Only one click of the remote
takes a viewer to parallel
universes of the T.V. And so,
he did something really
science fictiony; he moved,
at the push of a button, between
those parallel universes on a
Friday evening during prime
time. He watched intelligent
conversation about the poss-
ibility of something called a
smart gun which is being
developed in one universe
to halt hasty, unwanted, un-
intended, later regretted
firing and possible harm
and/or death and then he,
with one hit on the remote,
entered the other universe
and watched bombast on
Benghazi. Back in the other
parallel universe, he watched
intelligent conversation about
race relations statistically
comparing white Republicans
attitudes to those of white
Democrats; back to the other
channel and a universe seemingly
farther and farther away from
reality and definitely in the realm of
fiction, he watched a standard
fare for that channel, blond,
white, female human, who looked
something like a Stepford
Wife robot, sitting in for
the very popular, not-so-attract-
ive, but pretty tall, bombastic,
male, parallel universe star, cut off,
as if on script, guests when they
varied from the station’s line on
Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi (Are
they saying it often enough for
the multitude of old, white
viewers in that universe to chant
back into the T.V. screen, “Yes,
yes, yes, Benghazi, Benghazi, Ben-
ghazi!”?), and then, he watched as
she, of all things, in light of the scandal
of the 80-year-old billionaire, racist
basketball team owner, did her
best to host, toast, roast and humiliate
two, seemingly, affable black guys as
guests on the show, cut them off,
shut them down and dismiss them
on the loaded, simplistic, and false
question of how things have gotten
a lot worse for blacks under Obama,
not president, just Obama. On cue,
they just sat there, shook their heads
up and down like bobble-heads
in affirmation of the line of the standard,
fare for that channel, blond, white
woman and smiled. He wondered
if they were being set up for an Amos
and Andy routine to tickle the old, white
watchers. He thought, If I had been one
of those guys being dissed and dismissed
by the standard fare for that channel,
blond, white woman doing her best
racist interview, I would have said,
“S’cuse me, Mam; s’cuse me, Mam.
I’ll just sit here and smile like a good,
obedient house slave on your station’s
plantation, Mam, while you tell all the old,
white folks out there what you want to be
comin’ out of my mouth, Mam. No dis-
respect intended, Mam.” Getting tired
of the parallel universes, he switched back
one last time to the channel hardly anybody
watches and watched right-wing advertise-
ments bought by right-wing, super-pacs try
to influence the few liberal viewers to that
channel in that universe, so he just shut off
the T.V., picked up a book of believable science
fiction and went to bed.
bobdahl 