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| Rob's Soapbox | ||
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Congratulations!
You have finally landed on the one page on this entire site (and on the entire internet for that matter) that is purely without bullshit... my soapbox page. There are a lot of times during our show that, whether it's because of time constraints and other obligations, I don't always get to address some issues that I feel don't get the attention they deserve. There are even more times when I just don't feel like waiting until the show the next day to get some things off my chest. Thus, I have started the "Rob's Soapbox" page. If you have clicked on this page looking for someone to coddle your fragile sense of self-esteem, or tell you what you want to hear or to reinforce your outdated world view, then exit this page right now and go somewhere else. If you are in search of the last forum for reason and common sense left in the world, then sit back, relax, and enjoy. I make only one promise with this soapbox page... if you read long enough and often enough, you will eventually be offended. So here's my latest soapbox. Listen up, 'cause you just might learn something... |
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May 14th, 2007 BARRY BONDS IS BLACK Full disclosure; I dislike Barry Bonds immensely as both a Major League baseball player and a human being. I find his behavior on and off the field to be abhorrent; from the cancerous effect he has had on talented clubhouses to his mistreatment of both teammates and everyday human beings to his "woe is me" arrogance, which I would have thought was an unachievable contradiction had I not viewed it with my own eyes all these years. Let's not forget that he most likely took steroids, thus cheating, and (if true) has lied about it to the "N"th degree. You'll notice that I did not mention that Barry Bonds is an African American. I left that out because his skin color is of no consequence to me whatever. I find him to be repugnant not because he is black, but rather because he is a scumbag. For the record, no intelligent person will argue more vehemently than I that racism still exists in America. In fact, I extrapolate the facts further; I believe that all humans, failed as we are, are bigots on some level and to deny such is sophistry. Whether it's judging fat people for their appearance, religious zealots for their belief or gays for their sexual orientation, all of it is bigotry and all of us possess it on some level. Show me a human being who never judges anyone based on pre conceived notions and I'll show you a hell of a liar… or a robot. As Barry Bonds, outfielder for the San Francisco Giants baseball team, has inched closer and closer to becoming the all-time homerun champion over the past few years, a myriad of embarrassing, irritating and obnoxious storylines have come to the fore: 1) There's been the hideously high percentage of you who have justified his alleged steroid use by prattling off meaningless clichés like "everyone does it," "what's the harm," and my personal favorite, "baseball is all about entertaining us and what's more entertaining than the homerun." Cheating is cheating and very little else is more indicative of a person's true character. The startling number of cretins who look the other way at Bonds' indiscretions is a commentary on our morally baseless culture. 2) The fact that Giants fans, so longing for anything that matters in their pitiful lives, still cheer for this knucklehead puts a nice little bow on the package that makes San Francisco, my large city hometown (I grew up in the East Bay), the most embarrassing city in all of America. Jasper, Texas thanks you, SFO. 3) The embarrassing notion in sports bars across America that Barry Bonds even deserves to be mentioned as one of the greatest baseball players in history has once again cropped again. Here's a news flash eschewing all of the other facts; we play the games to win and Bonds never has won. Losers can't be the best; it's a law of life. None of those and the dozens of other storylines that I failed to mention rise to the level of the most infuriating of all; the asinine cries that Barry Bonds is the victim of racism as he attempts to break Hank Aaron's record. For those of you who are non-sports fans but have indulged me this far, some additional background; When Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth's mark of 714 home runs in 1974, he had endured months and seasons of intense racism, highlighted by multiple death threats from a segment of America that was loathe to see Aaron, an African American, pass Babe Ruth, the patriarch of baseball, and by all accounts, a Caucasian. In a world where double standards and political correctness guide not just what we can say publicly, but also how we think, view and perceive, it is still stunning to see people claim that Bonds, an African American, is a victim of racism as he tries to break Hank Aaron's record, Aaron also being an African American. There are no "white" contenders anywhere on the horizon, so to argue that America is rooting for a different, whiter player would be absurd, and since only African Americans are anywhere in the discussion, how in the world can race be a factor here? The story linked below is a newspaper column that appeared in a small town central California paper a few weeks ago, attempting to extrapolate statistics of a survey taken of Major League Baseball fans on Barry Bonds. Somehow the clown who wrote it concludes that America loves Barry Bonds, supports his home run chase, looks the other way at his steroid use, and hates him because he is black. His methodology for concluding such things is, at best, questionable, and at worst, incompetent. Unfortunately this writer, like so many others, clearly views the world through a racist, politically correct prism. He decrees in his column that since "only" about half of all baseball fans wished Bonds wasn't chasing the record that America actually is frothing at the mouth with anticipation over the record breaker. He further decides that since 75% of non-whites are rooting for Bonds, the rest of us are all racist, discounting a myriad of possible social and psychological reasons for such answers. When in doubt, of course, blame the white guys. click here to read this idiot's article Most absurd, though is the contradictory way the writer (correctly presenting in my view the opinion of many American elites), presents the arguments of race. Before mentioning that Bonds himself has said he's been the victim of race, the writer correctly points out that when Aaron was trying to "chase down a white man," far more Americans were rooting against him. Why wasn't the column about how far we've come since 1974? 33 years ago a great ballplayer established a great, untainted record and most of America hated every minute of it and rooted against him to do so solely because he was black. Since then, we have, as a nation, matured and allowed Hank Aaron to assume his rightful place in history. Today, a cretin of questionable moral background is pursuing that same record, on his way to ripping it out of the hands of a great man who deserves it and less than half of America is openly rooting against him… that sounds to me like we've come a long way. Some would argue, in fact, that one of the reasons to root against Bonds is to help preserve the great reputation of the African American culture, so that it not be sullied by a man who gains notoriety under the cloud of accusations and overwhelming circumstantial evidence. Unfortunately, pointing out those things would give America credit and make for a positive story line and what's the fun in that?
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