Don’t you hate it when the referee steals the game from your team? A crucial call on the goal line robs your team of a touchdown when you can clearly see that your hero was over the white line. Or the opposing player was called safe at home when you could tell that he was out by a mile.
Sometimes the referees mess up. They are only human. More often it is our perception, we just hate to see our hopes dashed, our championships deferred (I am writing from Chicago, Cubs territory) and our wants and desires denied.
But some people need help from the referee in order to win. Activist jurists and politicians have judged themselves capable of rewriting the rules for a cause. Several examples are at hand today.
Norm Coleman, Republican candidate for senate in Minnesota keeps winning the recounts, but the Democrat, Al Franken, throws the red flag after every review, waiting for the refs to “get it right.” Like Al Gore in 2000, Franken can’t seem to accept that he actually didn’t score enough points, yet he is being accommodated in statistically suspicious recounts.
In 2000, the people of California voted to affirm marriage as one man and one woman, but a few judges and the mayor of San Francisco put on striped shirts, blew their little whistles and made an illegal procedure call on the people.
So Californians voted yes on Proposition 8, amending the state’s constitution. Gay activists, somewhat stereotypically, had a hissy fit. They want the refs to ignore the rules, declare the game over and hand the victory to them. The rules are not to their liking.
Immigration is another game out of control. Michael Medved, in his excellent book “The Ten Big Lies About America,” writes about immigration and assimilation. He points out that the percentage of foreign born baseball players in America is huge, yet baseball thrives because “the overriding factors of common purpose (playing to win) and clearly defined rules (enforced by umpires) take precedence over any difference in culture and values.” I would add that the umpire does not get to look for a “deeper meaning” in the penumbra of the rule book.
American born quarterback Anthony Calvillo lost this year’s Grey Cup (Canada’s Super Bowl) in part because he and his team only managed one touchdown. Should Calvillo have run to the referee demanding that he get four downs, rather than the CFL