Master's Thesis On Slavery

This past Wednesday, Sarah Palin  cancelled a scheduled interview with NBC's Matt Lauer following MSNBC host Martin Bashir's suggestion that she deserved a graphic punishment for comments made about slavery. The suggestion for that punishment was way out of line for a news commentator to make about a potential interview subject, but perhaps in line with punishments that might have been handed out in the days of slavery. Days that with which perhaps former governor and former sportscaster Palin might not be familiar.
Speaking about the United States increasing debt to China, she said: "When that note comes due -- and this isn't racist...but it's going to be like slavery when that note is due. We are going to be beholden to a foreign master." I'm pretty sure that most people would have let that one slide on by without the "and this isn't racist" parenthetical. Who could possibly be a better judge than Ms. Palin as to what is or is not racist? Well, maybe Mister Bashir, an Englishman by birth and a Pakistani by blood living and working in the United States. He may, at one time or another, have encountered racism.
He may also have a sense of the history of the world, which has included many different instances of slavery based on race. Bashir does seem to share a certain flair for public speaking that might compare favorably to that of Ms. Palin, considering they both had to apologize for their most recent fusillade of words. His apology: "Upon reflection, I so wish that I had been more thoughtful, more considerate, more compassionate, but I was not and what I said is now a matter of public record." Hers went like this: "I apologize for not being clearer in my response, thus opening the door to critical media that does what it does best in ginning up controversy." Only hers wasn't about the slavery comment. Hers was an apology for comments she made about Pope Francis. In that apology, she also mentioned this: " I was reminding viewers that we need to do our own homework on news subjects, and I hadn't done mine yet on the Pope's recent comments as reported by the media." Perhaps Ms. Palin can work the diary of Thomas Thistlewood into that hectic reading schedule of hers.