Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Enemy Mine
NFL Quarterback Drew Brees got in trouble for making the following statement:
I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country. Let me just tell what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States. I envision my two grandfathers, who fought for this country during World War II, one in the Army and one in the Marine Corp. Both risking their lives to protect our country and to try to make our country and this world a better place. So every time I stand with my hand over my heart looking at that flag and singing the national anthem, that’s what I think about. And in many cases, that brings me to tears, thinking about all that has been sacrificed. Not just those in the military, but for that matter, those throughout the civil rights movements of the ‘60s, and all that has been endured by so many people up until this point. And is everything right with our country right now? No, it is not. We still have a long way to go. But I think what you do by standing there and showing respect to the flag with your hand over your heart, is it shows unity. It shows that we are all in this together, we can all do better and that we are all part of the solution.
My ignorance about professional sports–including the NFL–knows no bounds (kinda sorta like my ignorance of college sports). The only time the NFL intrudes on my life is when I see a news article detailing how some cosseted, pampered millionaire shoots himself in the leg in a nightclub, or pounds the snot out of his wife in an elevator, or gets sent to prison for murder. So my knowledge of the NFL has lotsa holes.
But from what I read, this Drew Brees fellow sounds like a good guy, going out of his way to do good works and make the world a better place. He also, after the firestorm his comment unleashed, promptly apologized, so I cannot help but conclude that he is something of a wuss.
But if you have no sympathy or empathy for his initial comment, you are my enemy.
Claira Janover, a recent Harvard graduate published a video screed in which she threatened to stab anyone with temerity, the “caucasity” to say “all lives matter.”
“I’ma stab you, and while you’re struggling and bleeding out, I’ma show you my paper cut and say, ‘My cut matters, too,’” she added.
Way to go, Harvard. Ya did a bang-up job. Miss Janover states that her screed was a joke. Ooookay. She also lost her newly procured, not yet attended job internship with Deloitte, and published another video in which she tearfully testified that she had lost her “dream job” because of President Trump. Zero self-examination as to whether just maybe the offer was pulled due to her own dumb … self.
Anyone who has or could have any sympathy or empathy for Miss Janover’s original statement is my enemy. I’ve stated many times how I hate bullies. Bullies that would savage the Covington kids without even checking the facts, and sneeringly declaring Nick Sandmann’s face as punchable. Bullies that would make a young lady cry because she must pay lip service the shibboleths of the Left.
Our Left has become pagan totalitarians. I would feel comfortable wagering lots of frogskins that young Miss Janover is an avowed atheist, with nothing but contempt for those who strive to live their lives with Christian charity and comportment. Funny, they don’t seem to have even a dim understanding that it is the forbearance of those who hold dear Judeo-Christian values that is probably the biggest single reason they are all still walking around and stealing oxygen.
I have a brother-in-arms, now retired like me. I trained him when he attended the Q-course. His call sign is BA, or in military parlance, Bravo Alpha, short for Barnyard Animal. Ever see Gregor the Mountain in Game of Thrones? Yeah, that size dude, with that kind of strength. I worked with him over the years to add some technique and subtlety to his brute force and “Hulk smash!” fighting style. It is one of my few remaining vanities that, after all these years, he still calls me “Sensei.”
BA is a singular counterfactual to the belief that “there is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.”Despite the breadth and depth of our friendship, he looks at the world and can find no way he can believe in God. I look at the world, and can find no way to not believe. But BA has two attributes that set him apart from most other atheists that I’ve known. He isn’t pushy or annoying about it, and he’s done the reading. We have and have had hours-long discussions on philosophy (particularly Stoicism, go figure), military history, and Bushido/Zen. I think he’s an “atheist” mainly to tick people off. He thinks I hew to my Christianity for the same reason (c’mon, how many Catholics wear a Mjölnir necklace? It’s not about faith, though, as much as mindset).
Just a couple of days ago, we had about a three-hour discussion about all of the above. Too, now part of our discussions is the status of our multiple debilities, impingements, and injuries. We also talked current events and, ever close to two old soldiers’ hearts, where our country is going.
It came to me in an inchoate way during our discussion, and talking it out with BA helped me solidify my and articulate my thoughts.
