Don Imus is by most accounts a miserable human being.  He’s turned a dour personality, a mean spirit and tons of insensitivity into a good living as a radio broadcaster for the last 40 years.  Every year or so his show makes the news because of something particularly odious that he said or because of who was present when he said it, because for some unknown reason the powerful and the influential, especially in the political realm all appear on “Imus in the Morning.”

I’ve never cared for Imus.  I’ve listened on rare occasions but never got into his show.  I have never understood the allure of people like Imus.  If you were in the same room with him, you would think, “Who is this obnoxious horse’s behind?” But for some reason if that horse’s behind is on the radio it is quality entertainment.

Last Wednesday, Imus made an offhanded remark about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, calling them “nappy-headed hos” in banter with one of his staff.  There was no immediate backlash but by Friday there was enough heat that he apologized on his show.  Over the weekend the Blogosphere exploded with calls for Imus’ head on a platter.  Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton got involved.  By this morning, Imus was in deep kimchee and went on Sharpton’s radio show in a desperate attempt to stem the tide. Today, CBS Radio and MSNBC suspended Imus for two weeks, not because they are genuinely shocked by Imus’ comments - otherwise he would have been off the air last Thursday - but rather as a way to appear to be doing the right thing (feigning sincerity as it were).  After all, they make millions off him being… well, himself.

As I said earlier, I am no fan of Don Imus. But this weird media dance is just plain looney.  Never mind that you can hear similar (or even worse) invective directed at African-American women on just about any rap or hip hop music video.  The bottom line is what Imus said was and is completely inexcusable. There is no possible context in which what he said about these young women would be acceptable. 

I just find it surprising that anyone is surprised that such talk would spew forth from the mouth of Don Imus.

Ever heard the story of the guy who had a pet rattlesnake?  He loved and cared for the snake for years and one day with no warning, the snake bit him, injecting him with a fatal dose of venom.  As he lay dying, the man looked at the snake and asked him why he would do such a thing.  The snake replied, “Dude, I’m a rattlesnake… this is what we do.”

Imus is famous precisely because he is foul-tempered, insensitive and cruel.  And now we are somehow appalled because he has publicly said something foul-tempered, insensitive and cruel.  Hello?  How can we be surprised at this?  Imus’ informal job title - in a genre that he is largely responsible for creating - is “shock-jock.” So how is it we are somehow caught off guard when he says something shocking?

I watched the clip of the exchange between Imus and Sharpton today.  I have to admit it was a poignant moment when Sharpton introduced his daughter -  who is roughly the same age as the Rutgers players Imus maligned - and he told Imus this young woman was not a “nappy-headed ho.”  While he did not call her that directly, the implication was painfully obvious:  Those young women were, in fact someone’s daughter.

On the other hand, I was also surprised that the Rev. Sharpton steadfastly refused to allow for the possibility that Imus could ever be forgiven for his offense.  At the end of the day, even Don Imus deserves our forgiveness if he sincerely asks - and in this case all but begs for it.  I would venture to say that Rev. Sharpton has at some point in his life said something he sincerely regrets saying.  I know I have.  If he has not, maybe he should be dubbed Saint Al. 

This morning outside NBC’s Chicago studios, Rev. Jesse Jackson was leading a protest.  Jackson is also calling for Imus to be fired and his nationally syndicated show to be taken off the air.  But Jesse Jackson of all people should understand Don Imus’ current predicament.  During the 1988 Presidential campaign, Jackson was outed for referring to Jews as “hymies” and calling New York “hymietown.”  He was also quoted as saying he was “sick of hearing about the Holocaust.”  Jackson owned up to the “hymietown” comment and apologized saying, “Charge it to my head and not my heart.”  The remarks damaged Jackson politically, but by most accounts he was forgiven and he certainly still wields some measure of influence. Jackson should have been forgiven because let’s face it - all of us can think of things we have said that we sincerely regret saying - things that don’t really reflect what is truly in our hearts.

At the end of the day, we have to remember the message of the gospel is grace, mercy and forgiveness being extended to those who don’t really deserve it.  We follow a Savior who offered forgiveness to the very people who were crucifying Him.  I might not like it, but if someone sincerely asks me to forgive them, I have no choice but to forgive them, because of the grace extended to me - grace that I can never deserve or be worthy of.

Do I think Don Imus should be fired and his show taken away from him?  Probably not, because that could lead to a situation where anytime someone says something on the air that makes people mad people will call for them to get fired, which could lead to even more political correctness.  As much as I detest what Don Imus said, that is a slippery slope we don’t want to start down.  Besides, as we learned with Howard Stern, going that route can potentially just make you even more popular on satellite radio where there is no restriction on what can be said.

What I really would love to see is people all over the country choosing not to listen to Don Imus.  Tune him out, find something better to listen to (which shouldn’t be too hard).  Then he would be off the air not because he said something that got him fired - which could potentially turn him into some sort of First Amendment martyr - but because since no one was listening, no one was advertising and there was no money to be made off his obnoxious, offensive and negative commentary on life.