Credit Policy for businesses and how to extend credit and manage credit risk

Does the world realize we are at war, not with Imus and his stupid comment but for real?  Why are we as a nation spending so much time talking about Imus when soldiers are dying every single day in Iraq, being injured and fighting for all of us. What has happened to our nation to put so much energy into Imus when your brother, husband and son is fighting with their life on the line.  What do you think our troops have to say about this? How do you think it makes them feel? What is really important?

I have never listened to Imus’s radio show, and have only been learning more about him since he decided to call the Rutger’s Womens basketball team a group of “nappy headed hoes”.  Not being familiar with Imus’s personality and what he thinks may be funny or a joke, I can only assume (and hope)  that he spoke without thinking and did not mean to make a comment that degraded women in general of any color with any type of hair. 

“Nappy” is defined as a diaper or an absorbent garment worn by a baby, or can refer to black hair or afro-textured hair.

We all know what a ho is and it doesn’t matter what color you are, that is just rude and degrading. 

Imus and others are trying to justify his comment by pulling rap music and rappers into the discussion.  To me, this is similar to when you make a debt collection call.  You call someone up and it is someone else’s fault they could not pay the bill, their boss, their wife, their broken down car, their life in general. 

Imus made a mistake, he apologized but the world is not moving on.  Kimberlee Morrison and Tanya Payne make many very good points on this topic on their blog post titled "Don Imus Just Doesn't Get it."

They dig deeper into his comments and providing us with insight into this underlying race and sexist problem.  I read another persons comment on this situation and they likened it to when a woman wears sexy clothing and then gets raped, people somehow think that since she was dressed that way, the rape is her fault. Until we educate everyone out there, which seems like a daunting task, this will continue to happen, more than we know.  Someone with a platform or a following should be one of the people trying to help society, not bring it down.

The bottom line to all of this is to be nice. Be respectful of others, no matter who you or they are.  When you are a movie star or a radio personality, have some respect for your audience and the people in the world in general.  I have used this practice during my 18 years as a bill collector and everyone who is in a position of “power” needs to remember that there are always people that look up to you, want to be like you and then you hit them with a derogatory remark or a rude comment and blow them and many others away.

Why do people think they need to use hateful speech to be more popular or funny? This comment was so hateful and hurtful, Imus obviously did not think about the women he was calling names when he said this or he would not have said it.  This is assuming he is a decent human being which we can only hope is the case.  Bill collectors do this all the time, they call someone who owes money and yell at them, degrade them, put them down and they think this will make the person pay!

Just like a bill collector calling someone names when they are trying to collect money, if you are disrespectful and rude, no matter how much you apologize you must pay the price.  Bottom line:  THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK.

If Imus had done this he might have thought to himself what if I was driving to work listening to the Howard Stern radio program and Stern made a similar comment about Imus’s daughter, sister or mother?  Would Imus laught that off? Would his sister or his mother think it was funny? What would happen when his daughter went to school the next day?  Hmmmmmm…………