Off The Cuff

You Know You Are In The Twilight Zone When....

I noticed in the news this morning that in the Netherlands, they have I guess you would call it a reality game show called "Big Donor Show". Contestants vie for the grand prize, a kidney from a young lady, 37 yrs. old, who is terminally ill. Unlike what it sounds like, the lady is fine with this since she wanted to know who was going to receive the lifesaving organ before she died.

The program will air on Dutch TV on this Friday evening. The contestants tell their stories and share what day to day life is like for them in a bid for, not only the sympathy of the donor, but also, more importantly, the audience. This is a 90 minute show that will include interviews with the family and friends of the people who need the organ.

The chairman of BNN, the network in the Netherlands, that is broadcasting this game show, says that the whole thing is tasteless but it brings in viewers. He feels that it is much more tasteless for these poor, ill people to have to wait it out on a donor list for years. He goes on to say that "at least the contestants in the show have a 33 percent chance of getting a new kidney. They would have to wait much longer in real life for the same deal." Despite his beliefs on the subject, the Dutch politicians and the media have censured the network for allowing such a show to air and for exploiting such a serious issue just for a ratings grab.

Not only is this tasteless but it is definitely exploiting the catastrophy of people's lives. It puts the plight of these folks out in the public eye, which in some cases could be great, but in this case is simply exploiting them, getting their hopes up when they should not. This is not right and it sets a horrifying precedent that we will not want to have in our future.

What happens when another idea comes floating in about a TV show that has contestants vie for the next body part but this time it's for parts of a guy who is NOT sick. Maybe they get volunteers (people will volunteer for anything these days) or it might be someone who did not volunteer but is captured. No way, you say. Not in this country! Yeah right.

This country is totally free too, right? We do not have laws that will harm us someday soon, right? This country is free politically but you can't protest in front of a President or candidate. They show you the " free speech zone" as the person passes you by. This country is free religiously but in the Capitol building you cannot pray openly in the rotunda or you will be escorted out. It is against the rules in the same place that has prayer before they open their meetings. This country is free except when you want to show the Ten Commandments in a government building, owned BY THE PEOPLE, I might add.

Are you kidding me? If people had a clue about all this, they would band together like they did after September 11th. (remember that? Everyone had something to say about the towers and what the enemy did to us. No one does that anymore.) They would get together to take out these stupid and extremely damaging TV shows. It is not about TV shows. It is about our very heritage, our beliefs, our freedom, the thing that our forefathers fought for in the wars, to preserve our freedoms from harm. Is this keeping us from harm to have such shows? No! Then do something about it. Take up the cry. This is going to bite us one day if we do not.