Paying Attention

I love the Bruins… I’m a life-long Boston Sports Fan (Bruins, Pats, Sox, Celts) and always will be.  And I love Tim Thomas.  I love that he comes from a state I once lived in (Vermont).  What he did in the Stanley Cup playoffs was immense — a performance for the ages.  I’ve got the DVD.

But what he did yesterday was not cool.  He snubbed President Obama’s White House reception for the Stanley Cup champions, and then tweeted his reason: the government is “out of control” in its spending and our “personal liberties.”  He was exercising his “rights as an INDIVIDUAL” to skip the event.

So Tim, you’re going to use a NON-POLITICAL celebration of your team’s accomplishment to brand Obama as the symbol of “out of control” government?  Were you equally outspoken with the Republican regime which preceded Obama? 

There was a government truly out of control.  Reckless spending and tax cuts, turning a federal surplus into a deficit.  Lying to us to enter a war of choice.  Surveillance of the whole country in secret.  The PATRIOT Act.  Politicizing the Justice Department in secret.  Sanctioning TORTURE for God’s sake — in secret.  The list is endless.  The Obama administration is FAR more open and transparent than Bush-Cheney ever were.

Tim, were you equally outspoken then, or are you speaking out now because your “out of control” president is a Democrat?  Or because he’s black? And before anyone says this last question is unfair, Thomas’ public decision (and earlier silence) invite it.  Thomas has just added his little contribution to the unprecedented abuse this president has received from white conservative “patriots” and their media enablers.

Or Tim, maybe you thought to do this because as a Stanley Cup MVP you now have a platform.  If you really believe in something so strongly, say it whether you have a platform or not.  As the Bible says, “Say it in season and out of season.”  Don’t use an MVP trophy as a credential to politicize a non-political White House tradition to make a statement which is uninformed at best and unfair at worst… and certainly one not thought through very well.

PS.  I’ll spend the next two weeks obsessing over the Super Bowl.  GO PATS!  I would HATE to see them lose to the Giants again.  But if they win, please just go to the White House and respect the president as other champions before you have done.  Don’t be like Tim, who has forever tainted how I will see him as he stands in the crease and does his remarkable thing.