Founding fathers, umpires, and the Supreme Court

words by Maruta posted September 13, 2005 - 2:24am

What I like about the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution was our leaders were at one time able to frame all these ideas without once ever referring to sports.

The death penalty. The right to life. The right to vote. The right to die. The right to free speech. The very fabric of our society. A document we take an oath to uphold and defend with our very lives.

Sports? Umpires? Is it such a "game" to these solons?

I guess it is.


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ERA and Football
Comment by Maruta posted September 13, 2005 - 2:43am

The ERA - equal rights will not be abridged on account of sex.

It came close to becoming a Constitutional amendment, but it needed a few more states to ratify it. I won't go into the details, but instead of baseball, football was cited.

We asked for (and got) an extension on the deadline for ratification, but you know what the opponents said?

If it were a football game and the losing team asked to play an extra quarter, that would be breaking the rules.

Well, guys, we aren't playing football; we're talking about human rights.

Sports are kind of a ritualized "trial by combat" and thankfully many have gone on to see a deeper meaning in the law than that. Anyone who has gone before a judge knows that a judge is more than the courtroom umpire.

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artemisia's picture
ritualized "trial by combat"
Comment by artemisia posted September 13, 2005 - 11:32am

and if they aren't using sports metaphors they are using war metaphors.


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The Umpire metaphor is limited
Comment by Maruta posted September 13, 2005 - 2:31pm

A game has well defined rules pertaining to a "court." But that's where the similarity ends. An umpire is an observer of the laws of physics. The laws of physics are not usually involved when dealing with human rights.

For example, while an umpire might call a game on account of rain, no umpire on the field ever declared a game "illegal" because there were no blacks on a team. They were playing in the Negro Leagues at the time.

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kactus's picture
more sports analogies
Comment by kactus posted September 13, 2005 - 3:12pm

don't forget "the blame game." Heh.


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