Quote of the Day

"Being a a Christian White male over 50 that's raised a family means nothing in today's culture. The sad truth. Period."
-- CBS Sportscaster Tim Brando tweeting about the NBA's Jason Collins coming out

Tim Brando began tweeting the other day about his thoughts that Jason Collins shouldn't be called a "hero" for becoming the first pro athlete in one of the country's four major sports to announce that he is gay.  Mr. Brando said some positive things about having announced games that Jason Collins played in and thinking he's a good guy -- just not a hero.  He wanted to make that clear.  Repeatedly.  Jason Collins is not a hero.  In four tweets -- not a hero.  Got it?  He isn't a hero.

Not shockingly, Mr. Brando has taken some heat for this -- and I suspect some of it has been over the top and nasty -- but someone came to his defense in a cross tweet, which is what brought about the quote above.

To which I think that all feeling human beans must feel great compassion for Tim Brando.  It must be so hard to be an adult Christian White Male in America today.  Only 75% of the U.S. is Christian -- down from 100% in their prayers.  And with there being about 40 million males over 50 -- and since 80% of America is white, that means 32 million -- so three-quarters of that (being Christian) leaves a paltry 24 million members in his "White Christian Males over 50" support group.  Compare that with a whopping six million Jews total in the United States.  You can understand his angst.  We're only 18 million behind.  Perhaps in distress he can call on the additional 200 million other Christians in the U.S.

(By the way, that Tweet of Defense for Tim Brando read -- "I'm not agreeing with anyone here. But why does Collins get praised for sharing his views, yet @timbrando can't share his?"  Just for the sake of oh, basic accuracy, Jason Collins did not share his "views."  He stated a fact.  And he got praised because he was the first one in U.S. sports history to do so.  I'm just going to guess that Tim Brando is not the first Christian White Male who shared his "view" that he gets no respect.  Hey, Rodney Dangerfield made a career doing that...)

Finally, Tim Brando is more than entitled to his views, and I don't think he expressed something SO terrible, just that he didn't think it through well, and it missed the mark, and therefore came across to many as thoughtless.  But in his many tweets about the word "hero," he kept referring to the Real Dictionary Meaning of the word "hero" and saying that that is the only thing he's writing about because, as he tweeted, "The Dictionary matters to me."

Well, my dictionary, WordWeb, has as its first definition of "hero" -- "A man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength."  And the third definition is -- "Someone who fights for a cause."

Those both seem to fit Jason Collins just fine.  I have no idea what "Dictionary" Tim Brando is using.  However, given that he capitalizes it (this is not nitpicking -- after all, we're told by Mr. Brando that words "matter") and given that he threw in his rant about not getting respect as a White Christian Male -- I get the impression that Tim Brando is less concerned with words than he is with his Bible.  And that's the "Dictionary" he's referring to. 

Whether I'm right, and whether Jesus would agree with him is another matter.