Over-Egg The Pudding Much?

A Call-Out to those whom the shoe might fit.

Jeremy Kappell, meteorologist for WHEC-TV, Rochester, New York's NBC affiliate, was fired Sunday for inserting the word "coon" into the name Martin Luther King, Jr. while giving a weather report Friday.

Over the weekend, videos of Kappell's broadcast circulated on Facebook and YouTube, and WHEC conducted an "internal investigation and internal discussion" on Sunday, announced Kappell's firing Monday, earning along the way a lot of criticism for what many perceived as unnecessary delay doing so.

Folks, Your Crusading Blogger has no desire to make a big production here, so I will cut to the chase.   Here is the video, you decide.  Jeremy Kappell claims he jumbled his words.  Do you believe him?

Here is what I believe.  I believe we are in a season of profound and very quick societal change.  Much of this change is necessary and a long time coming.  The speed of this change is dizzying.  One element pushing, cheering the change on, and a push-back from the "Old Guard".  To many of us, even those who see the need for a lot of the changes, sometimes it feels like the whole world has gone crazy.  It is going to take some time for our society to settle in to some sense of equilibrium again.

I believe, if we are to get to this place of balance as quickly and painlessly as possible, it is important that we do not see offense and offenders around every corner.  "Over-egging the pudding" is a British term meaning to spoil something by trying too hard to improve it.  (Never heard that term?  Well, then maybe you'll understand Jeremy Kappell claiming he didn't know "coon" was used as a racial slur.  Neither would I, had I not watched All In The Family as an adult and heard Archie Bunker use the term.  All the racists I knew as a child had another epithet they used, and it began with the letter n).  Whenever we are making societal changes, especially such swift and sweeping ones, shouldn't we remember that perfect is the enemy of good?

It seems to me we need, in these troubled times, to cut each other some slack.  I believe we may all be collectively suffering from a little too much cortisol (stress hormone), making us a little edgy, and a little more likely to jump to conclusions and overreact.

I believe Jeremy when he says he jumbled some words.  I have no doubt that if this man has ever had a racist word to say, the social media detectives among us will sniff it out, old acquaintances will come out of the woodwork to enlighten and condemn.  I do not know this man; I do not know his heart.  I do know a little about news broadcasts, and I seem to remember that each portion of each segment is under a time crunch.  Meaning you only have x amount of time to deliver your portion, and you do not want to go over your allotted time.  You are hurrying to spit out a lot of information in a short time; it is easy to get your tongue tangled.

Who out there has not been afflicted with tripped, transposed and conflated syntax?  I remember at age 8, being outside playing, talking to my dog.  My mother was less than ten feet away in the kitchen with one ear on my verbal meanderings, when I attempted to ask my dog, "Isn't it a shame?" or " Isn't it a pity?"  Only it came out, "Isn't it a sh*tty?"  If my mother was like some folks out there, I'd have been sent to bed without supper.

I pray Jeremy Kappell will find a new and better opportunity when the time is right.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/rochester-weatherman-fired-mlk-
slur.html

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uC66TZxfSEw&feature=youtu.be#