{"id":3847,"date":"2014-11-04T06:07:14","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T11:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3847"},"modified":"2014-11-04T06:51:28","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T11:51:28","slug":"sundays-tuesdays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3847","title":{"rendered":"sundays & tuesdays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"10532136_10204417077048664_2802010865682159839_o\"<\/a>For 17 Sundays most of the nation joins with the likeminded, typically sitting on the family room sofa, sometimes in our favored garb, cheering on our favorite team. Like this past weekend… some rooted for Denver instead of New England, Pittsburgh instead of Baltimore, and St. Louis\u00a0instead of San Francisco. We enthusiastically and loyally cheer for our team. \u201cWho dey\u201d<\/em> and “Go Bengals,\u201d<\/em> for example, were heard multiple times, echoing loudly amid our household (… yes, some days it\u2019s hard to be a Bengals\u2019 fan).<\/em> But let\u2019s face it: not only are we zealously rooting for our team, we are also actively rooting against the other. <\/em><\/p>\n

Today, however, is Tuesday; it\u2019s not Sunday. Yet with today\u2019s midterm elections, it seems many have the two days confused.<\/p>\n

Many highly intelligent people are rooting zealously for their team — and — actively rooting against the other. Many of the elect are encouraging us to do exactly that. From Pres. Barack Obama to congress to our local municipalities, many are encouraging us to choose sides — to choose a single side<\/em> — choosing only one team. It\u2019s as if only one team can win.<\/p>\n

[Sigh.] <\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t believe certain candidates are better. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t believe certain policies are wiser. Wisdom and foolishness exists across all parties.<\/p>\n

I will add that no party\u2019s candidates have cornered the market on integrity, and the Intramuralist will always support a man or woman of integrity before a candidate who shares a preferred party (note: \u00a0I don’t have a preferred gender or ethnicity).<\/em> That\u2019s one of the most significant, gaping, moral loopholes that seemingly intelligent people seem to miss. They fight for their party. They don the favored garb. But they forget that not all people of all parties are good — they aren’t all men and women of integrity; \u00a0they also forget that both Pittsburgh and Baltimore have good people on their team; hence, it\u2019s understandable that some would favor the plays of the Steelers to the Ravens or the Ravens to the Steelers. It’s not so understandable to \u00a0rhetorically vilify an entire team in order to propel oneself or one’s party; such seems a silly exercise for the otherwise intelligent to embrace.<\/p>\n

This past weekend\u00a0Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) joined in a conference call with progressive activists, attempting to help a Democrat keep hold of Iowa\u2019s currently open Senate seat. He said of his\u00a0desired candidate, \u201cBruce Braley is a fine man. He has a good record of public service.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Of his opponent, Joni Ernst, Reid said, “She’s so out of line with mainstream Iowans… she has spent the entire campaign talking about what she did as a young girl, castrating animals.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Friends, please vote for the person of your choice, but don\u2019t be influenced by Reid\u2019s words; they aren\u2019t accurate. They are part of an inflated rhetoric designed to prompt us to put on our partisan garb and root actively against the other team. Democrats and Republicans alike join in this exercise; it\u2019s as if they are attempting to get us to hate the other team — to turn a blind eye to the fact that there may exist candidates of integrity on both sides<\/em> of the ballot.<\/p>\n

This past Sunday the Jacksonville Jaguars visited Cincinnati\u2019s \u201cJungle\u201d on week 9 of the NFL\u2019s regular season. We were (obviously)<\/em> rooting for the Bengals, but we no longer cheered actively against the team from North Florida. We were changed by this past summer, when my family had the opportunity to visit extensively with several of the Jaguar players, including blossoming rookie, star quarterback, Blake Bortles. Blake was very intentional with my sons; he was especially good with my child with special needs. While the Jaguars lost the game Sunday, thanks to Blake, we had no doubt there were people of integrity on both sides.<\/p>\n

Maybe all those talking about today’s ballots should recognize that, too.<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For 17 Sundays most of the nation joins with the likeminded, typically sitting on the family room sofa, sometimes in our favored garb, cheering on our favorite team. Like this past weekend… some rooted for Denver instead of New England, Pittsburgh instead of Baltimore, and St. Louis\u00a0instead of San Francisco. We enthusiastically and loyally cheer … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “sundays & tuesdays”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[468,467],"class_list":["post-3847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","tag-blake-bortles","tag-midterm-elections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3847"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3865,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847\/revisions\/3865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}