Last night in Las Vegas, a new Miss Teen USA was crowned and for the third time, she was from Texas.

No sooner had MIss Teen Texas Karlie Hay been crowned Miss Teen USA last night, than she started gaining attention for old posts on her Twitter account of a  less-than-politically correct nature, including the use of racially-charged language.

Early Sunday, she offered up an obligatory public act of contrition via Twitter:

I admit that I have used language publicly in the past which I am not proud of and that there is no excuse for. Through hard work, education and thanks in large part to the sisterhood that I have come to know through pageants, I am proud to say that I am today a better person.

Although we too often expect you to act like miniature adults, the truth is their brains are not fully formed yet. Still, what the hell was she thinking? Don't people realize that social media is public?

There are those out there of an excessively cynical character who, with rolled eyes, immediately latched onto the fact that until last year, the Miss Teen USA pageant was owned by Donald Trump. It must be a pageant of corruption, they'll say. Already, model Chrissy Teigen, who is supposedly famous for reasons that currently escape me, made a smart aleck crack about the lack of diversity in the finalists. Apparently, Miss Teigen forgot the pageants are really representative of real life and the results don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Besides, she's rich and famous with a rich and famous husband, what difference does it make to her?

The word choices by Miss Hay highlight an unfortunate aspect of our culture. The fact is, gutter talk is with us all over the place.  How can we not look at the ascendancy of lowest common denominator entertainment and then not realize it's exposing words and thoughts to all but the most sheltered youths.  No one wants to talk about that because it would shine an investigatory light on what passes for culture these days, and how poorly-mannered our younger population has become.

Moreover, in what light do her comments cast all of Texas? We are one of the most diverse places in the United States. She better hope after her apology that Texans are just as understanding in continuing to allow her to represent us.

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