Iowa Quarterback Ricky Stanzi did and the Daily Iowan published what was pretty much a hatchet job on him for it (behold, said attempt to direct hatchet towards knees) and blatantly missed the mark.
First of all: he plays football. He's not running for Governor, he's not running for high office, he PLAYS FOOTBALL. And he LOVES AMERICA. Why does it matter if he says it out loud?
Second of all: subjecting the remarks of a Division I Quarterback to the politically correct psychobabble of academia is an exercise is preposterous ridiculousness only worthy of the Daily Iowan. Some highlights:
It's also important to note Stanzi speaks from a position of societal privilege. Even before he was the starting quarterback for a Division I football team, Stanzi's status as a straight, white male guaranteed he would be subjected to few of the social and structural impediments that women, minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens often have to overcome.
and... then there's this...
At its best, patriotism is a deep-seated love for the values and founding principles of one's country. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. was a true patriot, rhetorically rooting his heroic fight against socioeconomic injustice and white supremacy in the basic precepts of American democracy. He didn't tell African Americans to "take it on the chin" or just "keep moving forward"; King marched, spoke, and went to jail to ensure blacks would be accorded the same rights as white citizens.
Whoa. When did Martin Luther King Jr. show up? When did this become about civil rights? I'm very confused now. I don't think Stanzi was hating on MLK or Civil Rights, was he? Well, what did he actually say?
Stanzi recently told the Gazette his patriotism stems from his upbringing: "There was always an American flag hanging up in the house." He then went on to denigrate the "guys walking around in dresses" and the "hippies" that hang around the Pedestrian Mall. "There's the Ped Mall area down there, right in the middle. Those people are going nowhere. Those people are the people who don't like America," the senior quarterback said. Stanzi also said, "The people who are doing things right and working hard, they don't complain because there's no point in complaining. When something happens to you, you take it on the chin and keep moving forward."
Might he be saying that the denizens of the Ivory Tower of Academia might not be quite as patriotic as other Americans? I think he was... and I think there's a certain amount of truth to that. Not to say that liberal residents of a college town aren't patriotic- there's just more a tendency in liberal thinking these days to denigrate the country, especially when Republicans are in charge. Patriotism then is not at all about love of country, but about political gain.
As for the rest, well, the Protestant work ethic of persevering and working your ass off is one of the things that made America great...
The punchline to all of this, is of course Stanzi's admission that he didn't even vote in the last elections. So, why are we writing this editorial again? What was the point? Stanzi wasn't trying to be political- he just loves his country. If he was trying to be political, then some of the points of the editorial would be valid. But there's little to no evidence indicating that he was being political.
He plays football and he loves America. What's the problem? Well, apparently it's that he's a straight, white male who loves America. The Daily Iowan thus proving nearly all of Stanzi's points in one neatly wrapped editorial bundle.
(This becomes even more hysterically laughable when you vote in the little poll they posted on their website, asking if people had a problem with RIcky Stanzi's patriotic comments... by a margin of 3-1 the response was an overwhelming NO.)
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