Comments on: Looking Deeper into The Heart of Steeler Nation: A Guest Article https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/ An Introspective Steelers Site Tue, 09 Aug 2016 18:03:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Rebecca https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-533 Wed, 09 Sep 2015 16:10:16 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-533 When I comment there is a line below which lets me choose who I comment as, if you see what I mean. Does that show up for you?

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]]> By: Rebecca https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-532 Wed, 09 Sep 2015 16:08:12 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-532 I’m glad you discovered your post, Earthling. If you ever want to be more definitely identified let me know. And if you want to write anything else I’d be happy to post it : )

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]]> By: roxannafirehall https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-528 Wed, 09 Sep 2015 12:26:02 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-528 Note:

This site operates a little bit weirdly. I do not have a split personality, but my comments show up as MadAnthonyWayne and Roxanna Firehall. I will try to fix that.

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]]> By: roxannafirehall https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-527 Wed, 09 Sep 2015 12:25:21 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-527 Note:

This sue operates a little bit weirdly. I do not have a split personality, but my comments show up as MadAnthonyWayne and Roxanna Firehall. I will try to fix that.

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]]> By: roxannafirehall https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-526 Wed, 09 Sep 2015 12:20:38 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-526 Amazing read. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself. It is a rare and beautiful thing, especially on a football themed website. I hope to see your writing here often. Rebecca and Ivan have created a special place.

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]]> By: Anonymous https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-522 Wed, 09 Sep 2015 08:15:22 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-522 I am the author of this article and I apologize to Ivan and Rebecca. It wasn’t intentional that I didn’t step forward. I had some problem making an account and I can’t even remember why. And then I had a work crisis and assumed my post hadn’t made it to publication. I was blowing off steam, talking to myself (after talking to Ivan in my head for days on the subject of hypocrisy) and didn’t mean to come across as either a bully or a coward. I realize this is belated and everyone has moved on but, again, I want to apologize. I feel as if Ivan and Rebecca held an open house, I ran in, stood on a table and ranted, then ran out the back door.

If I have any excuse, it’s that I’m still haunted by Janay Rice. I am disgusted with myself that I was one among millions who watched that elevator tape. Even just once and wincing the whole time. I watched her get punched by someone she loved. And then she was stripped of her dignity and her pride and finally her right to define herself. Who am I, who are any of us, to claim we don’t believe her or her view of her family? Will Gay was one of the very few public figures who described them as “a family” and his generosity still moves me to do my best to believe him, to believe her. If anyone should have shown support, it should have been Steelers fans. Who point to Ben and Deebo as examples. As far as I have read, Ray Rice was more of model citizen at all other times than either of those two. (And I love Deebo, like Ben, am not claiming it was wrong to point to them as men who got a second chance and made good on it.)

I shouldn’t have made any comments about what went on in that elevator. I make no claim to know if that was the first time he hit her or the 50th, so yes I’m guillty of sounding as if I were trying to minimize it. I meant only that we can’t know someone’s whole history by a few minutes of tape.

But maybe this was my real point. I read an article-or five–that suggested that if you could walk away from the Steelers because they hired Mick Vick, you weren’t a “real fan.” I think we should all be able to walk away from our allegiance to a team for whatever ethical or moral reasons we hold more dear. I keep thinking of that assistant coach at Penn State who saw or heard a young boy being raped in the shower and didn’t do what I hope most of would do–interrupt it, run in and save him, call the police. Instead, he went home and talked to his father and reported it the next day. That’s allegiance to a team over morality and decency. And while that’s an extreme example, I don’t think it’s much different from the convenience of forgiving people who might win your team a game and heaping hatred on someone who won’t.

Enough. As for Steeler Fever’s point, yes, I do see the irony in not really forgiving people who couldn’t forgive. But I don’t think I have any power to forgive or not forgive others. Partly I don’t forgive myself for not being a voice who fought the majority. I believe a lot less in something called the Steeler Way because of how I saw it applied. Yes, there were a few voices calling for decency and forgiveness and I’m sure Fever was among them. But I am less of a Steeler fan, less of a football fan, find it less comfortable to believe myself in the company of people I trust and want to be a part of, because of that outpouring of bile. We had a chance to make something bad–the physical violence of men against those weaker and smaller than themselves–become a “problem” (like drug addiction, alcoholism and mental illness) and instead we, most of us, turned it into an attack on a single man. It didn’t help anyone. It certainly didn’t make any of us better than we are.

Earthling

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]]> By: steeler fever https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-327 Mon, 31 Aug 2015 09:28:45 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-327 The “other Rebecca” is a big fan of Humphrey Bogart. Of course, with my wacky sense of humor I call our dog “Hump” rey Bogart much to her chagrin. Having another night of insomnia as you can tell, not sure what is the problem.

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]]> By: Rebecca https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-323 Mon, 31 Aug 2015 09:07:26 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-323 Well, painting with a broad brush is pretty much what rants are about. But you’re correct, of course—there were plenty of us who didn’t appreciate the characterization of Rice. The trouble is, we tended to be shouted down. Which goes back to the whole thing of the idea of discourse being lost, or at least pretty frayed around the edges.

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]]> By: Rebecca https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-321 Mon, 31 Aug 2015 09:04:05 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-321 So is he a hard-boiled cynic who eventually shows his noble side? (Wikipedia’s description of Bogart’s usual film persona. Although in this case it would be a dog-sona, I suppose.)

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]]> By: steeler fever https://goingdeepsteelers.org/2015/08/30/diving-deeper-into-the-heart-of-hypocrisy-an-inadvertent-guest-article/#comment-320 Mon, 31 Aug 2015 09:00:18 +0000 http://goingdeepsteelers.org/?p=704#comment-320 Testing the new avatar. The dog is named Bogart as in Humprey.

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