The Jerk

I am not a huge fan of Steve Martin's movies but I admit that the have, on occasion, made me chuckle. "The Jerk" however, was not one of them. This story falls into the same category.

Paul Pugmire feels like a jerk.
The Salt Lake County Council candidate joked in a high-school reunion blog that he was "born a poor black child" - a play off the 1979 Steve Martin flick "The Jerk" that has the white Democrat regretting his stab at humor and answering charges of racial insensitivity...
But Salt Lake County Republican Party Chairman James Evans, who is black, took a harsher tack.

To quote Joan Rivers...James..."can we talk?" Is there nothing more important to the residents of Salt Lake County that we can be talking about? Are there no more pressing issues facing the county than this? Is there really nothing more important that some guy making a not so successful stab at humor based off of a movie from the 1970's?

James also had this to say about the incident.

"What he has done is despicable," he said. "There is nothing funny about being a poor black child from Mississippi. It gives me insight into what he thinks about African-Americans."

And what this shows me is that we have a county GOP chair that needs to lighten up a little bit. Not everything in the world is about race. Heck - if I were to take umbrage every time someone told a joke around me that featured a Hispanic, I would probably be wound as tight as you are but I don't. You see, I have come to realize that life is too short to get wound up over insults - real or perceived. Plus there are far more important things to worry about than my hurt feelings.