Crossing the Streams.

In the movie “Ghostbusters”, Spengler famously told Venkman, “Don’t cross the streams…it would be bad”.   Americans who are placing themselves in the far left of our political spectrum should heed this advice.  Adopting and embracing any stance or action that is anti-Trump without considering the logic and wisdom behind it is equivalent to crossing the streams.  Following some idiot over a cliff simply because a small part of their shtick aligns with your agenda is not particularly smart.   The leadership of the Democratic Party, totally devoted to their resistance philosophy, has made this mistake repeatedly since our President assumed office; but the NFL kneeling protest controversy has really put a point on it.   Confusing a protest against the President and his policies with a protest against our flag and anthem are two entirely different issues; it is a classic case of crossing the streams.   We must not allow anti-Trump to become synonymous with anti-America.

I think one of the better comments I have read regarding this specific issue was from an individual who drew an analogy of an industrial line worker with a kneeling NFL player.  What would happen if the line worker at GE or Ford/GM walked away from their station on the line and simply knelt in the middle of the floor?  The line would come to a screeching halt and you have to believe the kneeling individual’s job would be in jeopardy.  Just as that individual has a job to do, on their employer’s plant floor and on their employer’s dime; so does an NFL player have a job to do on their employer’s field, on their employer’s dime, and in their employer’s uniform.  This is not an issue about freedom of speech; this is an issue of crossing the streams and mixing business with pleasure. 

A few questions, if you please.  If the reported numbers are accurate, there are approximately 1,700 active NFL players.  It is said that approximately 200 of them participated in kneeling and/or locking arms in protest this last weekend.  Now the locking of arms is clearly distinct and apart from the kneeling protest and demonstrates a message of unity that is apart from the kneeling protest.  Therefore, if we assume that about 50 percent of the protesters were locking arms, that would leave around 100 players who knelt during the national anthem.  That would be 100 out of 1,700.  Is this a massive protest or a misguided sliver?    If a poll were taken, how many of the kneelers actually took the time to vote last November?  What is the average salary of kneeling protesters, who by the way are being well-paid to play a game for a living thanks to the blood left in foreign soil by fallen soldiers who died literally  holding that flag they are protesting above the ground?  How many of the kneelers went to college on a student athlete scholarship and never paid a dime in tuition?  How many of the kneelers have ever held a real, honest to goodness 40-hour-per-week job and have instead spent their entire lives playing a game?  How can we accept such a protest as sincere when some of these kneelers travel to a foreign country (the recent London NFL game) and kneel for the American anthem while they stand for the foreign nation’s anthem, God Save the Queen?  Let me think, now…what country colonized Africa and commandeered a good portion of it during the genesis of the slave trade?

Whatever your politics are, left or right, do you really want Jimmy Kimmel making American health care policy?  Do you want ESPN and its personalities defining political correctness for the entire range of sports, from youth to professional?  Do you want George Clooney and Sean Penn making foreign policy decisions about the fat boy in North Korea?  Do you want the movie moguls and celebrities in Hollywood establishing the moral standards for your families, neighborhoods, towns, cities, states, and country?  Do you want Glenn Beck to define what domestic policies should look like?  Will you allow the talking heads on CNN or FOX to define how you think and which policies you support or oppose?  Make no mistake about it; the rich and powerful people who reside in the extremes of the political spectrum are in a war over YOU.  Some have decided that they can do quite well in their capitalist enterprises alienating half of the population while catering to the other half.  But the ultimate victory will go to the folks who can hold their partisan base while convincing the majority of the folks in the middle to come along with them. 

Don’t miss the next post!  Follow on Twitter @centerlineright.  If you enjoy the blog, pass it on to your friends.

Most of us in the center have a very small sphere of influence and control in our lives.  But those small portions combined will ultimately determine who wins the cultural war in which we are engaged.  The powerful weapon that each of us holds is sufficient to tilt the scales.  That weapon is freedom.  The freedom represented by our flag and our national anthem.  The freedom to switch channels when what we are viewing is not consistent with what we believe.  The freedom to decide which concert, movie, or event tickets we choose to buy.  The freedom to purchase the product of corporations that operate in what we consider to be a moral and ethical fashion.  The freedom to vote for candidates that we believe in and trust.  All of these weapons, these freedoms, were purchased by the loss of precious lives and treasure in past military conflicts.  It is wrong to disrespect our flag and our national anthem which represents not our President, but those brave souls and the ideals they fought for. 

We should not cross the streams.  We should not mix our business with pleasure, our vocation with personal politics.  We should revere those who came before us and paid the ultimate price for our freedoms.  We should thank the Lord every day of our lives that we live in America and are truly blessed with the quality of life that we know.  We should embrace our freedom of speech and ideals in a responsible and respectful way, taking public positions based on logic and reason rather than being driven by herd mentalities and political consideration.  If we do not do these things, we will not be deserving of the gifts we have been so fortunate to have received.  What is here today can be gone tomorrow.  Just as ESPN got bloated with its self importance and fell into financial jeopardy, so can the NFL find that many viewers will find other things to do with their Sunday afternoons.  And who knows…a lot of those viewers who explore other non-NFL options on Sunday afternoons may never come back to the game.  Because it is true when you think about it…the NFL is a game and our freedoms are real life.