The Failure Through Excellence Tour in Indiana

Super Blackbowl?

To hear some sports reports, you'd think that the most important thing about this year's Super Bowl is that the head coaches of the two teams are both African-American. What do these commentators think they're celebrating? I wonder if there are really that many people out there thinking or saying, "Gosh! I hate this Super Bowl because I am so racist that black coaches ruin it all for me."

The few who have such an attitude are certainly worthy of all the ridicule we want to heap on them. But I am equally uncomfortable about those who would associate me with racists simply because I absolutely do not care about this supposed milestone in the history of professional football. In fact, I would never even have noticed if white liberals hadn't told me. My guess is, the majority of African-American football fans don't care either; the coaches themselves certainly don't seem to.

Does racism exist? Yes. Is it a bad thing? Yes. But I think some folks don't really care so much about racism as they do about parading their progressive attitude in front of others. These are the same people who would vote to have their taxes raised in order to "help the government feed the poor" - just to prove how compassionate they are. They do not care that higher taxes is the most inefficient way imaginable of actually helping a person who really needs help. They also keep celebrating public education - whose failure becomes increasingly dismal with every new government dollar thrown at it - because they think the only alternative is to be an enemy of intelligent schoolchildren. Are these folks ever so busy taking care of "the poor," "the marginalized," etc., that they have no energy left to look honestly at the little injustices that they themselves practice everyday against their own mates, children, employees or neighbors?

"I feel your pain," a former president was fond of saying. The nation would have been better off if he had put a little more effort into feeling his own pain. Then getting therapy.

It is simply impossible to love a cultural category, no matter how unfortunate. "Love your neighbor as yourself." Not black football coaches, not the homeless, not homosexuals, not the poor. "YOUR" - "NEIGHBOR." In one simple sentence, Jesus rebukes the very people who think they are fulfilling his ideal.

There in a nutshell is the reason such folks use the word "mean-spirited" for anyone who disagrees with their "compassion." They want to feel good about themselves, whether or not anyone's lot is really being improved. If you point out the obvious truth to them, you must be trying to make them feel bad about themselves. And if you try to make a "good" person feel "bad," you are mean-spirited, no matter how much real good you might do privately for real individual human beings.

Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, may have had no idea how profound he was being when he said, "It's not about black coaches; it's about the Colts." It's just a football game, and in being such, it is already morally superior to social rhetoric.

2007 Update #2

The Buffalo Bills did not make the playoffs, nor even have a winning season. Beyond that, all the Bills news is good. They have their franchise quarterback (I was always a believer in him). They have lots of room under the salary cap to fill their line needs. And maybe they'll get rid of Willis McGahee, who will never be a Bills-type player, is over-rated, and is dangerously close to being a T.O.-type influence in the locker room.

I have dropped the evening class I was teaching, so my schedule now allows for a level of sanity (sleep). Any lack of sanity will therefore now require a different excuse.

There is another Brian Regan show in our future. April. Kathy loves to laugh, and a good husband of Kathy is always looking to provide opportunities.

The Failure Through Excellence Tour, another memory

Hell is other people

I am happy to say that the title of this little note is not a quote of mine. It comes courtesy(?) of Jean Paul Sartre. To whatever degree it may or may not be a useful idea, I think most of us have been conscious of feeling that way from time to time. (The rest of us probably feel that way almost all the time; their problem is one of self-awareness.)

Today's point is that, even though other people may sometimes seem like hell, there is a different kind of hell that comes from the consistent absence of other people. I have been noticing this a lot lately in the classrooms of my adult classes. The principle: people who live too much alone for too long lose (or never gain) the ability to function gracefully in social situations.

The examples cover the whole spectrum of human activity - from the pronunciation of words, to flatulence, to issues of politeness or rudeness.

I have been accused more than once of being socially inept. Sometimes the criticism has been valid. Sometimes the problem is more on the other end. But I shudder to think what sort of public "self" I'd be putting forth today without the people who have cared enough to spend significant amounts of time with me. My wife especially, of course. Mind you, I'm not praising only - or even primarily - the attempts of these people to "parent" me, to "force" change, or to get me to pretend to comply with illegitimate standards. My praise is mostly for those who mostly just - as we say - "stick around." I expect that just their presence - the mirror of their presence - has quite a profound civilizing affect.

2007 Update #1

It feels good to have finally made contact with some of you who have e-mailed me and never got a response. Thanks for your patience.

Kathy's family sorrow continues to worsen. It can't do otherwise. We may be back in Washington as early as this summer. But even that might get a little complicated. The longer you live in one place, the more reason there is to stay. Especially when you're an old person who is afraid to look for another job.

I am still teaching. Kathy's still a nurse.

And now I have to go and help some students.

Short status means it's easier to write more of them!

Aphorism

Conscious, intentional virtues
are always unaccompanied by unconscious, unintentional vices.