Well…I thought I had heard it all when Dan Cathy, the head honcho at Chick-Fil-A opened his big mouth and made statements about HIS version of what constitutes marriage. In the last couple weeks, however, even MORE idiots have taken over the airwaves and proclaimed our stupidity as a race with comments that I thought were behind us. For as long as I’ve been around, our culture has made leaps and bounds in our attempts to make everything equal. Women, men, blacks, whites, homosexuals, heterosexuals, dogs, cats, you name it and there has been a call to make us all equal in all regards. And then riots happen, people get shot, the roar of the crowd demands sympathy and understanding and then…
Even MORE people open their big mouths and it sets us back another 25 years.
Case in point, GOP Rep. Todd Akin, who is on the ballot for the Senate in Missouri. By now, EVERYONE knows what this guy said in an interview on KTVI, a St. Louis TV station when asked about abortion for rape victims:
“It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare (for a woman to get pregnant from rape). If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
If anything, this tells me something about politicians that we’ve all kind of known but have secretly been hoping wasn’t true…politicians are so removed from “the common people” that they have no idea what they are talking about. Seriously…he ACTUALLY said this? Because this sounds like something a complete idiot…or a rapist…would say. Let’s break this down, shall we? This is a man who has been in office since 1988 in some way, shape or form. He is earned a Master Of Divinity degree from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis (whatever THAT is). What in the world would he be thinking when he makes a statement like that. I understand this was all in regards to his stance on abortion but even then…it wouldn’t even OCCUR to me to say such an asinine thing. Nor would it occur to most of “the common people” because the outrage has been through the roof! Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has called what he said, “inexcusable and, frankly, wrong.” Various other Republicans have called for Akin to step down from his position. One Massachusetts Senator, Scott Brown, even went as far as to say, “As a husband and father of two young women, I found Todd Akin’s comments about women and rape outrageous, inappropriate and wrong. There is no place in our public discourse for this type of offensive thinking.”
And THAT is just my point. There is NO place in our public offices for someone who says something like this. Not so much that he believes it. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t. But you’d have to be a complete moron to actually think that there is such a thing as “legitimate” rape and you’d have to be an even BIGGER idiot to not understand that women CAN get pregnant from rape. And as I see it, our world has enough morons in powerful places. When one of them says something like this, it scares me. This man actually SAID this. On tv. In a world that can see everything via the internet. What this tells me is that he feels that he is beyond us. He has no understanding of the world as it is today. Sex trafficking happens. Sexual abuse happens. Rape is NOT legitimate. If someone is in a political position and doesn’t understand this he or she has no business being in a business where he or she is representing ANY group of people, let alone a state.
Since making this statement, obviously Akin has come back to retract what he said, and that’s nice and all but the fact of the matter is…he said it. It won’t go away. In one swift soundbite he has ruined his career and set us back 25 years. Nice job dumbass.
And then there is ESPN commentator, Skip Bayless. Adding fuel to the fire that sports commentators need to say as little as possible and simply read what they’re given, this jackass decided to stick his foot in his mouth by saying the following in regards to a quarterback controversy that might take place in Washington with the Redskins and their 2 draft picks, one who is African-American and one who is caucasian:
“You have the black/white dynamic and the majority of Redskins fans are white and it’s just human nature if you’re white to root for the white guy. It just happens in sports. Just like the black community will root for the black quarterback.”
He then added, “I’m for the black guy.”
What? First off, on a pure sports level, let me just say that Robert Griffin III (or RG3) was the 2nd pick taken in the 2012 NFL Draft. There is NOT a quarterback controversy 3 weeks before a game has been played. The Redskins are Griffin’s team, come hell or highwater. Much like Cam Newton the year before, he will have all kinds of pressure and he will succeed and fail. It will be a growing season for him. That being said, he will NOT sit the bench. He is, at this stage, a HUGE draw for the Redskins and they were expecting to sell millions of his jersey before he even set foot in FedExField. The fans love him and they will be patient.
On a purely human level, this pisses me off. Long before Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, America has been trying to right itself. Slavery was abolished, black men and women have risen to prominence in this country. Statements like this one set us all back. It’s THIS way of thinking that keeps us separated. And on many levels it’s just not fair. For someone to say something like this shows how stupid so many of us are. I am a fan of sports. I don’t care if you’re white, black, orange or blue. If you can make bone-rattling tackles, I’ll cheer for ya. If you can throw a football 100 yards and hit a moving target, I’ll be your biggest fan. If you can take a hit, over & over again, and get up and do it again, you have my devotion. It doesn’t matter what your color is. I have seen kids wearing the jerseys of their favorite athletes. Never once have I seen a jersey and thought…”Bet he likes him because he’s black.” Who thinks this way? Am I naive? Do YOU pick your favorite athlete, actor or senator by the color of his or her skin?
Maybe you do. But I don’t. So for Bayless to recklessly make such a statement causes me to think that maybe a lot of people do. But I don’t think so. When he says he’s “for the black guy,” it strikes a nerve. He doesn’t say he’s for the “athlete who is going to win the Redskins 10 games this season.” He says he’s “for the black guy.” This pretty much narrows it down to skin color, not who Robert Griffin III is. From what I can tell, RGIII is an upstanding guy. In all of his interviews, he’s well spoken, thoughtful and incredibly smart. He won a Heisman Trophy, went to the 2008 Olympic trials and finished with a 3.67 GPA at Baylor. So…why is he being recognized for his skin color? Maybe Bayless can answer that because I can’t. On any level, RGIII is a qualified athlete who is now been placed in charge of running the offense for the Washington Redskins. If anything, maybe Bayless should pick up the charge against the name of the team. It’s 2012. Can’t they find a name more appropriate than a racist slur against Native Americans? Maybe something along the lines of the Washington Murderers (Washington has 3 times the national crime rate average) or the Washington Blunderers (much like most of it’s political inhabitants)? Oh no…now I’ve opened up THAT can of worms…
Think I’ll just quit now while I’m ahead…
A Round World Through Square Glasses 
I don’t think Akin intended for “legitimate rape” to mean “reasonable” or “okay to do.” I think he intended for it to mean “actual, forcible rape, which, of course, is so very rare. Because, you know, most of the time the women really want it. I mean, usually they are ASKING for it. Otherwise their body would shut that stuff down, right?” Um, is it just me, or does anyone else think that somewhere out there a former Covenant Theological Seminary coed is flashing back to that night she got roofied at the Young Republicans kegger?
Okay, on to the sports stuff. I totally agree, it makes no difference if the player is black, white, red, orange, purple, or green. Just as long as they aren’t maize & blue.