto Boston Common to find them.

They are people, who, generally speaking: talk with Napoleon and think they're Jesus, that is to say: the insane; and, drug addicts and alcoholics; and the terminally proud, but stupid.

Second, the murderers:

The murderers are those who usually share the traits of the suicidal types: they are insane, and/or addled and/or proud and stupid.

They are the pathological nut bags who make front page news when discovered, because their pictures are usually accompanied by some headline reading, “Child Sex Slave Kept in Basement Cage and Starved by Crazed Step-Mother.”

But, in America, from the middle of the 1960’s through today, no person has starved unless he volunteered for the honor or had the honor imposed on him by another.

If memory serves, the last case of involuntary starvation in the United States of America was recorded by the government in 1962. Like 'lynchings' in the south, statistics on Americans starving just are not to be found. If they were, they'd be the lead item at the "New York Times."

I do not mean to imply, nor should you infer, that Simon Cowell has intentionally defamed the United States. I do mean to state that he has been used as a pawn by those who get their ‘warm and fuzzies’ from running food pantries.

Additionally, I do not condemn those who wish to better the lot of the poor by making it more convenient for them to acquire a variety of food in a nice atmosphere, free of any real or perceived stigma.

My quibble is with the assertion or belief that there are those in America who are starving because they have no choice.

If those running the food pantries would be honest, they’d say that the assertion of ‘starvation’ is an advertising scare tactic to get folks to donate time, money, and food. They’d acknowledge that their service is designed to make access to food more convenient to the poor and to make themselves, the providers, feel good about providing this convenience.

And, if they had any degree of strong, personal self-awareness, they’d acknowledge that any assertion by them that they are battling real starvation gives them an imagined, but fulfilling sense of a certain epic romantic drama to their efforts.

But, unfortunately, they do not do so. Every time I have seen some documentary on private outfits creating food pantries, the slander of involuntarily ‘starvation’ is mentioned as though it were fact.

I can only think that these are folks, who, in a small part of their personalities, are among that ever growing part of our population I term the ‘Self-loathing Americans.”

As I said, I don’t blame Simon Cowell. He was used as a pawn and a human prop’.

What bothers me is the failure of Americans to extol the virtues and accomplishments of this country. For food pantry managers to talk of ‘starvation’ in America, merely to inflate their self-image and sense of accomplishment is to demean and lessen the impact of actual starvation wherever in the world it is taking place.

And what of the "American Idol" viewers? What about the impact of this "Starving Americans" propaganda on them?

There are tens of millions of young people - not to mention adults - who watch the show. It is a 'ratings' goldmine and the Number One show on the air today.

Already young Americans are assaulted daily with the list of sins and offenses - some real, some false and some which are in between - that America has committed.

They are seldom reminded of the greatness of the country of which they are citizens. Instead they are constantly reminded that, like virtually all societies that have ever existed: we once had slavery; women had no vote and could not own property; children were considered chattel; and the KKK [see: Morality Police, Taliban] had a large membership that sometimes summered at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.

They are seldom reminded that, unlike most such societies, Americans have -- through Civil War, legislation, Constitutional Amendments and citizen sponsored court challenges -- cast off most of the shackles which still bind the rest of the world today.

Instead, with a constant cultural and media driven drumbeat, youngsters are reminded of the 'sins' of America -- many in the past -- and some not in the living memory of any human today -- in public service announcements, school curriuclums and daily on PBS.

[And, never mind that most of the major 'sins' are in the past. Our culture is like a bickering old couple that goes to therapy. They get their 'act' together. They make progress -- and then? The husband forgets to do the wash and the wife decides this is a good opportunity to remind him of the affair he had thirty years ago. We are a culture that not only remembers its past -- we cannot let it go:
"What do you mean 'America is great?' What about the internment camps for Americans of Japanese ancestry in World War II?"
"We've apologized, paid damages and, if we haven't already, we'll probably be issuing a postage stamp on the topic in the near future."
"That's not enough!"
"No? Well...it's more than the Japanese have done for China to make up for what they did to China."]

Even celebrations of great historical accomplishments such as the drafting of the U. S. Constitution are leavened with reminders to our youth that some of the documents' authors owned slaves.

But, PBS documentaries and historical anniversarives are one thing...."American Idol" is quite another.

For the most viewed show on television today to be bamboozled into showing America as on a par with Zimbabwe or Brazil when it comes to 'starvation,' is nothing short of a cultural and societal libel.

In any event..........

It is nice for the pantry workers to do what they do. It does make the acquisition of food more convenient by having more outlets within a short distance of the homes of the poor.

However, it might be enlightening to mention that, also found in many of those neighborhoods, are the offices of the government agencies that can also provide food stamps and access to myriad programs to help the poor.

For instance, if you want food and housing in Los Angeles, you merely have to go to the welfare department located in South Central L.A. Yeah, that’s the focal flashpoint for the riots instigated by the Rodney King incident. If you get their early in the morning, you’ll leave there by noon with a couple of hundred dollars or so of free food stamps and a ticket to get you into a free motel.

You don’t believe me? Well, very much to my chagrin, I have to tell you how I know it is true.

I went through that very process because I had to go through it – six years ago – in South Central L.A. And, by that evening, I was sitting in an air-conditioned motel room, with private bath, and eating my free food -- all provided by the government.

America is not a country that forces people to starve. It is also a country that won’t let them starve, if only they will simply ask for help.

[coming soon: Part II on ‘Not Starving In America.’]