Dude, We’ve been screwed by DELL!!

Alright, playful followers, let me tell you about a form we use in an InterPlay performance called a “rant.”  This usually involves a personal story or reflection delivered while standing on a chair, simulating a soapbox.  It also involves a great deal of finger-waving and gesticulating.  This form is most frequently employed when talking about something which is very sensitive.  You would recognize one if you saw it.  This topic is one which would qualify for such a form.

Living in the State of North Carolina, I have become quite aware of the myriad of tax breaks and incentives which the government grants to businesses and industries to encourage them to locate facilities here.  The purpose of course is to benefit the state as a whole, but as a whole the honest, god-fearing, hard-working, tax-paying citizens of this state have to shoulder the burden of these incentives in order to lure these businesses to our state.  One such corporation was DELL (yes, the computer company) which opened a facility in the central part of our state around Winston-Salem. 

Tough economic times have befallen the computer giant, so a couple of weeks ago DELL announced it would be closing this facility.  This will put about 1000 North Carolinians out of work.  North Carolina already has an unemployment rate of 10.8%.  And of course, the key to economic recovery in the USA is secure employment for our citizens to restore consumer confidence and encourage them to continue to purchase our goods and services and help our economy to function.  This news, as you may imagine, was hard enough to take.

Then, to add insult to injury, it was reported last week the jobs of the Winston-Salem facility are being moved “off shore,” to places such as Mexico and the like.  Now, playful followers, I ask you…where is the patriotism of companies like DELL at a time such as this?  Who do they think they are, and why should they expect any consumer loyalty from Americans when this is how they act?  I, for one, will never let DELL have access to one dime of my hard-earned money.  I have secured the commitment of my family across 4 states to back me up on this.  I would also encourage every resident of the State of North Carolina to cast off their DELL products and replace them.  When IBM sold their PC division to China-based Lenovo, which has also down-sized its facilities in the RTP area, I was disappointed and discouraged.  However, the company was sold to Lenovo well before the financial melt-down and it was always well known the company was a foreign company.  But DELL is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas (a State known in recent months for its own governor’s threats to abandon the Union!), so to abandon US workers in times like these is, to my mind, unconscionable.  So I hope, playful followers, you are not reading these words on DELL hardware.  And if you are, I hope you will consider carefully next time you make a hardware purchase.  Now, I will get down off the chair.

A Jester for our times

Although they rarely figure significantly in our study of History, such study will reveal the existence of members of many royal courts which we know as jesters.  These court entertainers were retained by kings and queens for the express purpose of injecting some levity and on occasion some gravity into what most surely would have been dull, drab, and often boring assemblies of lords and ladies.  Often they were depicted and portrayed by the records as being fools or acting foolish.  They were granted incredible leeway in things they could say about people and things, which might have gotten other persons imprisoned or banished from court, if not sent to the block or gallows.  Either these people were literally mentally challenged or given license to behave as such expressly for the contribution they made to courtly life by their foolishness.

Today, we have some of these same folks in our culture.  We call them by many names, but most often they come in the costume of the stand-up comic or the talk-show host.  The Jay Leno’s, David Letterman-types, and the likes of Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon allow us to reflect on ourselves with humor.  And even the likes of Jon Stewart show how the most serious of our current events break down in the face of the humorous humanity of our life.  I would submit to you, playful followers, that in a world filled with so much political correctness, we need such members of our society to point this out to us, even if it forces us to explore the deeper meaning of our lives through discussion and debate.

One such incident which is still getting exposure in our media is the recent attempt at extortion suffered by David Letterman himself.  This is a man who has played host to past Presidents, sitting Presidents, and wannabe Presidents.  Through his humor, he has pointed fingers at any number of our foibles.  So, I have to admit I was incredibly proud of him when, taking a great deal of power from the extortionist, and cheating the media and press of a chance at a scoop, David used his own show to announce the event.  He even went so far as to declare the “creepy” thing he had done and for which the extortionist planned to embarrass him. 

Now, say about me what you will, I would affirm that David is worthy of recognition as the Chief Jester of the USA.  We have given him license to be entertaining and humorous, and give him great criticism when he fails to do so.  Should he be allowed to break laws?  No.  Should he have had “affairs” with his staff interns?  Well, that probably was not the best thing he had ever done in his life.  No one, however, involved in the affairs was coming forward to complain…remember, this was some network producer hoping to get money to cover his own debts.  These events took place before the marriage of Mr. Letterman to his wife (although long-time girlfriend) who is mother of his five-year-old son.  And he has also made public the price he will have to pay for the damage to that relationship.  But this is no greater price than any of us would have to pay should we find ourselves in a similar situation.  Having been cheated of their “scoop,” most of the news outlets will now fight over the fallout peripheral related news items.  And because he was bold enough to bring the issues out into the public, women’s rights groups will use the occasion to criticise Mr. Letterman and others who have done and do these “creepy” things.  But I will continue to watch Mr. Letterman’s show, because of all the people we have willing to act foolish and look foolishly at how we ourselves can look and be foolish, he has proven to me he has the guts and the talent to handle the job.