I’m not a really good Christian. I mean, I’d like to think that I’ll eventually gain the spiritual grace and maturity to always turn the other cheek, but I sure ain’t there yet. My Dad called it the curse of Cuchulain, the inability to turn down a fight, ever. Pile upon that the fact that the knuckleheads out burning, looting, and bullying are making my self-imposed boundaries fray, just a wee bit. Throw in a dash of world-class training (Thank you, US taxpayer!). Add a pinch of more time in combat than I thought I’d ever have when I signed up for the Army, and the recipe is bad juju. And there are lots of guys like me. Well, “lots” is kind of relative, so let’s go with enough.
Where I live has been relatively riot-free. Not to say that there hasn’t been a smattering of (literally/actually/not-press-apologist) peaceful protests. But tomfoolery going one way in the 305 is frequently met with bullets going the other, so there’s far less opportunity for threat of getting enmeshed in violence here. Thus far.
But the left needs to rein it in and act like they’ve got a whisker of tolerance for civil debate and ideological diversity.
I know a whole bunch of Christians that will vigorously oppose getting fed to the lions.
Published in General
By the PR/lawyers crowd and signed off by team owner. Brees chose to keep his job.
He’s 41. His contract is very team-unfriendly. If we want to look at this in pieces of silver, it’s about 25 million bucks worth for next year.
“The Bible is clear here: I am to love my neighbor as myself, in the manner needed, in a practical way, in the midst of the fallen world, at my particular point of history. This is why I am not a pacifist. Pacifism in this poor world in which we live – this lost world – means that we desert the people who need our greatest help. What if you come upon a big, burly man beating a tiny tot to death and plead with him to stop? Suppose he refuses? What does love mean now? Love means that I stop him in any way I can, including hitting him. To me this is not only necessary for humanitarian reasons: it is loyalty to Christ’s commands concerning Christian love in a fallen world. What about the little girl? If I desert her to the bully, I have deserted the true meaning of Christian love – responsibility to my neighbor.” – Francis Schaeffer
He needs to worry about his blind side (i.e. does his left tackle believe he is anti-racist enough) and how that impacts his short and long term health.
Duplicate post, courtesy of the gods of the internet. ( A little Kipling there. Seems too fitting right now, doesn’t it?)
Just remember that Jesus kicked behind, too, when he thought it appropriate.
I’m not a good Christian, either. I’m a forgiven Christian. There’s all the difference.
😂🤣 I don’t know who you’re talking about, but what a dope!
I swear all the black kids I know think I’m the whitest person they’ve ever met. And I think they respect me for it.
The “turn the other cheek” message is almost a dare. Of note, Christ begins with, “If someone strikes you on the right cheek. . .” A strike on the right cheek from a typically right-handed person would be back-handed. By turning the left cheek, you’re daring the aggressor to strike you open-handed — a much more aggressive and demeaning act. You’re challenging him to do his worst, while you maintain your God-given dignity.
I never pictured these confessionals like that, but that view is very valuable.
The sane press should share them, on the hour, like traffic reports, or Covid statistics. introduce them, “Today’s Marxist Hostage video by…”
Maybe he can create a non-profit to at least rescue the other hostages.
THIS!
Boss, not through reading the comments but SERIOUSLY??? – 43 comments in a post that has been up for 47 minutes? Over achiever thy name is Boss Mongo! :) now back to reading the comments…
I am no Christian scholar. But I have never heard Jesus Christ saying it was not OK to defend your family or your community or your neighbor’s house with violence. Arguably, if someone take a knife to you personally Boss Mongo, you are obligated by Christ to risk your life to subdue the man without killing him. If the guy throws a molotov cocktail at your neighbors house or business however, that’s a different story. Christ was against stealing remember. It is theologically arguable that Jesus would have gotten into a fist fight if some publican or pharisee hit his mother. (Jesus was also a carpenter so he had big arms and could probably punch pretty hard.)
Christ never said that there shouldn’t be police or military. Buddha was way more pacific than Jesus. He did say that G-d was more important than government though.
Anyways, Christianity is interesting.
update: Case in point. Post 19 by Doug Kimball gets into the Roman history in an in-depth way that I appreciate.
