3.8.21 Bee-otch of the Day: Michael Sweet

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Name: Michael Sweet
Age: 57
Occupation: lead singer, Stryper
Last Seen: ??
Bee-otched For: playing Chicken Little

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Last weekend in America, a young husband and father woke up to the sweet smell of his wife's cooking.

He walked to the kitchen wearing the Washington Football Team t-shirt he slept in. He sat down as the Missus served up some Pearl Milling Company pancakes slathered in Land-O-Lakes butter and Mrs. Butterworth syrup. After breakfast, he and the wife paid off their bills. Among them was their life insurance bill from Mutual of Omaha. Their five-year-old daughter sat on the couch reading a Dr. Seuss book while their seven-year-old son watched The Muppet Show on Disney +. 

After the bills were paid, the family hopped into their Jeep Grand Cherokee. They headed out to the grocery store to buy the week's food supply, including the evening's dinner, consisting of steaks, red potatoes, Ben's Rice, Cream of Wheat for breakfast and a package of Edy's Pies for dessert. 

But, a year ago, things were a little different. 

We all know the situation. The Washington Football Team was called the Redskins. Pearl Milling was called Aunt Jemima, Land-O-Lakes had an attractive young Native American woman on their packaging. There were no worries about Mrs. Butterworth's packaging. Mutual of Omaha had a Native American's head as their logo as opposed to that of a lion. Dr. Seuss's books are suitable for children. The Muppet Show wasn't deemed offensive. The Grand Cherokee was not under fire by the tribe is was named after. Red potatoes (going back further) were called redskin potatoes. Ben's was called Uncle Ben's and had a black cook on the package. Cream of Wheat also had a black cook. Edy's Pies were called Eskimo Pies. It goes on.

The PC Police has been on high alert since a policeman kneed the neck of George Floyd. But, it goes further back to the days people of color were bullied because of their appearance and demeanor. In the movies, they were maids or porters. In radio, they were portrayed by white people and fell victim to low-brow humor. Segregation ran rampant and they had very few places to call their own. 

But, things changed. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1965. When Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, Transamerica Insurance - who owned the pre-1948 Warner Bros. cartoons at the time - yanked eleven shorts from television syndication that portrayed African Americans as lazy, sleazy and cannibalistic. More cartoons and movies were shelved from other studios, especially Walt Disney's "Song of the South", which the NAACP claimed sugarcoated slavery. 

When the news broke last week that Dr. Seuss Enterprises was ending the production of six of his old books due to portraying people "in ways that are hurtful and wrong," mixed reactions exploded. Some felt that children looking at Seuss's drawings of Asians and African Americans would give them the wrong feeling about how they looked like. But, those who grew up reading Seuss's material - and I have several of his books in my library myself - started crying outrage and sacrilege. Then again, in later years, Theodor Seuss Geisel himself (and BTW, "Seuss" is pronounced like "voice") drifted away from the occasional racist stereotypes and put social matters into his books. "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" dealt with the commercializing of the holidays. "The Lorax" spread a message about the environment. "The Sneetches" dealt with acceptance. The list goes on and on.

However, the right has been taking it the wrong way, especially Michael Sweet. Michael who, you might ask? Well, he had a few hits in the 1980s, including this one. 

Sweet is the lead singer of the legendary Christian hair metal band Stryper, best-known for their 1986 hit, "Honestly". Last week, Sweet took to social media, claiming that in light of the Dr. Seuss controversy, he feared that The Bible is next to be banned.

Bear in mind that he - like many-a-Bible thumper - took to the media to voice his disgust over Cardi B.'s megahit from last year, "WAP".

Now, The Bible is like a Dr. Seuss book. It preaches a lot of the things that he talked about, especially in his later titles. However, yes, it's loaded with some stuff that's, well, weird. Leviticus is a prime example with its verses preaching against homosexuality, having sex with a woman on her period, eating shrimp and lobster and getting a tattoo. 

The sad reality is why Sweet thinks that The Bible could end up on the banned list: it's because of them. For decades, we've been stuck with assholes who misread it and pretend that it's OK to have excessive wealth, shame the poor, shame those who are different and so on. Hell, when Stryper, along with other crossover Christian rock bands like POD, Skillet and others started selling millions of albums, I wonder where all their money went. Mansions? Cars? $60 million jets?

Years ago, Howard Stern said it best on his show. Jesus was the greatest person to ever walk the Earth. However, too many people have perverted his name. AMEN! Because of all the fake preachers on TBN and other networks, plus those who own a jet plane and a $200,000 house for their dogs, it's a cop-out to those who simply aren't stupid enough to donate to their cause. Past and present, I know people who have given to these fake fucks and they have been brainwashed into being poor. 

The point is that The Bible will NEVER be banned, period. It's in the Public Domain. Hell, I can start publishing Bibles and make a lot of money. As long as there's Christian and religious bookstores and e-commerce places that will sell it, The Bible will never be "banned". As I've mentioned, the only reason why those Dr. Seuss books have been removed is because they're owned by Dr. Seuss's estate and they don't represent the values that he wanted to spread in his stories. 

IMHO, I think the "banned" Seuss books will become collectors items. If the Seuss estate wants to return the books to the shelves with a warning of political incorrectness, that's up to them. But, we simply live in times where what was seen even 20 years ago - i.e. episodes of The Man Show that have Jimmy Kimmel in blackface and Crank Yankers featuring the "Special Ed" puppet - is not very acceptable now.

As long as everything doesn't get thrown into the Land of Misfit Toys, all will be well.

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