I received a call on the morning of New Year’s Day from an old friend I hadn’t spoken to in a while, wishing me a Happy New Year. He asked me what I’d done the night before and I told him I was in bed by ten p.m.. He made fun of me and said he knew me when I did anything but sleep on New Year’s Eve.
We laughed. He said he stayed home and watched ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. And then he said something that made the laughter stop. He said in a slurred voice, “I’m Dick Clark and welcome to Time Square. Now back to you Ryan.”
And then he added, “Seriously, they should just retire him or have him talk to a camera that’s not plugged in. He wouldn’t even know the difference. We don’t need to see something like that on New Years. It’s a downer.”
I didn’t laugh and he sensed that what he’d said was over the line and he changed the subject. We got off the phone shortly after. I chalked it up to him just trying to say something funny and going too far but then I wondered if this kind of thinking is prevalent in our society.
I googled around and sadly found many people arguing Dick Clark should retire from the public eye – for his own good…
January 3, 2011 at 3:00 am
I love Dick Clark and my husband and I were so happy to watch him on new years eve, we noticed that he is improving in his speech since last year, which is great because he has been working VERY hard at rehabilitative therapy. Anyone who makes fun of him has no soul and will one day not be so young and healthy as they are now. They may want to remember that the next time they mock an elderly stroke survivor who is also an American icon. God bless Dick Clark, may he grace our New Year's eves for many more.
January 3, 2011 at 3:18 am
It's weakness.
We don't know how to deal with it.
Our culture either attacks, ignores or mocks– kindness is a weakness, and if you offer kindness folks who need it are generally so use to it being used as a weapon that they're less than amiable to it.
See also, innocence and manners.
January 3, 2011 at 3:23 am
While there's no reason to mock him, I can't say that there's something intrinsically wrong with saying that Clark should be replaced. I stutter; I know what it's like to be mocked because of your speech. But I also think that if you're in a communication role you need to be able to communication efficiently. I don't believe that saying a man isn't fit for a particular job is a discredit to his dignity as a person.
January 3, 2011 at 2:04 pm
We live in a society that hates the handicapped, the sick (unless it's the hyped victim of the week) the ugly and those with low IQ (witness the people who openly wish that Trig Palin was dead). Anyone who reminds us that we aren't going to be healthy and young forever has to be banished to the back room. I guess it's related to America's strong eugenics streak.
January 3, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Eld isn’t a sin, but greed certainly is. He should have retired in 1960 when a Congressional investigation revealed that he was up to his eye-balls in the Payola Scandal.