Just because you have the stage, does not mean you should share your big mouth

I've been silent for a little while. Work commitments have kept me busy. And I've been quietly watching to see how things develop on the Obama front. But sometimes things happen that require we put down the toys we are playing with, and take a moment to address the state of things.

Kanye, really? REALLY? You thought it would be a good idea to steal the spotlight and ruin the moment of a lifetime for a 19 year old girl to run your big mouth about...what was it this time....Beyonce didn't win the award you wanted? Jay Leno asked you how you thought your mother would feel about your antics. You ducked your head and muttered a reply. Let me help you out. She would SMACK you upside that no-class head of yours and remind you that she raised you with better manners than that. Enough said. Someone please take the microphone away from that dumb boy. It doesn't even matter if he has spoken yet. Just take it away. He's proven he cannot resist the temptation to share his stupidity. Now can we please move on.

We move on because Kanye was not the only person with a big mouth this week. In fact, this mouth was so big, it did not require a microphone. It shouted out like a coward from a crowd of its cronies and did what? Called the President of the United States (our beloved POTUS) a liar! On national (and now international) television. WTF? Do you live in this country? Were you raised by wild animals? That is the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. He is your leader. It does not matter if you like him - you better respect him. Respect him enough to not shout at him like you are heckling a basketball game at Madison Square Gardens. You're not at MSG. You're in CONGRESS for Christ's sake. Stop acting like a toddler.

We seem to have lost the art of respecting one another as human beings in our beloved country. Kanye gave away his respect by acting like a child. But does anyone, besides Taylor Swift, really care? He's an entertainer. A marginal one at that. But when members of Congress so grossly disrepsect our President, these things cannot be ignored. The United States is disrespected by a very large portion of the globe. Don't get me wrong, when they need our money they will come to our door sweet talking and begging. But the globe does not respect us. They do not take us, or our POTUS, seriously. And why should they. For 8 years it was acceptable for Congress, the media at large, and Amercians in general to ridicule, complain about, make fun of and generally disrespect George Bush. Obama himself was frequently disrespectful to the President. Now that he is wearing the Presidential hat, he may see exactly how wrong and how destructive that is. Unfortunately, the rest of us have yet to catch on. We cannot expect the world to respect our President, and by proxy us, if we cannot respect ourselves enough not to allow our Congressmen to act like toddlers. Whether I "like" Obama no longer matters. He is the President. We elected him. Now we need to respect him and the job that he does. We can respectfully disagree with his ideas, actions, and even his choice of shoes if we wish. We have a Constitution with a Bill of Rights that allows us that freedom. But nowhere in either of those documents does it give us the freedom to be blatantly disrepectful to one another. It's time to grow up people!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Aretha - no one has ever said it better than you.