I have watched ESPN for the very first time in my life to see the new documentary O.J.: Made in America. It’s very well-made and problematic as hell. I do recommend.

And now the not-so-nice side of American people has started to come out. A collective hounding of the police officer who said, “Do you think it’s worth towing the car over a dog?” has begun.

The officer didn’t kick the dog, didn’t harm it, didn’t do anything bad at all. He simply said something some people found insensitive. The capacity of Americans to persecute somebody for saying something they don’t like knows no bounds.

The dog has been rescued, everything is fine, why not just go home, feeling good about the situation? But no, people have got to make trouble for the officer who didn’t even do anything wrong.

The expectations of verbal perfection are way too high. I’m all for being careful with words but I detest this habit of collectively hounding a person for saying something mildly unfortunate.

These days, people observe stop signs more thoroughly than ever. Because every stop sign is a chance to text.

Somebody noticed in our university’s parking lot a BMW with a small and miserable little dog in the backseat. We are in the midst of a heatwave, and the dog was suffering inside the hot locked car. People started congregating around the car and emailing everybody on campus to find out whose dog it was. Police was summoned. Campus security was called. The owner hasn’t showed up yet but the dog has been rescued.

I’m not into dogs but I’m always reminded of why I love Americans when I see such things happening. People care enough about a dog to stop doing what they were doing and hang around the car, making sure that the dog was rescued. Even though it’s hot and uncomfortable to be outside, they stayed until it was clear the dog was going to be fine. And when a police officer refused to help, they forced him to do his duty and help the animal by reciting the anti-animal cruelty statutes. This is so touching. So many kind, wonderful people around.

I’m also tired of hearing how nobody is excited about Hillary’s candidacy. Millions of people are extremely excited. I just spoke to two colleagues, female academics in their sixties, who said they were crying tears of joy when Hillary ran the Presumptive Nominee video.

“This is what we worked for our entire lives,” one said.

“I’m so happy I got to see this in my lifetime,” said another.

I was also in tears when I saw that video, and I resent all those (obviously male, what a surprise) smartasses who keep moaning that nobody is excited because anybody who is not them is, of course, a total nobody.

I’m very bothered by the suggestion repeated by every journalist in the country that an interest in children’s health and anti-trafficking work are somehow “soft” or only of interest to  mothers and not fathers. Or sisters, brothers, single people.

Why are we accepting the discourse that marginalizes these crucial issues as trivial or “soft”? How is hugging a child more “soft” than shaking the hand of a construction worker? How is children’s health more a female than a male issue? Do the men you know not care about the health of their children? If so, then stop hanging out with those morons, they suck.

Since when is screeching like a banshee about walls or scary, big Muslims more respectable than working to stop human trafficking?

Folks, let’s stop the insanity promoted by unprofessional and stupid journalists and avoid repeating the idiotic “Why has Hillary gone soft?” trope after them. These losers transmit nothing but their diseased sexism. When Hillary talks about foreign affairs, she’s hawkish and tries to be “like a man.” When she talks about anything else, she’s weak and only appeals to weaklings. Enough of this! None of this crap is making our lives better or advancing our understanding of anything.

I love academia more than anybody else I know. But I would have been just as happy in absolutely any other profession that I chose. If I decided to be a janitor, then that would be the best profession in the world. I could easily quit academia and not perceive it as tragic or write any of those sad quit-lit missives. The source of professional contentment resides in me and not in any specific profession.

P.S. I’m talking about being happy in any profession, not in any working conditions. Working conditions, of course, can be objectively bad.

. . . can be found at the link. Highly recommended.

It’s long but complex issues cannot be discussed in soundbites.