I was watching the Cubs play baseball the other night, as I often do. I’ve watched the Cubs for over 40 years. There have been ups. There have been downs. Mostly downs. But I never booed “my team”. The other team? Yes! The umpires? Sometimes. But my team? Never. No matter how inept they play (which is most of the time!) I just don’t boo them. So back to the other night. I was watching as the Cubs loaded the bases with nobody out. Incredibly, they were unable to score even one measly run. Now, I’ve seen this before with the Cubs. I groaned. But people at the ballpark booed. Loudly. It bothered me a lot. It seemed unfaithful. It seemed……unquakerly.
So I started wondering: is it ok for Quakers to boo? Because if we believe that “there is that of God in everyone”, aren’t we booing God? Is this at all acceptable? So, if there’s a natural disaster, for example, are we all supposed to go out and boo God?
Then I thought when IS it ok to boo? Well, today I’d like to boo the people in our Congress for some of their decisions and non-decisions. I mean an advisory bill on the Iraq war is like not running out a routine grounder to second. It’s lame. Perhaps we should boo.
So then I imagined that Congress could be moved out of the Capitol and re-located in a baseball stadium. When a member of Congress had to make a speech about a particular bill, he or she would have to come to home plate, and say what they had to say, in front of 50, 000 people! Then people could boo or cheer, depending on their political leanings. Then these folks in Congress would get the message. Maybe. All their votes would be displayed on the huge electronic scoreboard in center field. When a congressperson came up “to bat”, an enormous photo of them would appear on the same scoreboard, showing their past voting records, any interesting scandals, any “conflicts of interest”, etc.
But why stop there? Let’s move the Supreme Court sessions into a ballpark. Clarence Thomas might get booed a lot.
Or we could move those Presidential Press conferences, along with the Rose Garden, into a baseball stadium. How many people would like to boo Mr Bush? Well, a lot, I suppose.
So, IS it ok for Quakers to boo? My feeling is: sometimes! What do YOU think?
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3 comments:
I think it's perfectly OK for Quakers to boo ... as long as they do it in American Sign Language.
And when Dennis Kucinich comes out, the entire stadium full of spectators will sign, "Hooray!"
I like this idea! So I'm wondering how you would say boo in American Sign Language?
Don't know. I know how to say "WOW". I know how to say "You sweet potato a moose." (That's a family joke.)
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