The Grinch Lives?

For me, trying to ignore the Sound Off section in the Mobile paper is like driving by an accident scene without looking. I know that nothing good will come of it, but I can’t resist. If you have not had your daily limit of racial or religious intolerance, Sound Off has plenty to spare.

Looking for opinions devoid of factual basis? Sound Off is the place for you.

I am not sure of the reason, but holidays bring out the meanest in Sound Off callers. The middle of December elicits venom like no other time. Homeless people who refuse to get jobs, disabled folks who expect the system to help them out, liberals who dare breathe – their wrath has no bounds. I have long pondered this conundrum without finding an answer – until yesterday.

Our church Sunday School put on the annual Christmas Pageant. It was wonderful – paper mache camels, lambs wandering from the flock and angels yawning from sleep deprivation (brought on no doubt by dreams of Santa Claus). As I watched the collective joy and good feeling that enveloped both the cast and their audience, I compared it to the wrath and indignation I had read in that morning’s Sound Off. I finally concluded that those Sound Off callers are just a blip on the screen – they are but a few grains of sand at the beach. The rest of Mobile has a good heart – they understand that life is intrinsically good and that some have it better than others. They share compassion instead of hatred. But why, I then asked myself, does the Sound Off have such a prominent position in the paper? Foolish question, the other part of my brain replied – it’s the same reason that car wrecks and murders get more space than Christmas pageants.