The Conservative Bulwark

There's a couple of things I want to hit on today. The first is the Jim Brown/Tiger Woods flare up and the second is the situation going on in Honduras.

I listen to "Mike and Mike in the Morning" a lot on ESPN Radio. Those two are great when it comes to delivering and analyzing sports news and information. This morning they happen to touch upon the quotes from Jim Brown on Bryant Gumbel's show from the other day. Brown was talking about his "problems" with Tiger Woods.

For those of you who don't know who Jim Brown is, well he's one of the all time great running backs in NFL history. He retired only after nine years in the league which always leads to NFL observers to debate where he would be in the record books if he had played just a few more years. He was really the first back to combine speed and power, lethally. There's no doubt he's one of the best ever. Since his retirement he's been heavily involved in many things concerning the social aspects of inner-city black communities. He's been in several commercials through the years and a few movies, but his work in low income black communities have been his driving focus through the years. Which is great. If that's how he wants to spend his time and energy, then God bless him. More power to him.

The problem comes from this bitter mentality he's developed about other prominent black atheletes...specifically Michael Jordan (when he was in his prime) and Tiger Woods (even though Woods is bi-racial). Brown seems to think that Tiger Woods isn't doing "enough" on the social side of things. Here's his quote directly...

"This cat [Woods] is a mamajama; he is a killer. He'll run over you, he'll kick your [behind]. But as an individual for social change or any of that kind of (stuff), terrible. Terrible."

I'm not sure what exactly Tiger is supposed to be doing to calm the Jim Browns of the world. Is he supposed to march right into the middle of the Crips and the Bloods in south central L.A. and fight the good fight? If Brown could get the chip off his shoulder for two seconds and do a little research, he'd find that Tiger Woods has done some tremendous things. First and foremost is the fact that he has transcended his race on the global level. When people see Tiger Woods, they dont' see a guy with 'darker' skin. They see an enormously talented individual who's only begun to revolutionize his sport. Actually, maybe this is most accomplished feat...he is a great husband and father. He's never broken any laws. He's never been photographed hitting a bong. He's never beaten his wife (Can Jim say the same??) Tiger has been a prominent moral hero for years. He's one of many living embodiments symbolizing "doing it the right way". Furthermore, the Tiger Woods Foundation has impacted far more children and teenagers than Jim Brown could ever hope to reach. Brown simply has no clue what he's talking about.

This ties into something else that never fails to drive me up the wall. Who in the Hell does Brown think he is anyway? His issues seem to go deeper than just wealth envy. If the man has any common sense, he should be financially set for life, however, he seems to think that because Tiger is rich and partially black, he should be giving more than everyone else. This is a prevalent thought pattern for a lot of people. "You have more than I do, so that's not fair." "You should be giving more to charities (at a level that I approve) than anyone else, because you have so much money."

A good example of this involves Michael Vick. A few years ago, right after the campus shooting incident at Virginia Tech, a lot of people criticized Vick heavily for only giving $10,000 to the school (Vick is an alum). $10,000 is a lot of money to most people. I know I sure as Hell can't write out a $10,000 check to my favorite charity. But to hear the critics whine about it, you would have thought that Vick set the campus on fire and then pissed all over to put it out.

It's this aura generated by sour puss whining losers that's slowly eroding this country. One can only hope that common sense prevails in the long run. The only obligation anyone has, no matter if you are rich or poor, is to live your life the best you can and set examples with your actions...not your mouth.

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Taking a one hundred and eighty degree turn now, I'd like to turn the spotlight on the situation in Honduras. I'm flabbergasted at the administration's stance on this.

A brief synopsis: Basically the Honduran (now ex) President (Manuel Zalaya) wanted to execute a constitutionally illegal presidential referendum. The Honduran Supreme Court called him on it and ordered it stopped. He then organized a mob to go and secure the voting ballots from Venezuela (since the Supreme Court's decision halted the ballots being printed in Honduras) and the military stepped in and arrested him at the scene. He was then deported. There's a nice article in the Wall Street Journal detailing this even more.

To hear Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Fidel Castro (Cuba), and Ahmadinejad (Iran) tell it, and NOW Obama, a military coup took place and improperly replaced the Honduran President. That's simply not what happened. The Honduran military was acting under the proper authorities when the ex-President was arrested. He was trying to illegally rewrite their Constitution so he could seek another term. The referendum that would have allowed that was legally and properly shot down by the Honduran Supreme Court.

It's a little unnerving when the President of the United States backs three of the four biggest thugs on the planet and their opinion on this matter. Honduran democracy was upheld in this decision. The military did not sieze power...they prevented another wannabe dictator from doing exactly that. While sham elections are common place now in areas like Latin and South America, the Middle East, and East Asia, one would think that the leader of the free world would take a more proactive stance against those that mean to perpetuate them. Instead we get more coddling from the U.S. Their official stance is Zalaya is the legal President. One of the few times we get to actively uphold democratic ideals...and we shoot ourselves in the foot by backing the wrong guy.