By Matt Rooney
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Let’s be clear, Save Jerseyans: while I’m obviously 100% in agreement with the notion that all human beings matter and are deserving of dignity and respect, I’m also not willing to pretend that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization is anything other than what it is: an unapologetically Marixst front group cynically and manipulatively using race as a cover story for its agenda. To make matters worse, not only is BLM openly anti-police, but one of its co-founders is an open supporter of notorious New Jersey cop killer Joanne Chesimard. There’s always a Garden State angle. This angle is particularly ugly.
This is still (mostly) a free country, of course. You have a right to be wrong and support bad people pushing worse agendas provided you do it in a way that doesn’t impinge upon another citizen’s rights or property; BLM rioters looting and burning storefronts would be an obvious example of what’s not acceptable for anyone who doesn’t think this is easy enough to understand. Cancel culture is another that pushes the boundaries of what civil society can tolerate without falling apart.
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“Boundaries” is where I’d like to take this conversation. The Manchester Board of Education absolutely made the right decision when it recently denied a 17-year hold Manchester High School basketball player’s request to wear a BLM warm-up shirt. You may have read or heard about it since it’s the sort of deliciously divisive story the Media loves to amplify these days because it drives clicks.
The board advanced the exact right argument when the high schooler in question, who is going to attend UNC on a scholarship, took her request to rep BLM on the court to the board. “[T]his is a school function, it represents the whole school when you come on the court, you represent the whole school and we feel you need to have the school’s name and student’s name only,” the board reportedly told the young lady. That’s not only factually correct but it’s also an important lesson for this youth athlete, her teammates, and young Americans everywhere.
Yes, you have a First Amendment right to speak your mind. Challenge authority. Question policy. God Bless America.
But there are some important caveats. The First Amendment contrains the government, not private employers. Other people also have the same right and may use it to disagree with you, and they certainly have a right to not be spoken for by you. When you’re an athlete or an employee of any organization, you’re playing or working for more than yourself. I’m an attorney. I represent a diverse array of clients. Some of my clients agree with my political views. Some do not. Most of them would not be happy if I wore a “Democracts Suck” shirt to their next court hearing.
Most places of employment in the United States have rules to this effect. It’s all a part of growing up.
None of what I’m saying was controversial until about 5 minutes ago, Save Jerseyans. Americans used to respect these unspoken boundaries which, I’d argue, helped keep our society intact. No more. We’re constantly at war with one another in part because we refuse to respect one another’s implied right to quiet enjoyment. The politicization of everything is destroying sports, church, communities even families, with many notable examples eliciting public scrutiny in 2020. Everyone believes their cause is the only one that matters, and if you refuse to talk about it when they want to, how they want to, you’re clear a [insert applicable variation of the word “bigot” here]. It’s a 5-alarm fire, folks. A disaster for our political discourse.
The next generation needs to do better. We’re all counting on them to do better. Our country’s future depends upon them doing better. I wish it’d start with the parents, but if it takes a school board to take a stand for sanity in 2021… so be it.
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Save Jersey’s Founder and Blogger-in-Chief, MATT ROONEY is a nationally-noted and respected New Jersey political commentator. When he’s not on-line, radio or television advocating for conservative reform and challenging N.J. power-brokers, Matt is a practicing attorney at the law firm of DeMichele & DeMichele in Haddon Heights (Camden County).
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