I am an avid San Francisco Giants fan. Ask my children. One of my sons tells of walking up the front steps during baseball season to hear me inside giving out a pained, guttural moan. His thought was either she is dying or the Giants were having a disastrous outing. I was fine even if the Giants were killing me.
The other night when we were playing the Dodgers, we were up 8 to 2 – yes, up 8 to 2 against the 1st place archrival Dodgers . . . then we fell apart. I sat there in utter disbelief watching the Dodgers claw their way back in the 9th. We ended up winning by a score of 8 to 7 but my heart was far worse for the wear. I chocked up the horribly fitful night of sleep to the stress of the game.
Yes, I take the Giants seriously – sort of. I know it is just a game – for me, anyway. Winning may bring significant financial rewards to players, clubs, sponsors. But, for me, it is just the thrill of the win.
I guess others feel differently, though. Recently I read a jaw dropping story about death threats being made after Houston pitcher Lance McCullers, Jr. had a bad outing.
That’s not even the crazy part.
The truly astonishing thing is the death threats were directed at his two young daughters. Yes, people were threatening to murder his daughters because he didn’t pitch well that night.
What on earth is the matter with these people?
I can’t think of any justifiable reason to threaten a baseball player, let alone his children, because of his performance on the mound.
But, this is the world we live in. People hide in anonymity, emboldened by a cloak of invisibility. While I am sure this is not a phenomenon exclusive to the current administration, the president’s style seems to amplify the hate and its rhetoric.
Take for example, the two Georgia election workers who became a target after conspiracy theories, amplified by Trump (who used their names), falsely implicated them in a supposed effort to steal the 2020 election. The women were eventually awarded a multi-million-dollar settlement from Rudy Giuliani for his part in spreading these lies.
I don’t know how the two women feel now. My guess, though, is not great. Their lives had been reduced to tatters – living in utter fear of physical violence and death 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Why? Because some fools believed lies and decided to take matters into their own hands. Vigilantism is what that is usually called. Not only is vigilantism wrong in its own right, these people were terrorizing innocent women.
All sorts of questions come to mind – like what on earth is the matter with these people? What is going through someone’s mind when they threaten harm? Would they do it if they had to identify themselves?
The scarier question is “Are they serious or just getting a thrill out of the menace?” And, that is what really terrorizes people. Can you imagine going through life wondering if the lunatic who threatened to stab your daughters to death in public really means it?
The laws can be a bit murky on the criminality of online threats. It appears California takes online threats seriously. That doesn’t mean, though, it is easy to prosecute. You need proof. More importantly, you need to know who to prosecute.
I’d like to think the answer is as simple as getting one’s facts straight (see “Just the Facts”), But, it is not that easy (as if that were easy). Afterall, those who threatened McCullers had the facts.
While I would love stronger laws to curb online threats, what we really need is a deep reflection into who we have become – a nation full of not just hate but unrestrained hate.
If I had the opportunity to change one aspect of President Trump’s term(s) in office, it would be to eradicate the hate that emanates from him and his administration. There is no “united” in Trump’s United States. We are a fragile web being pulled apart by a Trump-fueled explosion of hate.
The hate I see today has become an ivy plant that has sneakily entwined its vines into our lives enveloping us, and we are so lost in the moment we don’t see it is wrapping itself around our necks. And, unless we choke it out, it will eventually choke us to death.