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Realities
By Martin Farrell — Friday, September 16th, 2016
I'm short of time this morning so I have published a piece from Charlie Johnston on issues I agree with, in place of my Realities column. Farewell to the NFL By Charlie Johnston I am not a purist on the matter of boycotts. I well know that in toxic times in a toxic culture, everything is affected – and even some of the best institutions are tainted for a time by the disorders of the age. But those institutions that take the lead into assaulting the culture deserve special attention. Ever since Target Stores decided it would take the lead in forcing women, even little girls, to share the washrooms with grown men, never mind how many perverts are in the mix, I have not set foot in a Target Store – and gave away two gift cards I had to the store. Since I preferred Target to Walmart, it meant something – at least to me. I doubt it meant anything to the store. I grew agitated when Bob Costas and other NFL announcers, bearing lots of attitude and no data or knowledge, began using halftime shows to lecture about social issues they can’t be bothered to actually learn anything about. Then in the last year, Curt Schilling was fired from ESPN for noting on his private account that a few committed Jihadists can do a lot of damage and we need to take radical Islam seriously. Another employee was dropped for suggesting transgenderism isn’t the idyllic paradise progressive clowns make it out to be. A few years back, when some of the St. Louis Rams came onto the field in the “Hands up, don’t shoot” pose lie that arose from the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, I quit watching any game involving the Rams. (That’s what Black Lives Matter, BLM, made the narrative…but witnesses and forensics showed the reality was that Brown had just robbed a store – and had charged the cop who stopped him and tried to take his gun when he was shot.) The NFL has forbidden the Dallas Cowboys to do anything to honor the police officers slain by radicals from BLM in a massacre earlier this year. Meantime, San Francisco backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick won’t stand for the national anthem. He says it is in solidarity with BLM – and wears practice socks with pigs wearing police hats. Brandon Marshal of the Denver Broncos takes a knee for the national anthem and the entire Seattle Seahawks squad talks of boycotting the anthem. The NFL says that is their right of free expression (but God help them if they try to freely express disagreement with that attitude). Aside from the hilarity of modern sons of privilege telling me to check my privilege, I realize that the NFL and many of its players have become the spiritual heir of Bull Connor – the racist, thuggish Jim Crow enforcer of another generation. If the NFL is determined to express solidarity with racist cop killers and people who enable the destruction of already vulnerable communities, I can’t stop it. But I sure won’t patronize it. Bull Connor did not care if black people were around, provided they busied themselves getting his coffee or carrying his bags and kept to their “place.” The NFL doesn’t mind – actually prefers – cops to protect them and their venues…so long as those cops keep to their “place” – as children of a lesser god. Bull Connor, with a wink and a nod, would say HE was not actually killing black folks, even as he provided cover and encouragement for those who did. The NFL and some of its players, similarly, with a wink and a nod say they do not encourage the actual killing of cops or white people, even as they provide cover and encouragement to those who do – while shutting up or firing those who actively oppose it. It is the new Jim Crow. I guess when you have completely lost sight of God or commitment to a principle of universal humanity, you don’t judge people by the content of their character, but by the color of their skin or uniform. All the progressive left seems to have learned from the terrible stain of racism, which we had largely overcome, is to shuffle the deck of who will be victim and who, victimizer. You flunked the test, guys, and in future generations will be viewed with as much contempt as Bull Connor and the racist thugs of his generation. I will not patronize a league that hates me, disciplines anyone who dissents, and enables people who think killing cops is great sport. I won’t leave someone’s house if a pro football game is on, I don’t expect or care that others won’t choose to boycott the same way as I do. In this toxic culture, we all ingest some poisons – and it does not bother me that others choose different poisons than I do. But I won’t choose pro football anymore, nor will I buy anything that has an NFL logo on it or go to a pro football party. If I have to have a fix, I will watch a college game (yeah, I know they have their own problems). I know it won’t make any difference to the ugly men who operate the NFL. But I would not have gone to a football game with Bull Connor – and I will not patronize a league and players who have channeled his spirit. ******* California is trying to pass a law that would send whistle-blowers to jail and significantly chill free speech – and it is particularly aimed at pro-lifers. I guess the good news is that David Daleiden’s undercover investigation, which has put Planned Parenthood in a ticklish spot, has rattled its fellow travelers in government. The bad news is that, like ideological supremacists throughout history, they seek to solve the problem by jailing their critics rather than reforming their behavior. America, America, God shed His grace on thee. ******* Meanwhile, President Obama is determined to transfer control of the Internet away from America to some undetermined international body on September 30. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Representative Sean Duffy (R-Wisconsin) are trying to stop this transfer. If they fail, some international body like the United Nations will end up deciding what you can and cannot say online – and hate speech will be defined as being Christian, conservative, and pro-life. The rush to get it done later this month is so that a new leader would have a hard time reversing it. ******* One could be depressed at the daily evidence of our culture’s degeneration. W.B. Yeats ominous poem, “The Second Coming,” seems terribly prescient these days, especially the first stanza: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.” But God does have a plan – and all these things I covered today are merely aspects of the death rattle of an exhausted old order. Charlie Johnston |
