Robert -- David Krasnow from Studio 360 here. I’m sorry to hear how deeply you were offended by Eugene Mirman’s joke. And I can understand how you heard it as a little shocking. We felt, and feel, very certain that he was mocking, rather than embracing, ethnic prejudice. He certainly has nothing on Sarah Silverman in this department.

To NPR/ World

Re Kurt Anderson’s program yesterday.

These were my thoughts written prior to setting up an e-mail. I'm sure that Kurt is a decent guy. And i'll bet he's feeling a personal remorese for what happened. though my expectation that he take a break -- as a pediatrician it's called "time out" and "redirection" -- may seem extreme, I do believe it is the right thing. to do. The upset recoirded below still stand

Robert karp

“Flack?” That’s an odd commentary on the response you are receiving objecting to gross racial on Kurt Anderson’s show.

To be specific, By this note I request that Mr. Anderson’s show be put in limbo until he and you all agree, with the input of organizations of Roma and Simi people agree on an appropriate response.

I had the privilege of being at the 1963 march on Washington. At that occasion, Rabbi Joachim Prinz spoke as a representative of the Jewish community. “As a Rabbinical student in Germany,” he said, I witnessed the rise to power of the Nazis.” That was no surprise; it was the “good people who stood idly by” that upset him. Dr. King was listening; this message became a part of the ministry of his last years.

Eugene Merman is a jerk. I too am descended from European Jews. My father’s family emigrated at the turn of the 20th century from what is now Ukraine. I too have witnessed behavior said to be characteristic of various ethnic groups, Jews, Italians, the Irish, African- and Native-Americans, and White Anglo Saxon Protestants, too. Stereotypes represent responses to shared experiences. They do not represent the people themselves, and are never to be used to belittle, especially by someone whose family fled anti-Semitism now making jokes at the expense of the Roma. How awful!

Mr. Anderson is ultimately responsible. In an ideal world he would have cut Merman off. That would be too much to expect. He was required, however, to stop the show and give some level of response that came to mind. He did not. He needs time away from NPR. I believe that he is ashamed now and would welcome a chance to add something positive

I look forward to your response.

In my next life I want to be a cabaret singer, male or female. Ideally a combination of Wesla Whitfield and Michael Feinstein. Failing that, I want to be a very pampered parakeet.

I get another life? Then I'm gonna stop worrying about dying.

I already have an alternate life. I live vicariously through my alter-ego..."Mavis Rose Sinclair: Panty Dealer Extraordinaire. Hippo Trainer with a Wooden Leg" She is a lot of what I would like to be and I manifest it through her in short stories about her life.
www.mavisrose.wordpress.com

In my next life, I will be ...Me

In my next life...I will be an animated Disney Character :D