Posted on 04/11/2003 8:12:58 AM PDT by Seattle
The juxtaposition would be funny if it weren't so serious.
Scenes of joy in Baghdad were on the front pages of every newspaper in the country yesterday.
Iraq, a very literate country, was celebrating in the streets. The population was filled with the hope that maybe, just maybe, it could celebrate the freedoms that have been denied it for a generation.
Freedoms like the freedom of speech.
Meanwhile, on this nation's sports pages yesterday, baseball's Hall of Fame president, Dale Petroskey, was declaring that, because of the politics of actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, the Hall was canceling its planned celebration of the 15th anniversary of the release of the baseball movie "Bull Durham."
Petroskey, who just happens to be a former assistant White House press secretary under Ronald Reagan, said in a letter to Sarandon and Robbins: "We believe your very public criticism of President Bush at this important — and sensitive — time in our nation's history helps undermine the U.S. position, which ultimately could put our troops in even more danger."
The decision is all bull and no Durham.
Petroskey said he didn't want Robbins politicizing the event, then he politicized it.
McCarthyism lives.
Does Petroskey think Iraqi soldiers were hunkered in their bunkers outside Basra telling each other, "Sarandon and Robbins are against this war. We must fight on."?
There is a saying that truth is the first casualty of war. Apparently, people like Petroskey believe free speech is the second casualty.
Imagine if Petroskey were the NBA commissioner. Dallas' Steve Nash, who has voiced his sensitive disagreements with the war, probably would be banned from the playoffs.
And Golden State's Adonal Foyal, maybe the smartest man in the NBA, would be suspended for having the audacity to criticize the U.S. government.
Aren't the freedoms Sarandon and Robbins exercise part of what the United States says it is trying to bring to Iraq?
If John Rocker still can pitch in the big leagues — I don't know if he can pitch anymore, but he certainly now has the right to try with Tampa Bay — then can't we celebrate the best baseball movie ever made, even if some find the politics of two of its stars offensive?
Petroskey's Hall is full of miscreants. If he saw the movie "Cobb," he might be inclined to pull down the bust of Ty Cobb the way that U.S. tank pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein on Wednesday.
If Cobb is in the Hall of Fame, there should be room for Bull Durham.
The movie is such a perfect portrayal of life in baseball's bush leagues. Kevin Costner is the perfect embittered baseball lifer. Robbins' Nuke LaLoosh is like every wild prodigy who ever came into the game.
It's a smart movie that takes some sharp shots at the culture of sports.
It deserves this celebration. We deserve to see its stars and writer-director Ron Shelton and hear them talk about this movie 15 years later.
But Petroskey, a 21st-century Joe McCarthy (the former senator, not the former manager), has decided the beliefs of some of its stars are too volatile for the Hall.
This was supposed to be the celebration of a movie. It was about the art, not the politics, of the artists.
Maybe Petroskey never saw the movie. Maybe he was misinformed and was told that LaLoosh was named Weapons of Mass Destruction LaLoosh.
While Iraqis cautiously leave their houses and come back into the streets, believing maybe the worst of the war is over, Petroskey is fighting his own war against dissent. Maybe he should poll all living Hall of Fame members. Are they for or against this war? Are they Republicans or Democrats?
Maybe he should make all of them sign a loyalty oath.
"As an institution we stand behind our president and our troops," he said in his letter to Robbins and Sarandon.
So as they celebrate the hope of freedom in Baghdad, Dale Petroskey denies it in Cooperstown. It seems you're either with Petroskey or against him. And if you're against him, the doors to the Hall will be slammed in your face.
Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com
McCarthy has been proven right time and time again. We should erect a monument to McCarthy in Washington D.C. and continue his sterling example of how to deal with the vermin that infests our nation.
--- Let me explain this ONE MORE TIME.
Petroskey is NOT PART OF THE GOVERNMENT.
He is NOT SUPPRESSING FREE SPEECH of Suzie Saranwrap or anyone else.
He is a PRIVATE CITIZEN, and head of a PRIVATE ORGANIZATION. He is therefore entitled to have a party, or to cancel a party AT HIS OWN DISCRETION.
He has NO AUTHORITY over Suzie Saranwrap and her speechifying, other than withdrawing a platform that is UNDER HIS OWN CONTROL.
Why do I have to explain this over, and over, and over, and over...
Petroskey did not "ban" anything. He said "They're not using our money for this." If Sarandon and Robbins and their ilk care to hold to "15th Anniversary celebration of Bull Durham" in Cooperstown - and if they do, I guarantee you it will be a Bush-hate fest more than it is a talk about the movie - they can do it on their own time with their own funds.
We are all human. When Americans arer dying in battle we don't have to listen to their BS. They didn't "ban" the event, they simply cancelled it, and that IS their right, don't you get that? That is not like what happens on college campuses. Free speech doesn't exist anymore on those campuses, sad but true.
Hollyweird/NYC liberals have been in the Clinton's back pocket so long that they actually thought someone cared what they had to say. Reality is biting them in the arse.
If you don't get choked up during James Earl Jones' "Baseball" speech near the end of the movie, then you ain't a baseball fan.
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