Right On Rashard: Don't Apologize for Being a Moral Voice

Rashard Mendenhall
Wikimedia Commons image

Eric Blair
Activist Post

It is insane to see the level of pressure being put on Rashard Mendenhall by the mainstream media for merely saying we shouldn't celebrate death and for daring to have commonsense questions about how the twin towers fell.

After the reported killing of Osama bin Laden, the press was beside themselves with joy; gleefully showing the herds of morally bankrupt idiots partying in front of the White House.  I almost half-expected to see a kill-team style photo of Obama holding bin Laden's bloody head like a trophy with a "Mission Accomplished" banner flapping in the background.

My new favorite running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mendenhall, tweeted his disgust for celebrating a death and promoting hate:

What kind of person celebrates death? It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We've only heard one side...

It's telling that Mendenhall is being ostracized for NOT cheering war and murder, as if to warn all public figures that the only acceptable opinion is jubilation over the slaughter of hundreds-of-thousands of innocent people and the trillions spent on war because we killed the top evil-doer.

Yet, to anyone who can view the world as a human first and a national second, the U.S. is by far the most damaging terrorist nation on earth.  I know, Al Qaeda is very scary with all their monkey-bar skills displayed in those training videos, but can we agree it's hardly a match for unlimited unmanned drones with 5000 lb bombs? It seems clear, the U.S. will continue its wicked military ways with so many uninformed fools now fist-pumping Obama's illegal wars, and a media scolding those who would denounce hate.

Mendenhall was only representing the basic morality of love and peace for his human tribe.  A moral that, apparently, has been thoroughly conditioned out of the majority of the population by dividing us into teams -- the Coalition vs. the Terrorists or Jews or Christians vs. Muslims etc. Generally, people are more comfortable believing in "one side" of things because it's easier than thinking, researching, or having a open heart.  Rashard must have forgotten that his fans like rooting for a team, not the whole league.

He was not the only prominent figure disturbed by Americans openly cheering murder.  With well-deserved praise, famed 9/11 widow Kristen Breitweiser wrote:

When my husband was killed on the morning of 9/11, television stations around the world ran split-screen video. They showed the buildings still burning juxtaposed against young Arabs celebrating in the streets. That disturbing vision left me incredulous; it was forever emblazoned on my psyche.

...And it breaks my heart to witness young Americans cheer any death -- even the death of a horrible, evil, murderous person -- like it is some trite tailgate party on a college campus.

... As my phone rings and the media looks toward me to give them their trite, warm soundbite of closure and elation, I have to be honest, today is not a day of celebration for me.

Breitweist and Mendenhall were echoing the timeless wisdom of Martin Luther King Jr. who in his Nobel acceptance speech said “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love,” or Gandhi's simple proverb "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Indeed this philosophy is heresy to the military machine that clearly runs America and her media.

Referring to the September 11th attacks on the twin towers, Mendenhall Tweeted:

We’ll never know what really happened.  I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style.

How does this vanilla statement deserve ridicule?  He received so much public pressure for what the mainstream dubbed "truther" statements, that he was forced to delete the tweet.  It's another stark warning to public figures that they are not allowed to have a working brain and think independently when they're told 2+2=5.  Mike Florio of NBC Sports is even backhandedly demanding a "full and complete apology":

We’ve got a feeling that football fans — particularly Steelers fans — will continue to seethe at least until Mendenhall provides a full and complete apology.

Apologize for what? Having legitimate questions about an event whose official story is obviously flawed? Especially as it pertains to Building 7, a 47-story steel frame skyscraper that collapsed at free-fall speed into its own footprint without having been hit by anything but small debris.  It is those who ignore questions about this demolition who deserve to be ridiculed, not those who question the motives for such silence.

Rashard, you should be proud of your truthful statements and I hope you don't apologize to these bullies.  If you do, we'll understand that it's better for you, the Steelers, and the league; but maybe not for America.  We need prominent heroes to have the courage to stand up to such morally-backwards nonsense. 


Enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:


Delivered by FeedBurner