Play Bridge Not War
It was a spontaneous gesture, “a moment of levity” during the national anthem at the awards banquet when the American Bridge champions held up the cup and one of the players also held up a quickly scribbled sign on the back of a menu that read “We did not vote for Bush.”
By e-mail, angry bridge players have accused the women of “treason” and “sedition.” The United States Bridge Federation is angry and worried about losing sponsors and upsetting people. The players we’re stunned by the fierceness of the reaction.
“What we were trying to say, not to Americans but to our friends from other countries, was that we understand that they are questioning and critical of what our country is doing these days, and we want you to know that we, too, are critical,” Ms. Greenberg said, stressing that she was speaking for herself and not her six teammates.
The league wants apologies, bans from play for a year and 200 hours of community service. These are professional players so this is basically cutting their income off for a year. I’m comparing this in my mind to football and baseball players’ punishments that have recently made the news for using drugs and dogfighting. I think we’ve got our priorities wrong.
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I am always amazed by the “treason” response to an act of free speech. The first amendment was written specifically to allow people to criticize the government. While saying “We did not vote for Bush” is not exactly criticism, it is still allowed under the Constitution. I guess some people just have to have their knee-jerk reaction to free speech.
Yes it is interesting the proportion of punishment that a simple as the players say moment of levity brought about as opposed to players doping to play better or betting and other crimes that undermine the game itself.
I don’t really think this event threatens the any aspect of the game of bridge. It seems like a written apology maybe that they have to pay to put in a big paper should be enough, the rest is just jingoism.
I was raised that if there were a difference of opinions in my home, we keep it in the family. I believe these women know that they have freedom of speach, but should limit it to America. They are an embarrassment to our country. If the french are so in love with them and they with the french, MOVE THERE!
I also believe they should be kicked off the team. They represent America and I, for one am not being represented.
Follow up on my comment. I realize I misspelled speech and apologize….I’m quite angry.
Sue, what are you angry about? That somebody from your country chose to state publicly that they didn’t vote for your President? What do you mean “limit it to America”? Are you saying that if you are overseas, you can never criticise your country in front of your hosts? I think you need to revisit the definition of ‘free speech’, because I’m pretty sure it doesn’t say ‘free speech only when I’m not saying something about how I exercised my democratic right to vote, when in another country’.
I am surprised that there are people that still admit to voting FOR Mr. Bush and are proud of having done so. I remember after the 2004 elections that I used to see at least one pro-Bush bumper sticker at any given moment on my commute to work. Now I probably see an average of one per day. I would like to think that fact is indicative of the number of people that realized their mistake and are now ashamed to admit to it.
As for Sue, I get irritated by people that say things along the lines of “if you don’t like my point of view, move to another country”. I would say in response, if you don’t like our Constitution, YOU should move to another country. There are plenty of countries that do not have any concept of “freedom of speech” for you to choose from.