A Steeler Hero

What Al Villanueva, offensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers, did Monday night, September 14th, 2020, was heroic. The Steelers decided to put the name of Antwon Rose,

a young African American man killed by a Pittsburgh police officer, on their helmets

Al Villanueva

for the 2020-2021 season. That night Villanueva replaced Rose's name with a young black war
hero killed in Iraq.

The Steelers' management decision, though done for a good motive, I believe, was very misguided. Amid the furor around the tragic George Floyd death, the Steelers made a statement about the Rose fatality, while ignoring the circumstances around his death. Displaying his name on their helmets sends the message that he was the hero, and the police were the villains. Anytime we distort the truth, it only leads to more division and potential violence against those who protect us.

It is always tragic when you lose a son, no matter what the circumstances. We should not seek to denigrate one who has passed, but neither should we try to make him a hero when he was not. The facts in the case don't support the narrative that the police officer was wrong, and Rose was right. The officer was found not guilty by a group of his peers.  Are there things that the police can learn from this case, of course, but hindsight is always 20/20. I would not want to have been that officer in this situation.

Villanueva's sin, for which he has been vilified, is that he honored a young black man who really was a hero. Villanueva defied the principle of "group think." Team unity is good, but there is a higher principle: whether something is actually right or wrong. Inadvertently, though the Steelers say that they support diverse thought, they have put their players in an awkward situation to express it. It is becoming impermissible in our society to express independent thinking, which always leads to oppression rather than freedom.

Big Al, you are my hero, and I think many other fair-minded people in the Steeler Nation agree. 

 

Gravity Wins

I am seventy-four years old, and a few years back, I had an epiphany of sorts.  I realized that gravity wins. 

In recent decades, I have tried to live a healthy lifestyle.  I used to jog, and now I walk.  I ride my bike in the warmer seasons of the year.  I have tried to eat a healthy diet, with a few exceptions.

I have never met a donut I didn’t like. Diet and exercise can slow the process, but eventually, we all go the way of all flesh. Aging can be compared to furniture; when your chest starts to drop into your drawers.

You have probably heard about the octogenarian who once said, “there are three things that happen to you when you get old.  You lose your eyesight and hearing; I can’t remember what the third one is.”  A realistic and healthy perspective on life and death can be therapeutic.

COVID-19 and the fear of death have manipulated our society.  No one wants to die.  Anybody who says they have no fear is either a fool or a liar. Reasonable steps to avoid danger are proper.  Nonetheless, a morbid fear of the reality of our ultimate demise can rob us of life even before death.

Gravity does win.  In the recent movie about Mr. Rogers, when speaking about death, he said, “anything we can talk about we can manage.”  If we never come to grips with our mortality, we will neither live well nor die well.

Democracy or Tyranny?

Tyranny not Democracy

The definition of an impeachable offense was determined a long time ago. We need to listen to what the framers of our Constitution concluded.

As the framers were setting up the guidelines for the impeachment of a President, some suggested that a reason for removing a president could be mal-administration. In other words, you don’t like how the President governs. Alexander Hamilton objected, he stated they were not setting up a Parliamentary form of government like Britain, where you take a vote of confidence and remove a leader. It was to be for high crimes and misdemeanors. That is a high bar, but they intended it to be because of the gravity of the action. I suggest to you that what we are arguing about today is how this President governs. If the Democrats think we have mal-administration today, there is a solution; it’s called an election, not impeachment.

Our founding fathers wanted impeachment to be the last recourse, not the first. The Democrats have been talking about impeachment since the Presidential Inauguration in 2017. Is the reason we have had one investigation after another of our President because the Democrats don’t believe they can beat Trump at the ballot box in 2020? Democrat Representative Al Green of Texas said it out loud, “I concerned that if we don’t impeach this President, he will get re-elected.”

The will of the people is being usurped.  What we see playing out before our very eyes is not democracy, but tyranny.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Political Nearsightedness

Myopia or “nearsightedness” or “shortsightedness” is an eye condition where you can view objects up close clearly, but things far away may appear blurry. I want to suggest to you that because of our political bias, we are so focused on to impeach or not to impeach, that we are oblivious to the long-range consequences to our democratic form of government. We have become politically “shortsighted.”

