Trying Not to Be Cynical....

Good evening everyone...

I am trying not to be cynical.  Looking at some of my recent posts, I am worried about becoming expert in finding the cloud in any silver lining.  As such, this blog entry has had a delay of several days in publishing.

Several weeks ago, the quarterback for the New Orleans Saints was forced to make several public apologies.  His crime?  He said that he would "never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or (disrespecting) our country."  For that, the entire world descended on him.  He was told that he does not care enough to fight for justice.  He was called ignorant.  There was plenty more.  Thank God he is now socially sensitive.

The last week has been comparatively quiet, but that should not have been the case.  The opprobrium that Mr. Brees suffered at the hands of those who are woke should have been equally loud and equally vicious over the last several days.  It was not.

If you blinked, you might have missed it.  DeSean Jackson, wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles,  published some significantly anti-Semitic tropes on his Instagram page.  He has apologized for his screed, twice.  The first apology needed some work.  It took ten minutes to find the text of that apology.  He said that "when I posted what I posted, I definitely didn't mean it to the extent that you guys took it."

Three questions:

1.  To what extent did you intend these statements about Jews?

2.  Is there an extent that is acceptable?

3.  Why are you blaming the Jewish community for reading too much into quotations that you (incorrectly) attributed to a man who destroyed 1/3 of Jewish Europe, and who, by the way, refused to shake the hand of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin?

Giving credit where credit is due, Mr. Jackson's second apology was much better.

All of that being said, people have lost jobs and reputations over the last few weeks for saying things that are far more benign than this.  Why did the woke crowd not descend on Mr. Jackson like they did to so many others?  Why was his friend, retired NBA player Stephen Jackson, not castigated for his own remarks in support of DeSean Jackson?

I have worried over the years that I am becoming more and more right-wing in my approach to the world.  Maybe, but when the social justice warriors refuse to label anti-Semitism as a hatred no less repugnant than any other hatred, it is hard to miss the double standard.  Please note that Mitch Album wrote about this far more eloquently than I can.  Here is a link to his article: Mitch Albom.

For the record, as much as it is in my place to forgive Mr. Jackson, I forgive him.  He has apologized.  He hopes to do better.  Let's give him both the chance and the support.

And with that, I add the following: yes, in every respect, Black lives matter.  What happened that sparked the current craziness in the US was appalling.  But now, I must also add: Jewish lives matter.  Women's lives matter.  Men's lives matter.  Mexican lives matter.  Russian lives matter.  All lives matter.  The failure to call out hatred when it happens to someone else is not social justice.  It is merely selective justice, which, in another word, is racism.

Good day everyone.

R/SCG