Jeff Chidester’s Column, “In Charlottesville, violence begets violence,” is a brilliantly bright positive piece pointing a ramp off and up for a downward spiraling situation. Jeff leads with a wonderful quote from the wonderful Reverend Martin Luther King Junior and beautifully builds on that base to encourage us towards inspired civility and conversation as well as pointing out the civil majority. Keep the personhood of people as we discuss things and stop the process of coming up with some cartoon non-person version of people that we can then more easily trash. All are called to call to all.
And of course Reverend King was inspired by the King of Kings’s, Jesus, The Christ, The Nazarene. Jesus Christ has a wonderful protocol for us to follow that guides us away from anger (Psalm 37:8) (Colossians 3:7-11) (Ecclesiasticus 30:21-27) (James 1:19-25,) guides us away from looking at people in terms of class (James 2:1,) guides us towards forgiving others (Matthew 18:21-22) (James 3:2,) guides us towards making real friends with the poor (Romans 12:16,) and guides us away from being condescending (Romans 12:16.)
Seeking to irritate or injure others as a primary has no positive place whether it is in the streets or on the screen.
For the screen, I have a suggestion I pray that gets some traction pronto. I love sports. I grew up North of Pittsburgh and was present for Franco Harris’ miraculous reception. I have raised my family in New Hampshire and became a Patriot’s fan when they were introduced as “the team” instead of star by star prior to their first Super Bowl. At 60, I still play hockey with teens and twenty year olds. I root for Bruins, Penguins, Steelers, and Patriots. I am on the board of White Horse Addiction Center Inc. and find that sports helps steer people away from outside drugs by the creation of the natural consequence of sports, the inside drugs of endorphins. I am distraught by this standoff as a loose loose.
My win win suggestion is inspired by a Russian figure skater from years ago who before performing bent down, swiped the ice, and made the sign of the cross. So I beg you athletes to stand for the anthem and on either side of it feel free to take to two knees and pray for guidance and leadership from our Creator Christ to continue to bring all of Creation and all People into Communion.
Sports has been an incredibly powerful vehicle for continuing to bring us into align with all of the Christ’s very challenging instructions above and elsewhere in The Word of God, The Manual, God’s Guidance that ask us to not look at others segregated by class. Christ calls us to value the gorgeous creation that each person is that He, Our Creator, Made and Loves.
Please let us quickly make this simple change and continue to build up the years and years of good work towards unity that Sports have helped with.
I Love You and so does Jesus, God, and The Holy Spirit along with Mother Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint Raphael, Saint Joan, Saint Francis, Saint Therese Lisieux, Your Guardian Angel, all the Holy Angels, and all the Holy Saints.