Ya Heard: Stupid, demeaning to squander such money

" We owe it to our ancestors to preserve entire those rights they have delivered to our care. We owe it to our posterity not to suffer their dearest inheritance to be destroyed."

-- Junius

As if hearing about former NFL star Adam "Pacman" Jones' involvement in a shootout outside a Las Vegas strip club in 2007 wasn't bad enough, the recently released footage of events leading up to the shooting is even more repulsive.

The infamous evening in question left three people with gunshot injuries, including a club manager whose wounds left him paralyzed from the waist down.

The incident also caused Jones to be suspended from the NFL for the entire 2007 season. The 2005 first-round pick eventually plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct in exchange for his testimony against the alleged shooter.

Now as terrible as the situation was, let's now take a look at the cause.

While the actual altercations are not shown on the video, the moments just before the chaos are.

In the footage, you find Jones and rapper Nelly enjoying the after hour festivities. Jones is seen wearing a backpack that contained $10,000 cash, which he used to "make it rain." (Note for my more sheltered readers: The term "making it rain" comes from the act of throwing large quantities of money in the air above a crowd of people, such as ... strippers.)

To the seeming amazement of those throwing the money in the air, the women strangely begin actually picking up the money. Super producer Jermaine Dupri can be seen and heard on the video scolding the ladies for picking up their tips, instead of continuing to dance.

The fighting began when the women continued grabbing money, much to the enragement of Jones, who then allegedly attacked one of the women. This led to a scuffle between Jones' entourage and club security, so on and so on.

Durpi recently stated, "I'm from a city, where in Atlanta, we do this every day. You'll hear this in [Young Jeezy] records. When Jeezy say he spends $10,000 on one song? [It] is for real man. It ain't no play." Dupri then continued with, "A lot of y'all comment on how stupid it is. It might be stupid to you, but this is what we do. … You're not supposed to get your money until the dance is finished. These girls was picking the money up soon as the money was flying, like someone was going to steal it."

Apparently, the "proper etiquette" for strippers is to refrain from picking up the enormous amount of money that these idiots were throwing away and continue dancing instead.

Nevertheless, it is this type of thinking that must stop. How has this type of behavior become not only common, but acceptable? In this case, it was reported Jones had given the club $80,000 in cash to hold for him, to be spent entirely in the club that night. Jermaine Dupri's attempted explanation of this buffoonery just isn't sufficient. All of a sudden it is OK to give away $10,000 in tips to strippers during one song, while people in their own community are struggling?

I am a firm believer in the old adage "to each his own," but the reckless use of such a valuable commodity as money cannot be ignored, nor tolerated. Instead of emulating or praising this type of mess, we should be rejecting whatever it is individuals such as these are selling.

I'm sure there are far more outrageous wastes of resources in this country and world, but we are not in a position to be squandering the limited resources we do have, on things such as strippers, chains reading "Big Ass Chain" and/or a fleet of 25 cars… No, look around, not quite there yet.

At an appearance at last weekend's ESPY awards, a favorite actor of mine, Jeremy Piven (Ari Gold in HBO's "Entourage"), made what I thought was a great joke.

While presenting an award, Piven says, "There aren't too many Jewish athletes," pausing for the audience to finish chuckling before he continued with "…they're all

owners."

'Til next week, Peace!

Dennis Winn can be reached at 703-200-4928 or YaHeard40@gmail.com.