Posted on 04/19/2003 1:46:14 PM PDT by willieroe
It's getting creepy out there. Paranoia is rampant. The thought police are on patrol, shining their flashlights into the corners of your garages, looking to root out and crush anything resembling dissent.
Ken Griffey Jr. was in the dugout last weekend in Cincinnati, and because we all saw him writhe in agony a couple of weeks ago, his dislocated shoulder isn't exactly a state secret. Yet when someone asked how his rehabilitation was going, Junior went all CIA on us.
"I'm not allowed to talk about it," he said mysteriously. "I can't say anything."
Someone has gotten to Kevin Appier, too. A few days after Appier and the Seattle Mariners exchanged zingers relating to whether or not he doctored the baseball in a start against Seattle, I visited Appier in Anaheim because the schedule dictated that he was to face the Mariners again in a few days.
Already, he was on record as calling Seattle manager Bob Melvin senile after Melvin suggested he was raising the seams on the baseball. So I asked Appier, what's the deal?
"I'm not supposed to talk about that subject anymore," Appier said.
According to who?
Appier got all nervous.
"Well, because it's a dead issue."
Did I miss something? Is George Orwell close by? Everywhere you look these days, Big Brother is watching.
Within moments after the Dixie Chicks criticized President Bush in London, a major corporation that owns thousands of radio stations in the United States orders their airplay stopped.
Before Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon even step anywhere near Cooperstown, Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey fires a pre-emptive strike and disinvites them in case they use the 15th anniversary celebration of the excellent baseball movie Bull Durham to promote their liberal political agendas.
These are dangerous times right now. And I'm not talking about the brave men and women fighting in the Middle East (the obvious danger facing them goes without saying).
No, what's dangerous is the current atmosphere in this country that discourages debate, the politically correct looking to label those who aren't with the program as less than patriotic, this entire you're-either-with-us-or-against-us attitude that emanated with the Bush administration and has spiraled downward.
This is neither an approval nor a condemnation of current United States foreign policy. For that, you can head on over to the New York Times , or to Newsweek, or to The Nation.
But whatever your political persuasion, it should be alarming when bullies are out there throwing their weight around, telling you how to think.
OK, so the Griffey and Appier anecdotes are simply silly, exaggerated examples. In Griffey's case, federal laws are extending doctor-patient privileges even into sports, which could make injury reports of the future interesting propositions. (And Appier couldn't help himself; we ended up talking about the Seattle thing.)
But the decision by Petroskey last week to cancel the Hall's tribute to Bull Durham was reprehensible and alarming. He said he didn't want Robbins and Sarandon politicizing the event, so he injected politics into it himself. Whose Hall of Fame is it, Petroskey's or the people's?
"We believe your very public criticism of President Bush at this important -- and sensitive -- time in our nation's history helps undermine the U.S. position, which ultimately could put our troops in even more danger ..." Petroskey wrote Robbins and Sarandon.
Put our troops in more danger?
Sarandon said she wasn't even planning to wear makeup.
I can just picture this conference call:
Gen. Tommy Franks: "Rumsfeld! Quick, we need to regroup and change our strategy!"
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "What are you talking about, General? Our plan is sound!"
Franks: "Not anymore it isn't! Robbins and Sarandon are talking in Cooperstown! The last of the Iraqi Republican Guard is watching on satellite TV, and they've been able to crack the code! That whole "candlesticks always make a nice gift" speech at the pitcher's mound tells the longitude and latitude of our Third Infantry! And Robbins just said he disagrees with President Bush, a covert signal to the Iraqis that we're currently taking our lunch break!
Rumsfeld: "Holy hell!"
These current flag-waving times can be both moving and inspirational, but we also would do well to remember that just because a person wears red, white and blue doesn't make him a patriot.
We all hung flags after 9/11, too, and the national hug was both hopeful and heartwarming.
Then, nationally, the turnout at the polls two months later was the lowest in history.
It wasn't a presidential election year, sure. But if people are too lazy/uninformed/busy to even haul their rear ends to the nearest polling place and participate in the ultimate act of a democracy, what kind of support is that for our troops -- or, in the larger picture, for our country?
Undeniably, chemical and nuclear weapons are a threat to our national security.
So, too -- in a different way -- are those who hold influential positions telling us how to think without allowing room for questions.
So maybe Natalie Maines wasn't as eloquent as she should have been when she told that London audience that she was embarrassed to be from the same state as the president.
But when Clear Channel Communications, owner of 1,225 radio stations and 39 television stations (and many billboards) across the country, pulls the plug on the Chicks and attempts to drive the national agenda even more than it already does, that's when it's time to balance the scales and purchase more Dixie Chicks discs.
When Michael Moore is condemned in ugly tones for using the Academy Awards as a platform for disagreeing with Bush's Iraq policy, the reaction simply underscores the need for healthy debate. Artists are supposed to think, and create -- and stir the same in us.
When Petroskey makes a unilateral, pre-emptive move in scotching the Bull Durham celebration, that's when it's time to question authority, further and deeper.
"Long live democracy, free speech and the '69 Mets; all glorious, improbable miracles that I have always believed in," Robbins wrote back to Petroskey.
And, God willing, in that order.
I love it!
Say that 5 times, fast.Hahahaha!
FMCDH
Of course Petroskey disinviting Robbins and Saranwrap was anything BUT reprehensible...
This boob Scott Miller is straining at gnats and swallowing camels.
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