Thursday, May 5, 2011

Osama bin Laden and Rashard Mendenhall

According to our federal government -- a few days ago, a Navy SEAL team killed Osama bin Laden. His body was supposedly taken aboard an aircraft carrier and buried at sea. Our President has said there will be no photographs. No body, no pix, no nothing -- except the word of the government that it happened. Think hard about that and draw your own conclusions.

That said, Rashard Mendenhall, a running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, is also coming under some fire these days for something he twittered, or is that tweeted? Beats me. I've got better things to do with my life than be a slave to some fancy phone, just so I can monitor tweets and twits every 5 seconds. I don't really care what Dwyane Wade's first thought is when he gets out of bed, or what Lindsey Lohan had for dinner last night. But I digress.

Upon news of bin Laden's demise, this country went into celebration mode. From politicians chipping in their usual useless 2 cents worth, to John and Jane working stiff, a lot of people are happy.

Mendenhall took offense and said, in part, "What kind of person celebrates death? It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We've only heard one side....."

I totally agree with Rashard. Be it war, state-sponsored executions, or even those that may have harmed us from without, I see no reason to celebrate the death of another human being. Some are evil and rightfully deserve to be brought to justice, but taking a life should never be a reason to party.

Indeed, Mendenhall has other valid points. We've seen grainy videos of bin Laden over the years, supposedly from a cave -- and we now know how accurate that so-called intelligence was -- but the audio was over-dubbed with an english translation. What was he really saying?  I don't know, and you don't either.

As far as only hearing one side, Mendenhall's right on the mark again. Ask yourself this.... How do we know what we think we know about such things? Reporters are hand-picked to attend high-level press conferences. What they hear and write about has already been filtered. Whether it's true, false, or spin, they get only the information the powers on high want them to have. Most will add their own little touches, whether on-line or in print; even that goes through an editor somewhere, where it may be altered again, and finally the public gets to see the end-product. How close is that to what really happened to begin with? Your guess is as good as mine.

In the meantime, we have no idea what the "other side" is saying. As an example, Hillary Clinton can trot around the globe demanding this or that. Are leaders of other countries taking her seriously, or merely humoring her to keep the "foreign aid" bucks coming, then laughing after she's gone? You and I don't know.  Like Mendenhall said, we only get to hear one side. (A prediction. Now that Osama's supposedly gone, the American people need a new Public Enemy #1. Another bad guy we haven't even heard of yet will be coming your way soon)

Of course, upon becoming aware of Rashard's comments, Steelers' team president Art Rooney II had to issue a poltically correct response. He hadn't spoken with him, can't comprehend it, is proud of the military, blah, blah, blah. Like most of his ilk, when presented with a dilemma, they'll trot out the stars and stripes. It's just another typical PC gloss-over, waiting for the next news cycle, so this will go away. This comes from the same family that instituted the Rooney Rules, whereby mostly black teams playing in front of mostly white crowds, have to interview mostly black men when head coaching positions come open, while mostly white owners in the end get filthy rich(er).

I take pride in having never having been a PC wimp. That is for those that worry too much about what everybody else thinks, while being afraid to say the obvious, even if it offends people. There's always countless lies and spins for any situation, but there's only ever one truth, so why not just say it? Some people will like it and some won't, but it is what it is.

In that respect, if anybody out there knows how to forward this to Rashard Mendenhall, please do so. Tell him I salute him. He had enough guts to put an unpopular truth out there. Hatred, killings, and especially celebrating death, no matter who is involved, or for what reason, is not something to be proud of.

Justice is one thing.

Blood-lust for pure enjoyment is quite another.

No comments:

Post a Comment