Oprah Winfrey makes me ill. I am sorry to say that because she is in Chicago and she is a major force in this city (despite not actually living here or showing up anywhere around town) but I just cannot stand her. She had an Oscars show that she just couldn’t help but show up in herself. Hey, Oprah, I want to see Sidney Poitier taking with Jamie Fox and not see you thrust yourself into the middle of their conversation for more self-aggrandizing “oh look at me” shenanigans from you.

For me Oprah stopped being a talk show host and drifted into cult leader status about the time she started telling people what they should read and talking about their “spirit.” The housefraus in their homes eating bon bons and wishing they could be buddies with Oprah keep eating her up because it’s easier to believe the pseudo-religious pap Oprah spouts than getting up and doing anything. Oprah does not do anything that doesn’t feature Oprah prominently at the center. Gee, who is one the cover of this month’s “O” magazine? Oh yeah, right, only Oprah appears on every single solitary stinking cover of that magazine and has from the beginning.

Right now Oprah is promoting some kind of special about this school she opened in South Africa. While I am quite sure Oprah is convinced she is doing a wonderful thing I cannot fault her for trying to create quality schools in a country that cannot afford to open enough schools to teach their kids, I am wondering why she felt she had to create just one 60 million dollar school. There is a radio guy I listen to here in Chicago named Steve Dahl who summed up how I feel about this just perfectly. Why not open 60 one million dollar school than just one 60 million dollar school? With one million dollars in that country you could probably open a very quality school that could help out hundreds of not thousands of children.

Why only make the schools for girls? Because Oprah wants to mold the children, that’s why. I can’t help but figure that Oprah is trying to create a whole bunch of little Oprahs. The other problem I have is that Oprah deemed herself enough of a judge of the potential of little girls that she held auditions for who could have the chance to attend her super-school. Yeah, I am quite sure that’s a great thing for those who were chosen but her special doesn’t seem to want to focus on the irreparable damage caused to the people who were not chosen.

So, imagine what life must be like in South Africa. You are a young girl in a country that sees very little problem with raping young women or having sex with very young women without the use of condoms. At the same time you have a family who is often running under the belief that if you are raped you are the one at fault. You have people in parts of Africa who think sex with a virgin can actually cure AIDS. South Africa has the highest rate of car-jackings than any country in the world. It must be a kind of despair and hopelessness not seen anywhere but, oh, say, some of the housing projects right here in the United States.

Anyway, here comes the rich American. She brings hope with her. You do whatever you can to somehow participate in this ridiculous experiment this rich American is conducting to create some kind of super-intelligent race of South African Oprahs. You audition for this person. You let her into your life and talk to her and write essays or whatever the hell it is Oprah made these poor girls do. Lo and behold you put all of your hopes into this one chance knowing it is likely the only chance you will ever have to really get out of your situation and make something of yourself. Then what does the rich American do? She chooses some other girl because, well, I don’t really know what the criteria was that Oprah used.

Oprah desperately wants us to believe that she is good-hearted and really just a regular person with an insane amount of money who uses that money to make things better for the rest of the world. The problem is she is so far removed from the real world and so far up in her ivory tower she doesn’t even realize what she’s doing. She is like the giant who enjoys the sunlight and clear day he goes for a run and doesn’t even realize all of the villages and villagers he has stomped on while out jogging because they are so small and far below him.

She thinks that she is promoting reading by giving people book suggestions. In her mind she probably thinks she is doing a good thing. She is helping a young author become a bigger author and she is getting people to read. What she doesn’t realize is that for every one author she elevates there are hundreds more she does not and that her followers only gather to read whatever the great Oprah tells them to read. She sleeps at night feeling good about herself for giving away thousands of dollars worth of goodies at her show during the holidays but she forgets that regular people have to pay taxes on those things and that not everyone has multi-billions to do that with.

She honestly thinks she was wronged when she shows up at a store that is closing and she is told she cannot come in. She then thinks there is nothing wrong with her calling the head of that chain of stores onto her show and publicly humiliating this man into apologizing. Hey, Oprah, the rest of the world has to follow things like the actual posted hours of a store. Remember the guy guarding the door is just a regular guy barely making minimum wage who just wants to end his or her day and go home and not think about the route his or her life has taken. Therefore, just shut up and go home and don’t get indignant before the rest of the world and humiliate a guy who may have struggled his entire life and now become the head of a large chain of stores. He is entitled to his success just as much as you are.

So, now she created a school. She got to choose the students. She spent a ton of money for one school that will help a few girls who may or may not achieve their potential and make a difference in the world. Think of the good she could have done had she spread that money around and created more schools throughout the country. The law of averages says that the more students you help, of both sexes, the more likely you are to create a few who will go on to make a real difference.

I don’t have a solution for Oprah. She is so powerful and has so much clout nothing anyone says anywhere, especially a guy saying it here, is going to change her or the way she thinks. She thinks that by driving across the country with her buddy that makes her a regular person. Yeah, Oprah, but the rest of us don’t do it with a camera and show it on television. She is so misguided and blinded by her own ambition and success she doesn’t realize the damage she does to those of us beneath her feet.

Bryan W. Alaspa’s novel Dust is available in print and eBook format at his website www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.