Back in the early 1970s Richard Nixon became obsessed with his enemies. Such obsession led to his eventual disgrace and downfall, and we now view him as a petty little man who destroyed himself.
So today on Twitter great sportswriter Joe Posnanski mentioned that the NRA publicly keeps an enemies list, and that both my Kansas City Royals and Kansas City Chiefs are on it. What??? I've never particularly thought of the Royals or Chiefs as anything more than poorly-run franchises whom I still continue to support for whatever reason. But I continued to look at this list and wonder, hey, these people are all anti-gun? Really? I'm sure that the gun nut advocates are not surprised to see the major networks and newspapers on there, but Silver Dollar City? Former NFL quarterback Doug Flutie? Hallmark cards? Yep, they are all there, and many, many more.
I'm a bit sad that somehow they have not put me on their enemies list yet, but then again I'm just a small-town preacher who isn't big enough to be on their radar. That's fine...I don't need to have people writing me and telling me I'm un-American because I have a different perspective on the second amendment than they do. Maybe someday I'll be fortunate enough to receive death threats.
But what I'm really interested in is the fascinating idea of having an enemies list and keeping it in a very public place. Who does this? Who sits around and compiles the names of hundreds of people and organizations who do not like you? If this was a person, we'd think him/her to be petty and paranoid all at the same time. What do we then think about the NRA?
The NRA exists because they stand against the growing trend of public opinion about guns. That's fine, we need those who will stand up and take a different road, even when that road leads to disaster. That's part of the public debate. Freedom means we need NAMBLA, it means we need euthanasia advocates, it means we need both the John Birch society and American communists. Just as we needed those who would advocate against Jim Crow laws when they were common, or just as we need people now who will prick our consciences about the homeless when we'd rather have them out of mind, we need somebody who will stand up and say that guns are not the sole reason there is so much violence. They need to keep speaking up even though the more they talk, the more many of us continue to run from their position.
But when you get to the point that you obsess about how many people don't like you, you've shown yourself to be nuts. NRA, welcome to Crazytown.
