...or does the news sometimes put you in a funk?

Occasionally I despair of my fellow man. Have any of you heard the name Kia Vaughan? Would only that it could remain thus. Ms. Vaughan is or was a member of the Rutgers Womens Basketball Team. This is the same group of young women that were so cruelly maligned by Don Imus on his radio program last April. Not content with Imus' apology and subsequent banishment from his radio gig, sweet Kia is suing Imus, Bernard McGirk (Imus' producer and sidekick), and CBS Radio, Viacom, MSNBC, NBC Universal and presumably, Gugliemo Marconi, the guy who gets credit for inventing the radio. Greed aside (and this is all about greed) let us review the facts in the case. Imus made a tasteless, unkind remark about a group of people. No one was named. No woman singled out. Aside from their parents, the coach and the other players, no one, and I mean no one has the vaguest idea who plays womens basketball for Rutgers. The team's success in the NCAA tournament raised their profile to approximately that of the wrestling team at Iowa or the Olympic fencing team. Question one: can a reasonably anonymous person, defamed as part of a group, willfully shed their anonymity and then claim defamation? Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post suggests that this case only flies if Judge Sharpton is presiding. Question two: Is a person's reputation damaged more by the off-handed slur of a radio shock jock or by filing a multimillion lawsuit over the incident? Side issues include: What if the crack had been made by Charlie Joiner? What if the entire student body of Howard University had been defamed? We will all cringe when this gold-digging tootsie settles out of court and goes on to write a book about the humiliation she suffered at the hands of "Mr. Whitey". Considering that a whore is someone who sells themselves for money, Imus might have actually gotten it half right. On the subject of greed, Virginia Tech University is awarding the families of students murdered in the April 16 massacre, approximately $180,000 each. The money was collected as donations from people all over the country. Now, some of the family members are planning to meet to see if this arrangement meets with their approval. Really? Someone needs to explain to me when this country became immersed in the tragedy/entitlement lottery. I suspect that 9/11 put us over the top. Families with million dollar bank accounts and multimillion dollar insurance policies were griping because the $2 million that they received from the Sept. 11th relief fund wasn't enough. Allocations were made based on future earning potential rather than need. I never did hear what the survivors of the store clerks and cigarette shop owners got but I'll bet it wasn't $2 million. Some New York City Fire Fighters and EMT workers are still being short changed. I understand charity and the money that Americans donated should make all of us proud but when people start lobbying for more and more I start to squirm. Why do people feel entitled to a payday if a loved one is involved in a tragedy? If your husband /wife was killed in a car wreck on the way to the WTC on 9/11/2001 you got squat. The family of a private killed in Iraq gets a max. of $650,000. Anyway, I'm sure that the Virginia Tech families and the University will reach an agreement. I am equally sure that someone will feel cheated and sue. Maybe Kia Vaughan's lawyers are available.