Paula Deen: A Modern Morality Play

Not sure about story behind this image,
"Driving Miss Deen", but it's interesting
under the circumstances. From
 photobucket uploader Firefox extension
on Yahoo images..

"Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone."  (John 8:7)

I don't understand the viciousness of the relentless attacks on Paula Deen, a celebrity chef of Southern cooking. 

Yes, she used racial slurs in the past, reprehensible slurs, which no one condones. She grew up in the South and imbibed it's racism along with its soul food.  Didn't we all? Up North as well?  Haven't we all made mistakes we regret? Said things without thinking? Wish that we knew then what we know now? And, don't we all have the capacity to grow and change? 

So why is everyone using Paula Deen's past mistakes to attack and abandon her like a hot potato?  Walmart, Target, Home Depot, various food magazines, a drug company, the Food channel,   everyone and anyone who was part of her once cheerful and accessible foodie network.  She apologized.  The agony is written all over her face. It doesn't matter.  It seems nothing, including the adulation of her fans of all backgrounds, black and white, can stop the momentum of this downward slide.  

Is it some kind of personal vendetta against her? An angry employee? An overzealous competitor? Are her sponsors using her mistakes as an excuse to cut their economic ties, and save money? 

I don't condone Deen's attitudes but I wonder about the overkill. In this modern morality play about sin and atonement an Everyman is being stoned without mercy. She'll have to start over, like Martha Stewart.  Like many others we know. Like Bill Clinton.  It can be done.  "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." 

http://news.yahoo.com/target-cuts-ties-deen-drugmaker-155520343.html