Posted by
RANT BRAZEN on Thursday, October 15, 2009 12:10:01 PM
Free speech? I know something about it. I used to give free speeches when I was a second-banana farm broadcaster in North Carolina. That kind of free speech doesn’t have much to recommend it.
But I learned fast, and pretty soon was getting a seat at the head table at top farm meetings. They liked my schtick. Pass the biscuits. It was a heady time.
That’s not the kind of free speech I’m talking about here. I mean the free speech that goes along with being an American. It belongs to everyone. Black men like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Even white guys like Rush Limbaugh.
But Al and Jesse have conspired – not to deprive Rush of freedom of speech – but to use Limbaugh’s words and beliefs as a club to hurt and demean him. And in the end to make Rush so undesirable that he would be dropped from a group making a bid to buy the St. Louis Rams.
That stinks. But Rush handled the situation well.
Limbaugh said on his radio show earlier Wednesday that he had been inundated with e-mails from listeners who supported him in the bid. "This is not about the NFL, it's not about the St. Louis Rams, it's not about me," Limbaugh said.
"This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party, or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative.
"Therefore, this is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we're going to have." R.B. Follstrom, FANHOUSE
How did Al and Jesse get a dog into this fight in the first place?
Try this on. Seemingly bored and in need of some action after their Chicago publicity coup, where they basked in the spotlight following the ghastly murders of young black teens, Al and Jesse picked up on the issue of whether or not a fat, racist, conservative broadcaster has any right to own a National Football League franchise. That would be Rush Limbaugh, whom I happen to admire.
The ugly smears are mine, though I draw them from the actual vocabularies of left-wing radicals whose spite often bubbles over like a pot of snake venom when they go after those with whom they don’t agree. The malady seems to affect all of the leftist gabbers to one degree or another. In that sense, it could be called an "Unchained Malady".
Suffice it to say that they waded in swinging – not with their fists, but with their well-exercised wagging tongues.
Fallstrom reported that Sharpton sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, charging that Limbaugh has been divisive and “anti-NFL” in some of his comments.
Jackson said in a telephone interview that Limbaugh had made his wealth ‘appealing to the fears of whites’ with an unending line of insults against black and other minorities.” (FANHOUSE)
Some of the team members chimed in, twisting Limbaugh over the coals on a spit. But not everyone joined in the verbal lynching.
Cooler, more dispassionate comments were offered by Rams defensive end Leonard Little, who to his credit side-stepped probes by reporters salivating to draw him into the controversy.
He simply didn’t want to talk about it. Little concluded:
“We’ve got a lot more things to worry about than who’s going to be our owner.”
In America, of course, every citizen is entitled to his opinion. It’s just that, in this case, the Rams team member seems a little more entitled than glib race-baiting showboaters like Sharpton and Jackson. Leonard Little makes his living at the game.
Major sports leagues shouldn’t welcome owners who are divisive and incindiery, said the always divisive and incindiery Sharpton.
While the cunning reverends reached for the Prozac over who’s in charge in the front offices of NFL teams, I expect there was a reason they avoided the breaking news in tennis, where popular champions Venus and Serena Williams have bought into ownership of the Miami Dolphins.
All sweetness and light here. And why not? The two stars of the global tennis world have the two things they need to be qualified for reserved seats in the owner’s box at Land Shark Stadium in Miami. Money and motivation.
Rush brought the same qualifications to the NFL bargaining table. And more. He is a solid fan of the NFL. But the conservative broadcaster was up against a stacked deck. He was blackballed by jealous league honchos and vindictive players.
A disappointing outcome. But Rush is a class act. And a fighter. He will not go gentle into that good night.
*From Examiner.com feature by the author