From the Other Side of the Edge….
Sliding Farther Down that Slope…..
By Joe Facinoli

This one was easy.

Like predicting snow in January, …or hot and humid days in early August.

Who couldn’t see this coming?

I’d brag a little, …but who boasts about prophesizing a trainwreck?

It started with the public pillorying and stoning of that fine and upstanding citizen, …Mr. Donald Sterling.

You remember him, …right?

He’s the owner of a National Basketball Association team in Los Angeles, …the Clippers. But we all recall him better as the most horrific criminal in U.S. history.

The flesh eating, child molesting, bank robbing, pillager and plunderer of all humanity.

Do you remember yet? He ripped off old people’s life savings, physically abused every woman he ever met, kited checks to business associates, cheated the government out of untold millions on his taxes, held up grocery stores with machine guns, and stole the hubcaps off of every car in his arena’s parking lot.

Oh, …wait a minute. He didn’t do any of that stuff.

He just hates all black people.

(Well, …he hates all of them, unless they also happen to be half Hispanic, are 27 and look like a Victoria’s Secret model, and want to spend every gold-digging moment “satisfying” him, …if you know what I mean.)

But by today’s convoluted, skewed, and purely crazy standards and value judgments, …the crime of saying that you “hate” a particular race, creed, sexual preference, or culture, or even that you are merely “against” them, …is far worse than anything we could ever physically (or financially) do to someone.

The First Amendment to the Constitution, …not withstanding.

Just check out the actions of the U.S. Senate last week, …and the war cries and drum beats heard on MSNBC, CNN, and other such bastions of “unbiased journalism”, lately.

Seems one “trophy” for the cause, and for the betterment of all society, is just not enough for these indomitable judgers of our every human behavior, and unceasing “protectors” of human rights for all peoples, everywhere (whether those same people want, or even need, that protection, …or not).

No chance. Not now, …not with the first blood fresh in the water, and these mindless sharks circling ever closer and closer, to controlling all that is said, done, or even thought about, …in any venue, public or private.

Old man Sterling was just the beginning. A prime opening, which “Progressive” America will use to blast right through, …on their way to full control of all things, thoughts, and actions.

Next up for them: Orlando Magic (of the NBA) owner Rich DeVos, who is also co-founder of Amway.

Mr. DeVos, who is 88, is against gay marriage, and pretty much doesn’t like gays in general, …and has said so, …publicly. Shame, shame, on him, …for speaking his mind.

He and his family have even given millions of dollars to Florida legislators, and to causes and groups elsewhere, who share his views. All in the name of his personal, and deep-seeded Christian (Bible oriented) beliefs.

DeVos is harmless, and just wants to live his life the way he believes it should be lived, according to the tenets of his church.

But that doesn’t matter. Freedom of speech, and of one’s own religious feelings and inclinations, …count for nothing anymore.

Not if they happen to offend someone, anyone (God forbid), or are at cross purposes with anyone’s, or any political or social group’s, agenda.

CNN reporter Rachel Nichols (who did better work when she was on ESPN) said breathlessly during a recent segment, that DeVos’s comments and political activities were “very unpopular”, and that he could be the next “target”.

Unpopular to whom ??

And to how many ??

And so what !!??!!

I don’t agree with him, but these are his OWN personal thoughts and beliefs !!!!

So, …don’t go to the Magic games, then, if you don’t like how their owner thinks, or what he believes in, or to whom he gives his money !!

But he can say whatever he wants, …as long as no one gets hurt. You can look it up.

The NBA’s Dallas Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban, said very eloquently when asked about this subject:

“In this country, …people are allowed to be morons.”

I’m with Mr. Cuban here, …and we both stand by the Constitution.

But the best (worst?) example of thought policing, and political …by God… correctness to date, may just be the trumped up war on that oh so egregious nickname of Washington DC’s NFL team.

The Redskins.

Last Thursday, 57 U.S. Senators (count ‘em), with obviously nothing better to do, signed a letter to be sent to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, expressing their collective outrage and abhorrence over this affront to the American way of life.

Oh the shame, …oh the guilt (I’m originally from DC, and a life-long fan), ..oh the magnitude of disrespect, the mountain of intentional hurtfulness, and the malicious and purposeful degradation and slander !!!

A pox on you Dan Snyder (owner of the team), and all ye who side with him (that would include, I guess, the nearly 100K season ticket holders, who fork over as much as $500 a seat for every game, sell out the stadium each week, and don’t seem to be too offended, …unless they lose to the Cowboys).

Should they have changed their name, …long ago? Probably.

But after 81 years, as a viable, private, and very popular business, …why now??

They’ve won three Super Bowls, …for God’s sake!! And played in two more!

Nobody happened to notice then ?? On the biggest “one day stage” America has to offer?

No, …it’s now, because there’s political capital to be made, and spent, courting the right groups, and garnering the right accumulation of votes, on election day.

The U.S. Senate needs to be involved with this? Really??? C’mon, …man ! It’s really none of their business!

Many of these same Senators sided with the White House, in proclaiming that Benghazi, the IRS abuses, the Fast and Furious Mexican gun-running debacle, and the NSA spying on millions of Americans, …were all “phony scandals”.

Yet the Democrats in the Senate (no Republicans were asked to join in) found the time to pompously, piously, and self-righteously (and unnecessarily) decide that they needed to “take a stand”, on an issue that affects less than 2% of the U.S. population (if even that many)?????

Just what in the Hell are they doing, …anyway ?!!? They haven’t got anything more important on their plate??

The economy still hasn’t fully recovered (if it ever will, no thanks to them, and their colleagues in the House, and that man who lives just down Pennsylvania Ave. from them), immigration remains a huge issue and problem, the budget catastrophe, spending limits, Obamacare, and scandals abound in at least a dozen areas.

But this one, …is the big issue for them.

Amazing. And who’s really, truly, deeply offended here ? This one, …is the bogus issue.

At Red Mesa High School, in Arizona, where the school’s nickname is “Redskins”, even though nearly all the students are Native Americans, its principal put it so very well, when asked why they didn’t change that terrible name.

He said: “Education and public health, …those are the things we’re more concerned about, rather than whether a team name is appropriate.”

Thank you sir, …for your common sense, and for your focus on what’s really important, …to your students, and to your culture.

Take a lesson, ….Senators!

So watch out. That PC slope is getting more and more slippery, with each passing day. And a lot steeper too.

You, or someone you know, love, respect, or count on, might be next.

And it’s getting ever more full of chest thumping practitioners, of their beloved (and phony) art of Political Correctness.

They can’t wait to push as many people down that slope as they can, …knowing that the only way back up that treacherous hill, and past them, …will be when you vote for them.

Think about it. It’s already happening.

There’s an old man in L.A., and another one in Orlando, just waiting to tell you their story.

Joe Facinoli
--Joe can be reached at: joefacinoli@gmail.com
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© Copyright 2014, Joe Facinoli