Where there is a positive side to things … there is usually a negative side, and that also applies to humor.

Unfortunately, the negative side of humor can be ugly … it can hurt feelings and it can be harmful and destructive! There are people in this world who will do almost anything for money. There are people in this world who will do almost anything for power. There are people in this world who will do almost anything for fame. And there are people in this world who will do almost anything to laugh … and if they hurt someone in the process … no apologies … carry on as usual!

In my opinion, this country is suffering from a huge attitude problem that needs to be fixed! What are parents teaching their children … to be corrupt? What happened to manners and respect? I haven’t seen a local news broadcast on TV for years! Why? It’s the same old broken record … only the names change. The same old tired stories … who murdered whom … who robbed whom … another woman was raped, and there is more and more corruption … scandal, etc.

All of this gets old after a while. You have to wonder if there is already good news in America! Yes, there is, but good news does not sell newspapers, and television ratings and newspapers will not sell if there is no bad news.

I think this society is becoming more and more negative, and all that negativity spreads to the children and grandchildren. There is so much negativity in this society, that some of the people who are supposed to be leaders and model citizens in the community are being arrested for one thing or another. Corruption; DWI; bad behavior in general.

How does humor fit into all this bad behavior? Putting others down … just to laugh! Ethnic jokes … just to laugh! Racial slurs … just to laugh! Dirty jokes … just to laugh! Making fun of others … just to laugh! Negative humor, such as alcohol; prostitution; drugs will always be with us, and we all have to live with it, etc. Negative humor is another black eye for America!

A few years ago, that was when we learned of the violence on some high school campuses across the country. Students and others were shot dead on the school grounds! I have no doubt that some of this violence started, at least in part, due to the teasing of the children until they couldn’t take it anymore … JUST TO GET A LAUGH!

What are parents teaching their children today? Have you ever heard of mutual respect? If you have heard of him, do you teach your children mutual respect? Many of us have been teased at school, I know. Being Hispanic, I remember being made fun of because I did not speak or write English well. Kids would make fun of me … JUST TO GET A LAUGH! It bothered me so much that I didn’t want to go back to school! Everyone knows that children can be horrible. I was always reluctant to give an oral report on a book for fear that children would laugh at me! I will always remember those horrible days of ridicule and hatred!

If you’ve ever been humiliated by those I refer to as “the jokers and humiliating people” who enjoy laughing at someone else’s expense, then you know how horrible it can hurt! I remember a comedian (that’s what he calls himself), who goes around the country, belittling and making fun of the handicapped and the handicapped … JUST TO GET A LAUGH! This guy is the lowest of the basses! What kind of humor is this? What kind of people would go to see this JERK, who finds it amusing to laugh at challenged people! This so-called comedian and his followers are what I call “the world’s little minds!” They are warped … all of them, who would do something like this!

Where is this country headed when we allow this kind of thing, that is, making fun of the disabled and the mentally handicapped? I know that the issue of free speech is involved … and not much can be done about it! Will you allow your children to see this so-called comedian humiliating the handicapped and the handicapped?

* I do not see anything funny or funny in a person who has suffered from an illness; an accident and that he will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

* I don’t see anything funny or funny about a person who was born with a deformity.

* I don’t see anything funny or funny about a blind person who is struggling to cope.

* I don’t see anything funny or funny in a person who has a speech impediment, hearing loss, or severe burns!

Sadly, humor can play a role in all of this, because there are the “little minds of the world”, of which I spoke earlier, who laugh at all this for fun … UNTIL A TRAGEDY HAPPENS! But, there is a solution for all this, and it is only in the parents. Parents have to teach their children to respect others … teasing or belittling others is off limits! Two of the most important words in the world are “mutual respect,” and parents need to teach their children to respect others and stay away from negative people so they don’t turn negative themselves.

Negative and dirty humor is NOT acceptable to me! A person doesn’t have to be dirty to be funny! Negative humor can hurt, if you are the recipient! Many years ago, President Bush declared: “What we need is a kinder and gentler nation!” I think what he was talking about is what we are doing to each other as a People … and much of which is no laughing matter!