“But those with an evil heart seem to have a talent
for destroying anything beautiful which is about to bloom.”

Cynthia Rylant

 

So discouraged and disappointed have I been with the negative, hateful, and juvenile interactions of people in the sphere of politics, entertainment, and even some from my own personal sphere, that I have set aside my writings for quite some time now. Instead I have tended to my other responsibilities, content to become a spectator, or to avert my gaze when the discord became too overbearing. When the news became painful to watch, I’d turn the channel, try to escape the distressing hatred, flee from the outraged invective, close my ears to the bludgeoning arguments. I looked to social media for some uplift, but interspersed with the usual fare of pictures of pets, kids, and dinner, there it was. Liberally scattered across the ever present “poor me”, “lucky me”, and just plain “me” posts, was the same hate-filled diatribes, the same foul mouthed angry insults, and the same vile cartoons and memes which exemplified the dark tantrums I was trying to escape. I looked to the comedy shows for a moment of laughter, but no matter how well crafted the joke, how polished the delivery, there’s nothing funny about hatred. And then I realized it was September… FOOTBALL! Sports, meaningless conflict removed from the real conflict, a place liberals and conservatives could stand side by side to cheer for their team without concern for their differences in the real world. Football, my refuge from so many of life’s disappointments, strifes and stressors… Football, I can always count on you! ….”No,” says Football, “You can’t.”

Worlds are colliding. Athletes using athletics to get political; politicians using politics to control athletics. Entertainers becoming politicians or political pundits, and politicos going all Hollywood and prime time to sell us their agenda. Worlds are colliding. And when worlds collide no place is safe. Those who wanted no part of one world now must endure that world’s impact. Those who follow politics now must talk football; those who love football now must think politics… those who enjoy both, but partitioned, now must consume them both together. And while blurring lines is a bipartisan malady, it is, at least at this point in history, far and away more a progressive cancer. “Open borders” has become more than just a geographical war cry, as progressives seek to inject politics into journalism, entertainment, baking cakes, and now sports. Remember when the closest liberals got to being sports fans was watching the olympics every four years? Not anymore! ESPN led the way, football, basketball, baseball… watch out NASCAR! And as with all things progressive, the institution takes a backseat to the agenda. Everything becomes an avenue for the forwarding of the progressive agenda, and where can you go to escape when worlds collide? As the progressive vision seeks to leave no state of refuge for the conservative minded, it also suffers no institution to ignore its intrusions.

Years ago, a relative we had not seen for years travelled across the country for business, and took advantage of the situation to visit with us. All the family was anxious to catch up with her as to how the years had passed for all of us in our time apart. She was driven by something else though, to convince us to sell Amway products. Now I’m sure Amway is a fine company, but their pyramid marketing structure pushed people to use every opportunity to hard sell the product and the plan. A few days later she left, and we knew far more than we had about Amway, but little more than we did before about her… except that she really, really liked Amway. Progressives are often the Amway salesmen of the political world, infusing everything with their agenda is their mission. If they were not generally so antagonistic to religion they would probably be the Jehovah’s Witnesses of politics, so fond they are of proselytizing, so enamored of their own world view, so dismissive of anyone else’s… knocking on every door… every door.

I like garlic. I like it, but I don’t put it in my pancakes, or on my fruit salad, or in my shoes for that matter. I like politics, but some things are better without that seasoning as well. I never had any illusion that Hollywood, the NFL, or the NBA were bastions of conservative thought… and I didn’t care, as I assume they didn’t care about my political persuasion so long as I bought tickets. It was a great relationship. I’m not one for organized boycotts, as I see them as coercive, but now you’ve put the whole thing in my face and I have to decide if I am willing to appear as though I support your views by supporting you. Frankly, you’ve taken the fun out of it all by adding the strife and contention. I’m not part of a boycott, but neither am I watching. Simply, there’s no enjoyment for me there, and that’s really why I watch. There is nothing so uncomfortable for me than to be in a position where I recognize I am hated, and that the values I hold sacred are despised. Why would I want to experience that under the guise of entertainment? Like the boorish family member that sees holiday gatherings as opportunities to address grievances, we destroy unifying events by insisting on infusing our divisions at every turn. There are 365 days in a year, Thanksgiving is not the day to revisit our family strife, nor is game day in the NFL, or during the monologue of a comedy show, unless you’re trying to become the Limbaugh of the left, but that’s a different kind of show. There is a time for every purpose and a way forward, but appropriating an event or a time slot, or a holiday gathering for your own agenda fixes nothing. In a reversal of King Midas’s golden touch, progressives possess what is sometimes referred to as the the King Sadim (Midas spelled backwards) touch, where everything they touch turns to ashes. Colliding worlds fixes nothing. Airing your grievances and venting your rage in places we could find common ground if only superficially, doesn’t further your cause anymore than ruining Thanksgiving can bring peace to your family. You’ve ruined television. You’ve ruined Hollywood. You’ve ruined the Emmys. You’ve ruined comedy. You’ve ruined football now. …You’ve ruined everything.