Scott Allan’s World

No, this is not about inappropriate jokes. But I have to tell you what I saw on the news was pretty darn funny. Real life can indeed be funnier than fiction.

Council member Albert Vann in New York wanted to honor a controversial black activist Sonny Carson by naming a street in Brooklyn after him. What makes Sonny most controversial is the video clip I’ve been watching on the news all week. When he is asked if he is anti-semitic, he states quite emphatically, “I am anti-white”. Now the fact that someone wants to name a street after him in the first place is pretty funny considering that statement, but justifying it is even funnier. This was demonstrated nicely in the news coverage of the hearing at city council. Whenever a white person spoke out against Sonny’s divisive and racist comments, they were heckled and shouted down so that they could not be heard. I found this quite ironic. Then there was a black woman screaming at the city council that there is a statue in Central Park honoring the founder of modern gynecology, J. Marion Sims, who practiced his surgical techniques on three Alabama slaves without anesthesia. What is funny about that? Well I think her intent was to point out that the city council was being hypocritical, but instead it came across as “Racist Sonny should get a street because this other racist jerk got a statue.” If we go down that road, Yassir Arafat would win the Nobel Peace Prize. Ok, sorry, bad example. One thing this woman (and conveniently the news media as well) fails to point out is that anesthesia was not available until 1846 in the form of ether and 1847 in the form of chloroform. J. Marion Sims performed his 30 procedures on these women from 1845 to 1849. So really anesthesia was not even available until halfway through his experimentation and even then it was experimental at best. Prior to 1846, nobody had any anesthesia for anything for millions of years. In the end, Sonny Carson did not get his street. Probably the funniest part was at the end of the newscast when a black man who was very upset declared the decision to be “racist and discriminatory”. Oh the irony is just too much to take. Carson’s supporters haven’t given up though. They are going to the courts to demand justice be served.