The country was quick to out Jose Canseco as sleazy snitch trying one last chance to turn a buck when he pulled the covers off baseball's steroid epidemic. That is, until he turned out to be right....then we granted him a reprieve and a second chance at life.
Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall seems to have found himself in a similar situation after taking the unfavorable side in what was a landmark day in this country's history this past weekend when news broke that Osama Bin Laden had finally been killed. Days after President Obama's confirmation that we had finally taken down the man responsible for the most gruesome attack on American soil in decades, Mendenhall took to Twitter to express his displeasure with the jubilation Americans showed over Osama's demise.
"What kind of person celebrates death? It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never heard speak. We've only heard one side...". Mendenhall tweeted.
It took about 30 seconds for bloggers, sports writers, sports radio jocks and fans to rip Mendenhall like a training bra trying to fit on Christina Hendicks' rack. After all, Mendenhall's the same guy who sided with Adrian Peterson during AP's "football is like modern-day slavery" comments. He already left a sour taste in people's mouths and this just fueled the fire. The thing is, Mendenhall's entitled to his opinion. We may not like it. We may not agree with it but he has the right to speak his mind. THAT is the luxury of the freedom of speech. The other luxury is we can pick and choose what parts of Mendenhall's thoughts we choose to side with or side against. For instance, I happen to agree with Mendenhall that it is a bit hypocritical for us as Americans to celebrate the death of a murderer. I also, however, believe that Americans have the right to celebrate bin Laden's death if they so choose. My thought process is this: Think back to September 11th. How pissed were we when we saw footage of countries in the Middle East fist-pumping to the demise of the World Trade Center as thousands of our fellow Americans burned in the rubble? We were pretty fucking pissed! We wanted blood! We wanted war! We wanted to kick ass and take names! How does it look now that we are taking to the streets and doing the same damn thing they were doing? Shouldn't we be above that? Look, we all need a release and who am I to tell you how to grieve but understand that Mendenhall is just as entitled to disagree with the things you choose to celebrate as you are entitled to chastise him for expressing his disagreement. I'm not saying I 100% co-sign everything Mendenhall tweeted, but I understand his logic.
Some of it.
The "we've only heard one side..." line makes it seem like he's trying to give the biggest public threat to this country's safety since Adolf Hitler the benefit of the doubt. I'm not saying he IS giving bin Laden the benefit of the doubt, but it certainly can be, and it seems like it was, interpreted that way. Mendenhall also went on to tweet(referring to 9/11) " We'll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style." Now, it's my belief, as is the belief of many, that planes crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and that is what caused the buildings to collapse. That is what I THINK happened. Do I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt? No....and neither do you. How long did it take after the assassination of John F. Kennedy for conspiracy theorists to start debunking the "lone gunman" theory? It didn't happen overnight. We all want to believe what we are being told is the truth because it helps us sleep at night. We don't want to think that maybe(not saying it is) something else led to the destruction of the Twin Towers the same way we don't want to think that there might have been others beyond Lee Harvey Oswald firing shots at JFK.
Mendenhall says he wants to "encourage you to think". What's wrong with that?
The answer: timing.
You see, we don't want people raining on our parade before the party even starts. Bin Laden's death, whether you agree with the celebration of it or not, was a huge coup for this country and it allowed us to get closure on a very sore chapter in our life's story. A chapter that's nearing its 10 year anniversary. Three days is way too soon to start pissing on our finest hour, Mr. Mendenhall. The problem is there is no rule book. There is nothing stating when the proper time is to start questioning the actions of the majority. We all have been raised to cheer at the movies when the bad guy dies at the end. You don't see anyone at the theater telling you to sit down. These were Mendenhall's thoughts. When was the proper time for him to express them? It's hard to say, but three days later was a bit too early for us.
Mendenhall believes that "those who judge others, will also be judged themselves" and that God is "the ONE and ONLY judge".....which is funny coming from a guy judging people on Twitter. Mahatma Ghandi once said "Hypocrisy and distortion are passing currents under the name of religion." Tolstoy wrote "Hypocrisy is anything whatever may decieve the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awaken of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised.". The tragedy of the freedom of speech is that the interpretation of it makes hypocrites out of all of us because we choose to believe that the freedom should only be granted to those that speak what we, the majority, believe is the truth.
Rashard Mendenhall challenged us to think. He didn't ask us to agree. It's the freedom of speech, not a demand for affirmation. I don't agree with everything Mendenhall said and I damn sure don't agree with the timing of it but I'm proud to live in a country that gives us the liberty to choose which side to be on and which thoughts we choose to agree or disagree with. This week should have been a celebration of that freedom, not another opportunity to kill the messenger.
