As published in the

Pasadena Star-News - December 26, 2002

San Gabriel Valley Tribune - December 26, 2002

Whittier Daily News - December 26, 2002

Dr. Laura should resign

by

Gerald Plessner

I once believed that bad news came in threes, that when two celebrities died one after another, the death of another celebrity could be expected the next day or two. Hopefully that will happen soon with resignations.

"Dr. Laura" Schlessinger should do the honorable thing and join Cardinal Bernard Law and Senator Trent Lott in withdrawing from her role as the hard-talking mother to the weak and indecisive.

Laura's mother Yolanda Schlessinger was found in her Beverly Hills condominium recently, a possible homicide victim. Her body lay undiscovered for perhaps two months before her neighbors became concerned about her disappearance. The elder Mrs. Schlessinger and her daughter had been estranged for as many as 18 years.

No one wishes Laura Schlessinger ill on a personal level or doubts that she mourns her mother's lonely and perhaps violent death. Given her failure to have any relationship with the elder Mrs. Schlessinger since sometime in the 1980s, her grief must be compounded by guilt.

But America has a new sensitivity to the failures of religious and political figures who do not live up to their words or their calling, and Laura Schlessinger is a religious and political figure. She speaks often of her conversion to Orthodox Judaism and she is outspoken in her opposition to various social trends and laws.

Americans are much less tolerant of the failings of religious leaders who protect clergy at the expense of the weak and who live licentious lives in contradiction to their pronouncements.

We chase from public life, those figures who defend family values but cheat on their wives. We use today's standards to pass judgement on figures like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

Americans have a new intolerance of the nostalgia for the old days of Jim Crow and those politicians who have fond memories of those times.

A long-time divorcee who was estranged from her mother for almost a generation, doesn't seem like a credible authority on family and interpersonal relationships. Shouldn't an important public figure like Laura Schlessinger, who lectures daily on morality and family values, be held to the same standard as clergy and politicians? Her audience is probably larger than the Archdiocese of Boston.

In a statement released by her show, Laura Schlessinger said that she was "so sad to learn that she (her mother) died as she chose to live --- alone and isolated."

But according to the Los Angeles Times, Yolanda Schlessinger's neighbors painted a picture of a "friendly, pleasant, talkative person who seemed 'quite bright'". The neighbors seemed taken by her outgoing personality and considered her a part of their community.

It is not hard to imagine why the elder Mrs. Schlessinger left her job as her daughter's secretary, walking out of the office and her life so many years ago. It is hard to imagine Laura not trying to run the lives of those around her. That is certainly how she conducts her talk show.

She seems to need to berate and belittle her callers, often resorting to a maternal bellicosity. The whole premise of her show is that she knows all the answers and her callers want to be told what to do. She reinforces dependency at almost every turn.

In a society filled to the brim with people with one dependency or another, Dr. Laura is perhaps the biggest co-dependent or enabler of them all. The question now is whether her own history disqualifies her from giving such advice.

For her own sake and in the best interests of her devotees, Perhaps Laura Schlessinger should look at her need to keep people dependent upon people like herself. This might be the perfect time to retire and write another book.

About the author: Gerald Plessner writes regularly on issues of politics and culture. He would be pleased to hear from you and may be contacted at gerald@geraldplessner.com.