The ‘King’ Decides

There was much ado tonight about the decision of LeBron James on which basketball team he will play with next year. In fact ESPN dedicated the night on TV to the decision. Five cities were dejected by his choice and one rejoiced.

I listened to TV in the kitchen in the background as I washed, cleaned and dried a new batch of basil and mint from the garden. When it came around to LeBron’s live announcement I thought wouldn’t it be nice if this “King of Basketball” would say something first about a moral issue like the wars our country are fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan or about the large sums of money we spend on war compared with what we spend on education. But I guess we do not mix our sports and politics (what moral issues are called) any more than we mix religion and politics. Would a minister or priest dare bring up a political issue, besides abortion, in Church?

During the patriotic holidays I think our founding fathers, like George Washington or John Adams, would be sad to hear how we separate all things, sports, politics, morality, religion into their own boxes. When they wrote the amendments to the Constitution they said “freedom of religion” not “freedom from religion”. I think they would have considered sports, morality and politics in the same light. There can unity in diversity and conflict of principles can lead to growth and understanding.

Could there be another athlete today like Mohamed Ali, who said no to the military draft and the war as being against his religion and thus lost his heavyweight boxing title? I doubt it. We have become a nation of individualism where paying lower taxes on all things but war is more meaningful than the common good. LeBron kept saying that he made his decision on what was best for him. I guess that is the American way. Where is Ali when we need him? Can we work together and made a decision for the common good?

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