“THIS IS A FOOTBALL” 11-16-20
It is a bit chaotic here in the USA. The election has been an interesting venture this year.
There has been a lot of delusion in the responses of the two parties and it is difficult to grasp all the problems. I’m a pretty simple guy and have had the opportunity to see a great many Presidential elections and this one seems to be the most discerning.
The response of the people to the outcome has been the most interesting thing to watch. I have never seen the response like this before. It developed a few questions that I am really puzzled by. I wanted an analogy that made some sense to me. I went back to America’s favorite sport, football.
Whenever I think of football I think of how people just love football. It brings two teams together. Both teams have adamant followers. Many of the teams play each other at least twice in a season at each others home stadiums.
Usually one of the teams wins and one of the teams loses. The next time they play, the team that lost the first time may win the second time. If they meet in the playoffs one will win and move forward and one will lose and wait until the next year. The fans of the winners cheer and have parties and the one that loses goes home. Everyone has a favorite team. Most have moved over the years and yet they still wear a shirt, or a sweater or a something that advertises their hometown favorite team. I’ve seen people get devastated when their team loses. They get so angry that they may even break things, they yell and they can not calm down for days. Then, a week later, there is another game. Another team. And the team that lost last week, wins this next week. An interception or a scoring run. It varies from week to week. Both teams want to win and plan to win, but realize that it is just the way the game goes.
It is quite a game that is very similar to our political system. It is quite possible that football is based on politics.
There are two main teams, and actually open to any number of people who are able to run for any office they choose as long as they meet Constitutional mandates. It usually takes a bit more resource to get the paperwork, advertising, the recognition and on and on to win in the election for whatever they are running for. It has been like this since the beginning. It is called Democracy. When a candidate wins, they are up for reelection again in a set number of years. They may win again, they may loose the next time, and they may attempt to win again years later. There is however a difference this year.
One team wants to win that lost the election this year. In the long run that losing team wants to eliminate the other team. Unlike football, the losing team doesn’t want to wait until the next Election to win like what was expected of the previous administration. Not only that, they are threatening the country to allow it. The division in America that has been established has been backed up by using the military to disrupt peaceful protests for a photo op of the Bible. More on that later. Marching through DC peacefully until the sun goes down and then getting violent as has happened in other settings.
This team wishes to develop what I would call a Republica. Now when they played the last time they won. There were no mail-in ballot that they wanted to have disavowed. No problems, there was no bad news recounts, they didn’t even get the popular vote and they won through the Electoral College, (oddly enough they lost this election by the same margin). They cheered and partied and started to divide America. To get reelected they also forgot how they play football, a game that they love.
I was reminded of a famous coach. Vince Lombardi. I will always remember the coaching of Vince Lombardi. Vince Lombardi made a well remembered first day of one spring training in 1961 after loosing the championship at the end of the game the year before with the following:
Holding up the pigskin football before doing anything else he said to the team: “Gentlemen, THIS IS A FOOTBALL”.
Back to The Basics.
As I lived in Minnesota back then the rivalry between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings was legendary. Each stadium was outdoors, no covered stadium. We (The Vikings) won some and Green Bay won some. It was usually real cold. You get frustrated, you get rewarded. In 60+ years of football games at all levels I have never seen the losing team go home and burn cars, attack the police, rob stores and steal tv’s, drive cars through a peaceful crowd, hound the competitors team bus, and threaten, threaten and threaten. Money for you, no money for you. I haven’t seen them threaten their football teams opponents. Or perhaps they have.
But the losing party this year is threatening our infrastructure by encouraging violence to win, from the top down. This is not even football. Best score wins. I have never seen the losing team win a football game at any level with the lowest score. I have never seen a downtown attacked by the losing team.
Football is TV.
I understand that a great many watch it and bet on it and drink over it.
Many of my Christian friends set aside Sunday afternoons for the traditional TV game. They may even spend hundreds of dollars to be sure they can watch their team play every Sunday on cable wherever they are playing whether on their network or not. They wear the jerseys, they have the license plates, they tailgate at the stadium or the backyard BBQ. If their neighbor grew up with the opponents and wear their jersey they invite them to the BBQ. If they have to wear a mask to get to watch in the stadium they will do all that is humanly possible to get in there, no whining and no complaints.
If the opponent wins they do not go to the front yard and set their neighbors car on fire. Or throw rocks through their neighbors windows and want nothing to do with them for the rest their lives, until the rematch a few weeks later or during the playoffs. If they win that next time they celebrate, they say “showed you”. If they lose they say “Wait until next year”.
If Jesus was at the BBQ and He was for the other team would they be respectful of Jesus or would Jesus be left in the living room by Himself?
Would the things they have learned in Church, LOVE ONE ANOTHER, or LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF mean anything to them in that setting? If Jesus was there in the living room would they offer Him a beer, or wine or a cigarette or a cigar. Would their expletives at a dropped pass or a missed field goal fit right in with Jesus the guest and “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain”.. Would they change their game plan because their guest stopped by at an inconvenient time?
You can answer for yourself.
We have two teams we are watching now.
One I call Republica
The other I call Democracy.
It is on TV but it is not quite the same. It is not a football game. It is real life. No one dies at the hands of the opponents in a football game, not intentionally. They do die at the hands of the political process when you drive through a crowd. You can wear a mask to eat dinner at your favorite restaurant or at the stadium to watch you favorite team, no problem. But you can’t wear a mask to save your or your families lives. If your star quarterback died from Covid, would it hurt more than your Mother, or Father, or your child, or your neighbor or your neighbors child would die from your talking and breathing and screaming at tv during the Big Game without your mask on? What exactly are your priorities?
What part of LOVE ONE ANOTHER or LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF is so hard to grasp.
DEMOCRACY is your REAL future. Literally a new civil war will not make AMERICA GREAT at any time in our future. The steller quarterback for that last exercise in have your own way did not even have the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of the sacrifice. In fact the leader of Republica put himself in that same category with Abraham Lincoln, who united the country at his own expense. AMERICA is not UNITED today. Do YOU have more respect for football teams than you have for your own country. This is not news. We’ve had the civil war already. If you can wait for 2 years you can pick and choose who you vote for. You can decide to vote. You can respect the outcome of your football game, that proves to me that you are capable of respect. Or is this one time escapade the best you are capable off?
“GENTLE PEOPLE, THIS IS A DEMOCRACY.”
THESE ARE THE BASICS.