I am not going to be forgiving about this. Brees is a traitor and a sellout. He should be ashamed of himself. He has bent the knee, figuratively. My expectation is that he will do so literally, in short order.
I don’t know his financial position. I would expect him to have “frack you” money. But he’ll disrespect the flag for more millions.
On the physical danger, he could take a stand. He could put the question to his teammates, point blank. Are you guys going to fail to do your job, and let me be hurt, because I won’t join you and Colin Kaepernick in the whole hate-America festival?
Millennials learned it from idiot Boomers who idolized the Black Panthers and the weird racist cult that was the Nation of Islam. Look at how many boomers in Newspapers are excusing the looters.
This is what people usually do Arizona. In many ways physical courage comes easier to men. John McCain is the Ur example of this. He was willing to get shot at by the VietCong for his country but he wasn’t willing to tell the lefty media to go pound sand. Men are designed by nature for killing other men and facing mortal danger for their honor, tribe and womenfolk. We are also designed to conform to our tribes diktats and religion. Free thinkers who disagreed with the shibboleths of the day were abandoned by their tribe and left unprotected.
This is why I have so much respect for the courage of Atticus Finch. “Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It’s knowing you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” He sacrificed his standing in the community of his fellow whites because he aimed to defend an innocent man. That kind of courage is much rarer in humanity than physical courage.
You may as well condemn humanity for liking sex. Wilting in the face of conformity is just what people do.
When Sharansky was in the camps he resolved not to collaborate in any way. As he was on his way to freedom, he was instructed to “walk straight across the bridge” and instead zig zagged.
The fact that many people do despicable things is not a basis for deciding that their actions are not despicable.
You’re right. But every once in a while I just want to express my contempt. It’s truly a very line, but sometimes I just want to kick somebody in the face… just to put them down.
And I agree, I’m being a [redacted] right now.
This happened four weeks ago during the initial tidal surge…everything was still very raw and the true movement was still fully cloaked under the big lie. One non-Orange man wasn’t going to make any difference. Sure it would have been nice if he was willing to take that stand but it would have been futile at that point and he would have gotten irreversibly cancelled and his body (figuratively) hung from a bridge on the outskirts of town. At that point no one (of any public stature) was really pushing back. Even today, his league, from commissioners office to ownership group to coaches, would mostly leave him hanging. In his deepest thoughts he may not be proud of himself but I think you are a bit too harsh in your condemnation above.
You have just presented an argument most of us probably hadn’t considered and certainly gives me pause. My daughter lives in a condo building in Alexandria, VA populated by several politicos who work in DC just across the river. One of her good friends, or at least she thought was a good friend, is a black woman who is on the staff of a prominent Republican politician. They entertain each other in their homes, have lunch, shop together, etc. This is no arms-length friendship. The other night a few of their mutual political buddies who get together from time to time to gossip and just simply enjoy each other, planned a social distancing cocktail gathering to celebrate the Fourth. Imagine my daughter’s surprised dismay when her friend called to inform her that she would no longer be a part of their little group, giving no explanation and said in a cold tone of voice my daughter didn’t recognize. I think BLM has done much to make us wary of each other because of our color. I would not want to be a white quarterback surrounded by black men for my protection.
@barryjones, think I might have inadvertently tapped into
the zygotes…er…xylophones…erthe way people are feeling, right about now.The story is written here. It is quite good.
It is my experience that most blacks don’t hate whites all that much. I think Drew Bree and his black teammates are still capable of disagreeing and focusing on the game. But they lack the courage to try.
“They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you… my only son.”
Americans want to be people, Ricochet, they wish to be. They only lack the right stories to show them the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, speak Truthfully about human nature and human history.
As my post above indicated, the issue is less that he decided to walk back his comments –although there’s room to question that–but how he chose the words to walk back his comments. Sure, the groveling tone was Saints PR, but Brees likely had a variety of choices. He chose the worst.
That’s exactly what it sounds like to me too. I picture the terrorists with Danny Pearl.
Oh brother, I feel you. I definitely do.
But to win this attack we must be disciplined, and not get sidetracked by their foolishness.
Thanks, Henry. That’s a great interview with more that’s relevant to this day and age. Guess I need to start reading Sharansky and Solzhenitsyn and all the other guys who fought totalitarian oppression.