Thursday, September 01, 2016

Open Mouth, Insert Foot




I heard the other day that NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick was auditioning to replace Natalie Maines as the spokesperson for the band Dixie Chicks.  Seems the guy forgot who his demographic supporters are, which gives him a real shot at the job. At the rate he’s going, he needs to run for higher public office, as in my experience that is par for the course.  Get to the top, forget how you got there, and then do your own thing.  It helps to have a righteous cause to convince yourself it is worth the risk.

I have no problem with Colin or Natalie exercising their 1st Amendment rights, which are freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. I do it all the time. I also know who I am talking to most of the time and if it offends them, I am pretty sure they are not paying me a salary, or expecting me to endorse a product for a fee or salary.

When Dixie Chick numero uno stood on that stage in England and declared she was embarrassed of the President of the United States, she made a couple very serious errors. One, she was in a foreign country and she’s an American Country and Western singer. Two, a whole bunch of people who buy her records supported GWB. Three, she forgot she was a singer and pulled the classic Smothers Brothers routine of using the entertainment stage to express her political views. Four, her remarks ultimately killed her band and income stream.

They are finally active again and guess where they are entertaining?  Small venues.  The top C&W band went from the mountain top to the valley low and like Jane Fonda’s legacy, many red-blooded patriots will turn the channel when their music plays, let alone attend a concert.

Now let’s a take a look at this NFL Quarterback for a second, who has a yearly salary of 19 million dollars. Like Ms. Maines, he has forgotten a couple of things, so he can push a cause which has nothing to do with football. His cause is so sensitive that the politically correct crowd have no option, but to back him and they will. The truth of the matter is no one wants an athlete to use their position in a sport to do anything other than play that sport. Next, he represents this franchise and as quarterback, the brains of the team. What he is doing is not team related and he’s doing it on the field. If it were not of the race card being played, I imagine they would set his butt down and probably fine him to boot.

Let’s take a simple traffic cop who decides to make a political statement right in the middle of an intersection as an example. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Let him do that on his own time. If Colin Kaepernick wants to make an impact, he should set up a fund to help black people out of poverty and the social punji stakes laid down by white people. He makes 19 Million dollars a year for goodness sake and has a palatial mansion that you can view on the Internet.

Sadly, by all accounts his talent is waning and he’s sort of engaged to the radical Islamic militant disc jockey Nessa Diab and has become “all riled up” mainly due to her perceived injustices and liberal Berkeley education. Never mind that she is also semi-famous and kind of successful and has a blooming career in TV and radio.

Why can’t people just be happy to be doing well? Why do so many privileged and financially blessed people feel the need to go on the warpath to expose the evil system that made them successful? Why does George Clooney (estimated personal wealth 180 million) support a party that wants to tax him more than it currently does?  Why would George Soros (24.9 billion) support a political candidate who wants to redistribute his wealth? It makes no sense to me at all.

The only distribution of my wealth I support is my own spending. I want the government to keep its stinking fingers out of my wallet and I have no trouble saying that to anyone. Football players need to support their teams and keep politics and personal biases and opinions off the playing field. The same goes for all sporting events, award shows, and entertainment venues. 
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

BAM: Very well spoken

Anonymous said...

SW: AMEN!!!!

Anonymous said...

KE: I agree.

Anonymous said...

KG: Well said Bert, it's just a case of forgetting your roots. The old maxim of being nice to people on the way up cause you'll be waving to them on the way down applies.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Marshall,

Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all," she told the audience at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.
"We do not want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas"

I thought that the first tenet of a journalist was to research your subject and make sure that what you're espousing is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yes, I know it's an opinion piece, but you're not allowed to have your own "opinion" about facts. I'll follow your lead and list a couple of "serious errors" that YOU made.

First, you quoted them incorrectly (see above). What? You didn't even bother to Google the quote? Incredible.

Second, I believe they have freedom of speech in England, also. Whether she's an American in Timbuktu or Walla Walla, she gets to say what she wants.
Third, "a whole bunch of people who buy their records" shared their exact same opinion.
Fourth, I have doubts about your knowledge of the Constitution, but in case you weren't aware, she's allowed to voice her opinion no matter what she does for a living. Why is Jeff Foxworthy entitled to voice a political view and she's not?
Fifth, with regard to your statement "They are finally active again and guess where they are entertaining? Small venues." Perhaps, you missed their sold out concert on August 6 of last month at the "small venue" called Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. It's such a "small venue" that there were only 20,000 people there. I bet the Chicks are so disappointed.

http://www.houstonpress.com/music/dixie-chicks-receive-heroes-welcome-at-the-woodlands-8644890

But they did get one thing terribly wrong - George W. Bush is not from Texas; he was born in Connecticut. Which, as anyone knows, renders him NOT a Texan. That "Got here as fast as I could" stuff does NOTmake one a Texan. Having moved here three years ago from California does NOT make one a Texan. And establishing your permanent address as Texas (for political purposes) while "summering" (Yankee term) and spending much of the rest of the time at your compound in Connecticut does NOT make you a Texan. I've come to the decision that merely having been born in Texas does NOT necessarily make you a Texan, at heart, at any rate.

And did you ever see Bush, the "cowboy," out on his "ranch" (which he bought after becoming President and sold the day after his term ended) cutting brush? That gave actual ranchers a real chuckle. The only time that Yalie ever cut brush was when the director said, "Action." Anyway, I rest my case.

Regards,

(Ms.) Michael Davis
Baytown, Texas
6th Generation Texan

. . . . . said...

Dear (Ms.) Michael Davis,

I am honored that you would take time from being someone’s wife and a 6th generation Texan to painstaking pen such a condescending ramble. However, I must take exception, seeing you assumed much and missed the point of the column completely.

First, I am not a journalist. I am a columnist who writes my opinion.

Second, I believe in freedom of speech 100%. At no point did I quote the Dixie Chicks and yes, I know how to use Google. Incredulous!

Third, are we talking semantics here?

Fourth, see number two.

Fifth, Ticket sales are nothing like they were before Natalie went off all political on a foreign stage. “But the focus is mostly on the U.S., where the band -- Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison -- have not mounted a coast-to-coast headlining outing since the Accidents & Accusations tour of 2006. Given the results of the 2006 run, a tour marked by sluggish ticket sales in many markets and a route that was reconfigured to focus more on Canadian and "blue state" markets, few would have predicted that thousands of U.S. music fans would be "ready to make nice" with the Chicks, even 10 years later. http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6813730/live-nation-dixie-chicks-tour-2016-behind-the-scenes

George Bush was not the point of my piece. Neither were his politics or whether she was right or wrong in her opinion. Her comments all but killed their career because she used a concert for something other than entertaining. It has no relevance in your letter other than to reveal your blue leanings and that, is the whole point of your letter, by the way, isn’t it?

Obviously, as in your case, reading and writing has little to do with comprehension, or did I miss a hidden meaning in your letter? The point is no one wants to hear any entertainer or sports figure use that venue to make a political statement. There, I just educated you. Have a nice day and please, vote as many times as your conscience will allow you.After all, Hillary can use all the votes she can get.

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