Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Well ... actually ... no, it's not ...

It didn't take long for the rhetoric swirling around the current NFL/NFLPA tiff to remind me of how fast and how tired I became of the rhetoric that accompanied their 1987 tiff. It also emphasized that some players would be better off to let their actions on the field do their talking, rather than engaging their mouth. Back then, it was Tony Dorsett in the parking lot at Cowboys Stadium ... this time it's Adrian Peterson in a Yahoo Sports interview.

Doug Farrar writes, "Speaking just minutes after the owners locked out the players, Peterson compared the players' place in the game to 'modern-day slavery,' a statement that, while ill-advised, was made in the context of how the players feel they're being treated in these talks."

Farrar quotes Peterson as saying "It's modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too."

What? ... "kind of" laugh at that? Why not try "TOTALLY" laugh at that ... and for good reason, too. There are plenty of us here, in Midland, that have experiences abroad - through Christian mission, business development, etc. - to see what modern-day slavery is REALLY like, and to find ways to combat it with our time and effort, our love and our funds. Our community has also provided a new home for people fleeing the acts of modern-day slavers working through sweat-shops, brothels, and impressment into 'armies' and labor battalions. Sadly, we have also seen modern-day slavery right here, at home, where sex trafficking is creating a new and growing slave trade, 150 years after we fought a terrible and bloody war for emancipation and union.

So, please, spare us the rhetoric about modern-day slavery, save it for the closed negotiations, behind closed doors, sparing the rest of us the public outrage ... and you the public ridicule.

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