The transcript of President Trump’s call to the Ukrainian leader, the center of the impeachment controversy, has become a Rorschach test. The inkblot test where people see different things of the same image. Democrats read it and see an impeachable offense; Republicans do not. Beauty, or guilt, in this case, seems to be in the eye of the beholder.

So, the battle continues in a partisan manner, but the Democrats rule the House of Representatives and therefore have the bully pulpit. Something as grave as the removal of a duly elected President should be done only on a bipartisan basis. Take the vote and let both sides be represented and let the chips fall as they may. If they do not want to take the vote, then they should settle it the old fashion way, at the ballot box.

Maybe our political leaders need corrective lenses to view the situation as an American first, then as a Republican or Democrat. If we don’t, I fear that no one will ever be able to exercise the Office of the Presidency again.

Flip-flops and Cargo Pants

A media pundit recently said the people at Donald Trump’s Florida rally to kick off his 2020 electoral campaign, were all wearing flip-flops and cargo pants.  It was reminiscent of Hilary Clinton’s famous “deplorables” comment in the last presidential election.  It appears the left-leaning press has not learned anything from the 2016 election cycle.

The news narrative has primarily been driven by the east and west coast media elites; Academia that thinks and act like they have a corner on moral authority.  They tend to look down over their noses at anyone who voted for, or in any way supports our President.  Liberals in our country have historically been the champions of the common man.  It appears that we have had a role reversal in this nation.  Trump’s following is mainly from middle-class America.  Not many are from elite universities, or some not college educated at all, but possess the dignity of creating with their hands.  It is people who work hard, pays their bills, and raise their families.  They are looking for common sense solutions to problems, rather than pie-in-the-sky policies from far-left ideologues.  They are the forgotten people of middle America that Trump has found, and arenas are not large enough to hold them.

Maybe liberal politicians and the mainstream media types ought to walk in the flip-flops of the common man who they seem to take delight in disparaging.  Only then will they understand what makes them tick and how Trump wins elections.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Joe Biden and Political Cannibalism

Filial cannibalism occurs when animals start to consume their species.  There is a type of political cannibalism going on in the Democrat party.  The progressive wing of this party is starting to destroy the stalwarts of their political persuasion like Joe Biden.

The Democrats have allowed the politically correct culture to dominate their party to the extent it is starting to devour its own people.  Successive generations of political correctness have evolved that are more judgmental and unforgiving.  Moral superiority has blossomed in the progressive camp to the extent that we get up in the morning asking ourselves not if, but what we will have to apologize for today.  We have transitioned from sexual assault and harassment, real crimes, to invading someone’s space, an offense disqualifying us for political service.  Soon politicians will be taken to task for reckless-eyeballing.

Politically speaking, I am not a fan of Joe Biden, but personally, he seems like a nice man.  I am tempted to feel a little sorry for him until I remember that he and others in his party have created this political monster that is now eating his lunch.  Political correctness can never be satisfied.  The more they have, the more they have to have. The newer in the species must consume the older to advance the agenda.

Mr. Biden, to survive, speak up. To the lie of the moral superiority of progressivism, just “say it ain’t so Joe, say it ain’t so.”

Toxic Masculinity

Toxic Masculinity 

There is a narrative that prevails in this nation that is ready to light cultural wild-fires wherever it prevails. That storyline is toxic masculinity. 

Recently, the story about Catholic school teenagers dominated the news cycle for several days.  Reports surfaced that portrayed a group of Catholic students as having taunted a Native American man.  Upon further review of the complete video of the incident, it because apparently it that was not clear who was the aggressor, the boys or the Native American man. Many in the media rushed to judgment and presented a distorted view of reality, and just got it flat-out wrong. How could this happen?

Many have said that the media did not verify the source, but the bigger question is why?  A significant part of the press delights in reporting stories that support a narrative with which they agree.  Many who bring us the news have bought into the belief that men, and white men mainly, are the problem.  Of course, some white men are sexist and racist, but we are close to condemning a whole racial gender because of the sins of some.

These Catholic teenagers, on the surface, seemed to fit a profile that some in the media loathe.  They could not wait to get this story out there, even long enough to find out if it was true. Commentary parades as news reporting continually. Spreading the narrative of toxic masculinity will only divide us more than ever racially and by gender.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.