Hits and Misses
MISS: Actor Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock for joking about his wife during last Sunday’s broadcast of the Academy Awards was certainly a disheartening moment for anyone concerned that our culture is becoming more coarse, more dumb and more debased. What was encouraging, though, was the almost universal condemnation that was heaped on Smith in the days after. For all his power and celebrity, and whether or not Rock’s joke was in good taste or not, the overwhelming reaction to Smith’s display of temper was revulsion. No matter how many more movies he makes, or no matter how much he atones, millions of people will never be able to get the image out of their heads of Smith, angry and out of control in front of millions of people. Alyssa Rosenberg, a Washington Post columnist, said, “The slap was simply sad and awful, and sometimes it’s worth letting a disaster just be a disaster in all its wretched clarity.”
MISS: Most of the statewide Republican gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates are making strenuous efforts to show-off their tough-guy credentials in televisions ads – vowing to “fight” for this or that, talking about their combat duty or hunting adventures, vowing to put criminals behind bars, and on and on. But at least four GOP gubernatorial candidates seem a little frightened by the prospect of tough questions. The campaign managers for Lou Barletta, Jake Corman, Bill McSwain and Dave White have asked that moderators for debates in the weeks before the May 17 primary be registered Republicans and not work for an organization that has “maligned” any of the candidates. To her credit, Melissa Hart, the former congresswoman who is a dark horse contender in the contest, released a statement disavowing the whole effort: “I am not afraid of tough questions, and I will not demand to see the registration card of the questioner before I answer.”
HIT: Thursday was a hard day for Washington residents who have come to love the one-of-a-kind pizza served by Walther’s Hill House Pizza on West Maiden Street. The business closed that day because Cyril Walther, who has run the family business for more than 40 years, has decided to retire. Walther told the Observer-Reporter that he felt badly about closing the restaurant, but “I’m getting kind of tired and just kind of would like to have some time to myself that I could just enjoy.” We would all want the same thing if we were in his shoes, of course. And while Washington residents will surely miss what has long been a city institution, they can be glad that it was able to survive and thrive as an independent, family-run enterprise for so many years.
MISS: The number of coronavirus infections and deaths has been plummeting in recent weeks, and that’s very good news. This past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration signed off on adults over age 50 receiving a second booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. That should help prevent additional infection and deaths. What is disturbing, however, are the number of adults who have not yet gotten a booster shot. As of this month, only 44% of Americans considered fully vaccinated had received even their first booster. Despite everything that we have endured over the last two years, it appears it might take some coaxing to get Americans to get that second booster shot, which doesn’t make a lot of sense – wouldn’t you want to continue to protect yourself against a deadly pathogen that has killed close to 1 million Americans?