The Runback: Revenge Culture
The national mood has moved from change to revenge. Be careful what you wish for.
Welcome week four of The Runback. Have you been enjoying The Duckpin? Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you want to write for us? Let me know at theduckpin@gmail.com. And please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Thanks in advance.
News and Politics
Top Elrich Official’s Book Deal with Contractor Violates Ethics Rules:
Ex-Baltimore Budget Director Supplemented his $280,000 Montgomery County Job with a Book Deal with a County Contractor.
Sports
Welcome to Foxboro, Cam Newton: The Duckpin’s Jim Fossel told you the post-Brady era was going to be interesting, didn’t I?
If you cancel it, nobody will come: The cancellation of the Minor League Baseball Season yet another sad example of the economic and cultural devastation being wrought by the 2019 novel coronavirus, in addition to the lost lives and broken families.
Radical Realignment: Will changes mean college football’s Independence Day?
Entertainment
Canada's Top 10: The greatest of all Canadian things.
I Don’t Totally Recall: When did movie sequels go off the rails?
Rocking Independence Day: The holiday may be gone, but it’s never too late to rock out American style.
Food
Celebrating the Greatest Hamburger: The best hamburger around is Canadian?!?
Cheap Plugs
We’ve got merch now! Click here for The Duckpin Store!
My latest column in The Capital: Don’t Forget the 3rd of July
Jim Fossel’s latest for the Portland Press-Herald: The right to hold unpopular views is under attack
Stay Tuned For…
The Monday Thought
I tuned out most of the weekend. I went away. Spent time somewhat off the grid. Something that far too many people seem to be rather disinterested in in modern times.
So forgive me if, for two weeks in a row, this thought is reasonably short.
But it seems like we are moving away from a culture of change and toward a culture of revenge.
These are just a few of the things that are going on in this country right now:
Donald Trump continues to punish any elected Republican who stands up for the principles of conservatism in defiance of his liberalism.
National Democrats are looking to continue the discussion of removing the statues of our Founding Fathers. They continued to push this line over Independence Day weekend.
At the same time Trump creates a new “National Garden of American Heroes” featuring the statues of the greatest Americans.
Baltimore City Councilman Ryan Dorsey introduced a resolution to rename an obelisk dedicate to Christopher Columbus as a monument in honor of victims of “police violence.”
An unlawful mob dislodged the Christopher Columbus Monument in Baltimore’s Little Italy .
What are we, as a people, becoming? What are we doing with the gifts of liberty that our Founding Fathers fought for?
When I see what’s happening in this country, I continue to come back to this scene from Tombstone.
Now, I’m not suggesting that everybody taking part in this are criminal like Johnny Ringo. But a huge section of the people are our for revenge. It seems as if it is, in fact, revenge for being born.
What makes somebody commit the criminal act of toppling a statue and throwing it into the Inner Harbor?
What makes a billionaire run for President only to act like a petulant child for four years?
What makes a newspaper full of affluent middle-class writers continuously take cheap shots at the President?
What makes a white city council member who has lived a gifted live of privilege hate the police so much?
The only common denominator among all of these people is that they have a vendetta against somebody. A person. A group. And they are out for revenge.
I don’t think they realize where the road to revenge leads.
It leads to resentment. It leads to violence.
I don’t know where all of this is going. I certainly wish we had an adult as President right now who could help diffuse the tension. But I pray every day that we as a nation can get this behind us, have the conversations that we need to have, and that we work toward a national reconciliation. Not one based on violence, but based on mutual respect.
Revenge is the road to ruin. I hope those partaking in it reconsider their ways.
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. I too hope they reconsider.