My PC was on the fritz for more than a week, so it was hard for me to keep up with all the juicy February headlines. So many blog-worthy things have happened since Super Bowl Sunday: Whitney Houston died, Rick Santorum became a viable candidate for president, and America became obsessed with Jeremy Lin. I just bought a new laptop and I’m back. So what better way to tie all of these things together into one blog, than to give you an outrageous headline like the one above?

Whitney Houston
Let me start by saying that the death of Whitney Houston was indeed tragic. She was beautiful, she put out hits, and she had what I would consider one of the best voices in music. Whitney was a true American icon. However, Whitney’s likely drug induced death was treated with the same sympathy of that for a cancer or car crash victim. I’m not saying we should trounce on Whitney’s (or Amy Winehouse’s or Michael Jackson’s) grave, but my sense is that when these artistic geniuses die, the media and their spacey celebrity friends treat them like martyrs instead of less dignified perpetrators of their own demise.

One thing’s for sure – no one will ever top her performance of the Star Spangled Banner before Super Bowl XXV. Every celebrity with that awesome privilege should emulate that rendition of the national anthem. But they won’t. They will try to jazz it up, rock it out, or give it soul, and in the process, they will completely ruin it. Whitney’s version on that Super Bowl Sunday will always be the most memorable anthem at a modern day American sporting event.

Jeremy Lin
On February 4th after nine uneventful games of garbage time and riding the pine, Jeremy Lin was forced into the starting lineup for the New York Knicks because of a combination of injuries and ineffective play from guards Iman Shumpert and Toney Douglas. Since that fateful day, the Knicks are 9-1, Lin is a global phenomenon, and Sports Illustrated hasn’t had a cover without him.

I would like Jeremy Lin if he was on just about any other team but the Knicks. He’s out of nowhere, pretty to watch, enthusiastic, and a Harvard graduate. But alas, I am a Celtics fan, and I see Knicks fans, players, and others related to the organization as mindless phonies.

Maybe it’s not Lin or even the Knicks that rub me the wrong way. It’s the hype. He is just an example of America’s pathetic obsession with fad and novelty. We have no patience for realistic perspective and judgment. Lin has played a whopping total of 10 games as a starter, and only 2 of those games have been against decent teams (Dallas and Los Angeles). In a month the guy could very well be back on the bench, and in 5 years be a trivia question. The Knicks beat Atlanta last night, a team which is an absolute M.A.S.H. unit right now. It will be interesting to see how they fare against Miami tonight.

Floyd Mayweather is not a bright guy, or even a somewhat respectable guy, but I don’t think he was way out of line for implying in his Tweets that some of the attention Lin gets is because he’s Asian. I don’t think Lin’s race plays a conscious role in his popularity with people, but it might play a subconscious role. People are naturally captivated by novelty. And to see races, ethnicities, and demographic groups excel in fields in which they are not traditionally represented is absolute novelty. This captivation is fairly innocent in that it actually plays off our desire to expose race as a non-factor for success. This novelty says anyone can succeed in any field. Nevertheless, it is not all together healthy either. This captivation feeds into the overall racial super-sensitivity that is absolutely distorting America’s reality and destroying our national dialogue.

An editor for ESPN was fired, and an announcer for MSG was reprimanded, for using the oh-so-colloquial and ubiquitous phrase “chink in the armor” when referring to some of Lin’s or the Knick’s weaknesses. These guys both say they have used that phrase hundreds of times to describe a team’s or player’s weakness, and didn’t mean anything by it. And I think I believe them. If race shouldn’t be an issue, then why are we looking for a racial slur in what is a pretty common expression? It reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry asks an Asian postman where there might be a Chinese restaurant in the area. The guy gets really offended even though Jerry asked only because a postman might naturally know the area well.

Rick Santorum
This fall, before the Republican primary season began, Rick Santorum was 2% in the polls. He was a second tier candidate at best. But just a couple of weeks ago, the former Senator from Pennsylvania won 3 state contests in one night to catapult himself into the national lead.

The Republican establishment and Tea Party types alike are somewhat dismissive of his success, often focusing on Romney’s campaign shortcomings instead. It seems they don’t think Santorum can beat Obama, even though he probably has the best chance to win the swing states that will decide the election. The Right also has a longstanding tradition of presidential candidate seniority, and it is almost as if they have willed Mitt Romney the throne. The Left is dismissive of his campaign because they hate him. His open moral convictions are bottles of liberal ipecac.

Most in the media attribute his success to a surge in voters’ dissatisfaction with Romney or Gingrich. But I am not that cynical. Santorum has a realness and substance that few other politicians have. He knows the issues, is even tempered, and unapologetic about his beliefs. This is in stark contrast to Obama and Romney, who will say anything for approval with little detail about the issue, or Newt, who at times seems impractical and erratic. Santorum has some sand too. He was part of the Gang of Seven, which exposed corruption in the House during the 90’s, and he was a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is great experience for a Commander In Chief.

The question now is can Santorum take the heat of being the front runner? Judging by the last couple of weeks I would say maybe not. He did not handle himself well in the news, nor in the most recent debate.

In the media, Santorum is too forthright in defending his personal beliefs, which are regularly taken out of context, and are often independent of his belief in policy. They are not necessarily uncommon beliefs either: no different than those of his Republican rivals, no different than those of most practicing Catholics and evangelicals. But in ultra-secular Christian-phobic America, they are the stuff of heresy. And because he is open about it, the media eats it up.

During the debate last night Santorum was horrible. Instead of defending himself unapologetically and rationally, he got flustered and lost in rhetoric. It will be interesting to see after the poor debate performance whether or not he will remain a serious contender. My bet is that he will be. I think Lin will stick around too. He’s good, there’s no doubt about it. Yet he just hasn’t proven to be THIS good. Rarely anyone does.

 

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Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government, sports // 3 Comments »