Let’s have a brief discussion about bigotry and unacceptable behavior in a civilized nation.

At almost every Hillary Clinton rally in recent weeks there have been at least one or two idiots chanting or holding up signs that say, “Iron My Shirt!”

As the New York Times reported Monday:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was about to deliver a line that has become a centerpiece of her campaign since her loss in Iowa.

“Everybody in this race is talking about change. But what does that mean?”

“Iron my shirt!” yelled a man, who stood up in the middle of a jammed and stuffy auditorium at a high school in Salem, N.H., and held up a yellow sign with the same text. He repeated it over and over.

Mrs. Clinton asked for the lights to be turned on, and the shirt man was removed along with another man who had stood up too.

“Oh, the remnants of sexism are alive and well,” Mrs. Clinton said.

When everyone had settled down a bit, she said, “As I think has just been abundantly demonstrated, I am also running to break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling.”

Her words were drowned out by a cheering, now-standing crowd.

How degrading. I admire the composure that Mrs. Clinton showed at the time. But, then again, she has been fighting for real change in women’s lives for decades and, sadly, is probably used to this brand if idiocy.

What amazes me more: the Times treated the story as a funny aside – just a few paragraphs. A humor piece.

It’s more shameful than one idiot’s words that no media outlet is treating this as the scandal it should be.

As Steph Mineart showed rightful outrage in her excellent blog on this topic:

We have people in this country who are actually not afraid to go to a public event and act this way – tell me sexism isn’t alive and well in America. That should be shocking to anyone and everyone who sees it, but I see it getting almost no coverage at all.

Could you imagine the national uproar if just one person at a single Obama rally held up a sign that said “Shine My Shoes!”

No one would dare. This is America and that would be just plain un-American to do.

It’s about time we all stood up to this and said once and for all that bigotry is bigotry and it is unacceptable today no matter if its hateful message is tinted in the shade of black or pink.

As a nation, we need to say very loudly and clearly: There is no reason that it is ever OK to degrade women in public. None!

This is not the Stone Age and that form of mocking hatred is neither funny nor acceptable.

It also is un-American.

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