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It’s Money That I Love, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | MDWorld

September 13, 2014 Martha Thomases 3 Comments

When-You-Ride-Alone-You-Ride-with-Bin-Laden-9781893224902For most of us, the ISIS situation in the Middle East is difficult enough.  It’s more confusing when one tries to look for a non-violent solution.

I don’t have one.  I’m sure that, somewhere, people more educated in the relevant nuances are working something out.  At the very least, I hope someone is challenging our assumptions that violence — military and economic — is not the only way to deal with disputes.

Violence is what gets us into these messes.  Violence inspired by religious intolerance, in this case.

And money.  It’s always the money, isn’t it?  The more they promise you Heaven, the more they’re picking your pocket.

 

At the same time, this suggests at least one non-violent way that we can protest against ISIS.  They make a bunch of their money from oil?  Then we should do everything we can to use less of it.  I don’t just mean driving less (an easy suggestion for a Manhattanite to make), but also to buy fewer items that must be imported.  And by “imported” I don’t just mean to buy American (although that is often also a good thing) but to buy local.

It’s harvest season.  You don’t need to get your fruit flown in from Columbia.

Speaking of following the money, Baltimore Raven Ray Rice.  In April, Rice was suspended for two entire games because a hotel security tape showed him dragging his unconscious fiancee (now wife) from an elevator, strongly suggesting that he had beat her.  This week, a video from inside the elevator surfaced, confirming the numerous smack Rice administered.

The NFL suspended him.

Until this week, however, Rice had received less punishment than Michael Vick did for dog fighting.  I’m not in favor of dog-fighting.  Nothing I say should be interpreted as defending dog fighting.  Can we at least agree that beating up women is at least as bad?

(And why didn’t the police charge him?  They had the tape.  I suspect his wife didn’t want to press charges, and that is another rant, for another day.)

Now, I believe in the possibility of redemption, that those of us who have made mistakes can atone and do better.  I’m not looking to vilify Ray Rice, or deny him an opportunity to become a better man.  Michael Vicks seems to have made steps in this direction, and I hope he is sincere.  Rice has lost a valuable endorsement deal from Nike, and I suspect that’s only the beginning of the price he will have to pay.

However, I don’t believe the NFL gets itself off the hook with its actions, which are too little and too late.  The NFL is a corporation, not a person, no matter what Mitt Romney says.  And the NFL allowed Rice to continue to play because of the money.

The only way we can demonstrate our displeasure is to hit them where they live.  Again, it is no sacrifice for me to boycott NFL games.  I don’t like football.  And I don’t mean to take away pleasure and joy from those of you who do.  If you like watching the games on television, go ahead.

Still, you don’t really need to buy NFL licensed goods, do you?  Or purchase pizza and beer from Official Sponsors?

If you agree with me, write to the sponsors and tell them that you will not purchase any of their goods and services until the NFL changes its culture.

As long as money is a weapon, we need to use ours with the most efficiency we can.

Media Goddess Martha Thomases is lucky that the sale of blueberries doesn’t support any theocracies.

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Comments

  1. Mike Gold
    September 13, 2014 - 7:56 am

    Columbia? Depends upon what you mean by “fruit,” Martha.

    That “now they are married” thing in the Rice case isn’t the issue, but it does get in the way of the issue and I’d love to see what you have to say about that. I’m tackling the NFL in this space on Monday, but, damn, every day it’s something else.

    I doubt the efficacy of most boycotts, but the ones you’re suggesting are negligible. Budweiser and Viagra will sell either way (SPOILER ALERT: taking Budweiser with Viagra is unlikely to get you that four-hour erection, pops!). Hit ’em where it hurts. Boycott all the networks that carry NFL games, drop the NFL Channel from your cable package, cancel your season’s pass to the NFL games, and write to your cable service provider and tell them why you’re doing this. These days cable needs all the subscribers it can get, and if they get a couple of these letters they WILL freak.

    And then switch to a winter sport that hires non-violent thugs… you know, like hockey.

  2. johanna Hall
    September 13, 2014 - 8:47 am

    Following your weekly columns is always fun and interesting. Your brilliance is not disguised. I love this sentence: “The more they promise heaven, the more they’re picking your pocket.” In a nutshell….

  3. tom brucker
    September 13, 2014 - 7:51 pm

    I am not watching NFL this year. Money has made players stupid. Poor behavior begins with the owners and trickles down. Yes, money has brought some good social activism by former players, but the collateral damage is mounting.

  4. Mike Gold
    September 13, 2014 - 8:15 pm

    Tom, you really don’t want to know how boxing works.

  5. Mike Gold
    September 13, 2014 - 8:15 pm

    Tom, you really don’t want to know how boxing works.

  6. Reg
    September 14, 2014 - 1:29 pm

    As always, you bring a thought provoking piece. And as you and Mike both addressed…it’s all about the money.

    But with respect to your question as to why Rice (against all rational reasoning) hadn’t been charged…I question why (despite numerous eye witness testimonies and even video and audio accounts) a certain blue shirted individual who has moved OFF the headlines has not been as well.

    Things that should make most people of human heart go…

  7. Mike Gold
    September 14, 2014 - 1:46 pm

    I’m just guessing here, but maybe it’s because the police won’t charge on a domestic abuse case without a complainant. We can assume that since she married the motherfucker after the bashing she’s very unlikely to testify against her husband and theoretically she cannot be compelled to do so.

    In my world, knocking a person out goes beyond mutual consent. But, sadly, my world doesn’t create our nation’s laws. Believe me, we’d all be better off if it did. That aside, this is the reason I’d love to read Martha’s take on that marriage.

    Martha, you might as well write it up. You know I’m just going to ask you anyway as we’re leaving that next movie…

  8. Martha Thomases
    September 14, 2014 - 3:45 pm

    A Walk Among the Tombstones! We should bring Denny because he turned me on to Lawrence Block.

  9. Reg
    September 14, 2014 - 4:53 pm

    Mike…the reference was with regards to that Missourian.

  10. Mike Gold
    September 14, 2014 - 4:57 pm

    Reg, I admit to myopia when it comes to that part of the world. When I hear the word “Missourian,” I think of Cab Calloway’s original big band. Then I stop thinking and play some Cab Calloway and the Missourians.

    It’s a bitch when I drive west from East St. Louis…

  11. Reg
    September 14, 2014 - 5:40 pm

    Mike, respect for the Cab Calloway reference as well as keeping my dance of crouching cops & hidden truth going.

  12. Mindy Newell
    September 25, 2014 - 8:57 am

    Martha, re: ISIS and their oil:

    Watching Joe Scarborough this a.m.; last night the U.S. and it’s “allies” hit a bunch of their oil refineries.

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