L&T Publisher Earl Watt
When it comes to the Kansas City Chiefs I’ve always been pretty neutral. I’m not an AFC guy.
My team has always been the Philadelphia Eagles from the time I’ve been in second grade even though I grew up right here in Kansas.
Thanks to the miracle of modern broadcasting (or at least it was modern when I was a kid. Now the network system is “legacy.” I am getting old) I was able to watch teams from around the country, and I gave my loyalty and support to the Eagles.
The Eagles and Chiefs have no real history as competitors until recently. The two have split a pair of Super Bowls in recent years. We lost to the Chiefs in 2023 but won this year.
Of course I was elated with the win. The Eagles have won two Super Bowls since 2017.
Recently, Kansas City has had success and has won three in the past few years including a very close game against the Eagles, 38-35 with a game-winning field goal to break the tie in the final few seconds.
But the Eagles won this year 40-22.
And I had respect for both sides when we won and when we lost, but some of the Kansas City faithful have been very bad sports online to the point that I have developed a negative feeling to the program overall.
It shouldn’t be that way. The players are talented, and I actually want Coach Andy Reid to have all the success he can find, just not against the Eagles.
But with all the childish retorts and blame games and trying to point out a play here or there after the Eagles were ahead 34-0 as a “missed call,” it will be hard for me to want anything good to happen for the Chiefs moving forward.
That same response is also common in our politics today.
Even when I try to practice decorum with those who see the world differently than I do, their response is one that makes me want to never support anything they would ever propose.
It also tempts me to respond in kind. I try not to get embroiled in such games. As the saying goes, “Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
I do try to have a dialogue with those who see the world differently, not in the vain of trying to convince them that I am right and they are wrong, but to see there is another perspective to the world outside of their own.
I fully understand that there are those who disagree with my world view. That does not make them evil, and I am not their mortal enemy, either.
What I try to espouse is that we don’t have to agree to get along. There are times we will not agree, and we have to refrain from calling the other side fascists, communists, Nazis, etc.
By the way, the word “Nazi” is derived from the German words National Socialists. It is the complete opposite of what I support and what others like me support, but it is much easier to hate someone who has a different economic plan than you to simply call them a Nazi. Or racist. Or misogynist.
We hear of actions within the church that actually chase people away. Instead of showing love and compassion someone decides to play the role of deity and try to pass eternal judgement on someone’s soul.
And when they do, they chase someone from the church forever.
Not necessarily from God, mind you. But in some cases they do, and I wonder how we will have to answer for that when we may have been the cause of chasing someone away form salvation.
The stakes in politics aren’t that high, but the way our leadership on both sides talk to each other and about each other, it’s no wonder compromise is almost impossible.
When I try to interact with those on the other side, you can almost put a clock on how long it will take before someone throws out a claim of being a racist, a Nazi or a Putin sympathizer.
And any attempt at goodwill is shot. How are you supposed to work with people who want to call you such hateful names?
I’ve got a thick skin. You don’t work in the news industry for 34 years without developing a shell for such things.
But overall these people online think they are accomplishing something positive for their side, and both sides do it.
They aren’t. To the contrary, they are helping the opposition.
And I am less interested in listening to the other side about anything when they can only offer insults, foul language and believe themselves to be on a higher moral plane.
There are good people on both sides who want to see the country succeed. Very few of them are in elected office at the national level. Only the haters, bomb throwers and hyper partisans get to be on the news networks.
Senator Pat Roberts stopped by the office years ago and explained to me how work actually gets done in Washington.
“You won’t see me doing a lot of interviews on television,” he said. “That’s now how anything gets done. While those people are in front of the cameras, some of us are meeting together to work on bills that work for both sides. I can’t get everyone on my side, and they can’t get everyone on their side, but together we can get enough to get something done.”
That’s how it used to work. But we are letting the political jihadists set the agenda and degrade the opposition.
And we wonder why we can’t get along.
Until we recognize and respect our differences, we will never move forward.
