LIONS WIN - THERE IS HOPE: Yesterday the Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers 7 - 3. This was the first NHL division victory by the Lions in 19 games. The Packers have beaten the Lions 10 straight times. The last time the Lions won a championship was 1957 (I was 9 years old). Yet every Sunday I sit in front of the TV and watch the worst football team in history and hope that they might win. I have been doing it for years.
There is something about the virtue of hope that is tenacious. It runs in the background of our hearts. At times we even deny that it is present. We face economic hardships, failed relationships, and broken hearts. We loose faith and think that hope is gone. But in the face of all of that we sit Sunday after Sunday and watch the Lions. And on a snowy day in December with a third string quarterback they win. It is only a football game. It didn't turn the economy around. It didn't fix one failed marriage. It didn't cure cancer and didn't buy one Christmas gift. But at about 4:15 Sunday afternoon, for a minute, hope and the Detroit Lions won out. If we can give ourselves permission to watch a loosing football team week after week, we can give ourselves permission to hope for a better world.
INCIVILITY PART TWO: Last week, Kieth Olbermann, a commentator for MSNBC, gave a 12 minute commentary on President Obama and the compromise tax bill. Calling it a commentary is too nice. It was a 12 minute, angry rant that included using God's name in vain. If Mr. Olbermann feels that he is the new Edward R. Murrow he has another thing coming. Even in the midst of criticizing the McCarthy hearings, Murrow never stooped to the kind of invective that Mr. Olbermann, or Rush Limbaugh for that matter, used and have used in the past. Both are paid millions of dollars and given a nationwide stage to voice their opinions. But somewhere, someone failed to teach them manners.
The Constitution gives us the freedom of speech and freedom of the press. I don't begrudge anyone the right to speak their minds. I don't even begrudge MSNBC, Fox News, or Premier Radio Networks their right to pay as much as they want to whomever they want to speak their minds. I do begrudge the invective and hate filled speech that hides under the cover of legitimate commentary. It accomplishes nothing but to show the shallowness of their character.
There is room for disagreement. There is even room for anger at times. There is room for strongly held beliefs. But, as my grandmother told me, there is no room for being rude. Incivility demeans the soul of another. It screams one's superiority and denies another's worth. And it leads nowhere. Rarely do anger outbursts lead to any growth.
I suppose the easiest thing to do is to change the channel. Done.
