February 16, 2007

By Stan Dyer

In a recent radio interview, former NBA player Tim Hardaway was asked, "How do you deal with a gay teammate?" Hardaway's unequivocal response included comments such as, "I wouldn't want him on my team," "Or I ask for him to get traded," and "Well, you know I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people." Hardaway's comments may have shocked many people, but his words said much more than he intended. In a way, his words were a comment on our society and he sure said a mouthful.

Imagine the time is 1947 and you have just been informed that Jackie Robinson is joining your "all-white" baseball team. Take Hardaway's comments, substitute some racial slur in place of gay people and the situation begins to look familiar. Then you have to wonder how Mel Gibson would react to a Jewish teammate, or Dan Issel would welcome a player from Mexico City? How many other present players agree with Hardaway, but are too politically correct to be so frank? We see the tip of the iceberg, but how much true hatred lies below the waterline? Being politically correct is nice, but that alone will not change what is in a person's heart.

Any person can put on his best clothes, visit his chosen house of worship and profess sanctity. Yet, unless that person hears, heeds and allows the message of peace to reach his soul, his heart remains dressed in a black suit of hatred. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that someday we would know men by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. That dream extends to women, too, and all races, all nationalities, all creeds, all religions and even sexual preferences.

To take it further, it also applies to people we think are ugly, people we think are fat, people we think dress strangely and people who wear their hair differently. It even applies to people we perceive as ignorant, such as Tim Hardaway. We, who have little right to judge any, cannot judge others simply based on their outward appearances and our past experiences. It just does not make sense to hate someone, anyone, you have never met. Even if you had a bad experience with one similar, different person in the past, you cannot logically apply that experience to all you meet in the future.

It is good, it is nice, and it is polite to be politically correct, but if you do not change what is in your heart, it is all meaningless. As long as we allow biased, bigoted and ungrounded hatred to blacken our hearts, we might as well hire Tim Hardaway as our spokesperson, and that's saying a mouthful.