“Every whisper
Of every waking hour I’m
Choosing my confessions
[…]
Like a hurt, lost, and blinded fool–
Oh no, I’ve said too much.”
–R.E.M “Losing My Religion”

I look at what I posted yesterday, and I cringe.  The jokes that I made were intended to be jabs at the absurd situation in which we find ourselves, but reading them today, they look like nothing so much as mean-spirited digs at Matt Vogel, which was not my intention at all.  Frankly, I’m ashamed of myself; I usually make a point of thinking about the words I use before I use them, specifically what effect they might have on the feelings of others.  Yesterday, I just went for the punchline.  I was angry and upset myself, but that’s no excuse.

Regardless of what I said in my annoyance and frustration, I do have sympathy for Matt.  I might even have empathy for him, but to explore that, I would have to break a good-faith agreement–or at least come close to breaking it–that I made eleven years ago, and I’m not prepared to do that.

There is one–and only one–sentence that Steve Whitmire has written on his blog with which I take issue.  And actually, it is not even a complete sentence:  “I am having trouble understanding his [Matt’s] support of the recast…”  To be clear, I am sure that Steve intended no disrespect, which is pretty clear from the context.  Nevertheless, I don’t think it is fair to say that Matt “supports” the recast.  Based on my own past experience, I think that it is one thing to go along and try make the best of a bad situation, and it’s quite another thing to “support” the bad situation.  One could consider it tacit approval to go along without resisting, and maybe it is, but I’m not qualified to throw stones at anyone in that regard.

But the important thing to remember is that this is not a matter of “Steve versus Matt,” or vice versa. The people who claim otherwise are trying to create a false dilemma, to distract from the real issue of Disney’s ambivalence toward the Muppets; to say nothing of Disney’s complete and utter disregard for the people who work for them, who are viewed as disposable, tradeable, negotiable commodities rather than human beings.

Let us not forget that Disney is the author of all our problems.  If they hadn’t decided to muck things up, we’d have Steve performing Kermit, Matt performing Jerry’s characters, everyone would be right where they belong, and all the Muppet fandom would be perfectly happy about it.  

Or, as Wembley Fraggle might put it, “Instead of recasting Kermit and making everyone unhappy, why not just let Steve perform?“