The Death of Honor

Honor is dead, y'all, plain and simple. Conrad Murray put it on life support, it flatlined with JoePa, and it died quietly with the passing of Heavy D.

Conrad Murray put honor on life support when he had the temerity to not only insist on a trial on his involuntary manslaughter charge in the homocide of Michael Jackson, but then attempted to blame Jackson for his own death. The question whether Murray had any honor was answered in the negative when his mistresses took the stand, when the argument was made that Jackson administered the fatal dose of propofol himself. Regardless of how Jackson got his last dose of propofol, he could not have had access to it but for Dr. Murray. To blame a dead man for his own death that could not have happened but for your own actions? Absolutely no honor. It would have taken me all of nine minutes, not nine hours, to vote to convict Murray, and that's including six minutes for going to the bathroom. If Murray had had any honor, he would have pled guilty.

An honorable man takes responsibility for his actions, no matter how horrific they may have been.

Then came allegations that Penn State football legend Joe Paterno knew that one of his former assistant coaches was alleged to have sodomized a child, that one of the assistant coaches, a graduate student, witnessed the act. Sure, JoePa reported it up the chain of command within the university, but honor demanded more -- that he go to the police because a child's safety was involved. Children can't defend themselves from predatory adults. If JoePa could play a paternal, protective role with his players, who are clearly capable of protecting themselves, why couldn't he have picked up the phone and called the police to protect a child who couldn't protect himself?

An honorable man stands up for those who can't stand up for themselves, especially children.

And just when honor was flatlining in State College, PA, we heard of the passing of Dwight "Heavy D" Myers of "Heavy D and The Boyz" fame. It's no secret that yours truly hasn't been an ardent fan of hip-hop, but I loved Heavy D. Why? Because his rhymes didn't demean women. You could listen to his music, and he was all about loving women and women loving him, and loving him as he was -- The Overweight Lover. I never felt that I had to put my feminism on the shelf to enjoy a Heavy D song. I never felt excluded from his music because of misogyny or profanity. I didn't have to be less than myself to enjoy a Heavy D song. In fact, in one of his songs, "Is It Good To You?", Heavy D raised the bar as far as what we women should expect from men in the romance department.

An honorable man honors and respects women.

And so it appears that honor has died. May it rest in peace.