Bill McClellan is Brilliant!

OK, this is NOT an Overland, MO. piece (a shock I know, but dumb stuff does still happen in other areas).

I read Bill McClellan's recent column "Storm stirs up north vs. South power struggle on my street" . It is brilliant Satire (heck, I printed it to share with neighbors). I truly enjoyed it as it did what satire is supposed to do, it makes you think about the underlying issues, while making you laugh at the same time. Well, that is of course if you get that it is Satire.

Unfortunately, it would appear that many in the St. Louis Metro Area did not. I am not sure what that says about our schools, but it is really said that a brilliant piece like this (one I personally think should be used as a example is college courses covering satire), would result in a massive surge of angry emails and calls to both Mr. McClellan as well as the Editors of the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

So let me start out with the basics here:

satire - 1. a. A literary work in which
human vice or folly is attacked
through irony, derision, or wit.

b. The branch of literature constituting
such works.

2. Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to
attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.

(dictionary.com link)

Satire is a literary form of writing. It is often times used to illustrate social problems though extreme fictional examples. A better explanation than the simple definition of the word is:

Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change.

(Source: Wikipedia)


I am quite confident that Mr. McClellan DID NOT actually do anything that appeared in this column. OK, he might have made a passing joke as the man obviously has an "off the wall" sense of humor but seriously, there is simply NO WAY Bill McClellan acted as described in his column.

The column is obviously designed to make us think. In my humble opinion it is partly directed at those who could have helped others but chose not to, and the excuses they make to themselves for their inaction. I read it as a sort of caricature in word form, of the self-centered nature of the average American in our modern times.

I thought the piece was brilliant, I thought it really brought home the selfish nature of the average person these days, and as always, I laughed all the way through it.

But read it again and you see it runs deeper than that. It is a satirical example of the class-based divisions in our society that exist, and how the "haves" tend to look down at the "have nots" and take comfort in assuming that it is the "have nots" fault that they are poor (which can be the case at times, but is certainly not always that way).

How simple, or dense does someone have to be to think that this actually happened?:

...My street, for instance. Those of us on the south side have power. We were out for a couple of hours Wednesday night. Very quickly, our power was restored. The people on the north side of the street have been without power since the storm struck.

At first, it was fun. I would walk on to my porch and I'd be wearing a sweater. "It's cold inside," I'd yell to my neighbors across the street. They were sure to be outside, by the way. The heat had made the inside of their homes unbearable. They had pulled furniture out on to their porches or in their yards, and they sat there sullenly, the have-nots staring across at the haves. They could see the lights on in our houses, the television lights flickering. They could hear the steady hum of our air conditioners.

"Any extra blankets?" I'd yell at them. "I like to crank the A.C. up on these hot nights, and the rest of the family complains."

source

It gets better, you really should take a moment to read "Storm stirs up north vs. South power struggle on my street", if you have not done so already. If you have, read it again thinking outside of the box of our current issues with power outages and the troubles that came with them.

Well, apparently there are a lot of people who took this seriously and completely missed the Satirical nature of it. As a result, Bill McClellan, and his bosses have been "swamped" with complaints from angry people who think this is terrible. I imagine some actually believe he did all of this as well.

Well, I would like to see people with sense write in as well. Let's let Bill and all the people at the St. Louis Post Dispatch know that we thought this was a fantastic column that really pointed out our social shortcomings America faces in the new millennium.

To write Bill McClellan: Click Here

To write a "letter to the Editors": Click Here

To write a "letter to the online Editors": Click Here

Come on people, can anyone take a joke anymore? Seriously, can anyone see things like Satire, Wit and FICTION for what they are? Does anyone actually believe Bill McClellan could have said or done such things. And even if you do believe he could, do you honestly believe that if he did it, the neighbors on the "north side" would not have beat him within an inch of his life?

Lets show Bill and his bosses that not everyone has a "glass jaw" and not everyone in St. Louis is incapable of "getting it". Please take five minutes or less and write to support Bill McClellan right now.