Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz: Why Liberals Should Support the Sonics | PubliCola

Council,
Mr. Pelz makes a valuable point about elitism. Basketball is an urban game that attracts a broad spectrum of people, from all over the city, and all over the world, from kids on the playground to the President of the United States.
It might not be the opera, symphony, or ballet, but it is a cooperative and athletic art for a great many people, including myself.
Please approve this arena proposal.

The article says, in part:

I love Seattle and I love liberals, but sometimes we are so politically correct that we ask the wrong questions. For instance: "What is more important, sports—or schools or libraries or health care for the poor or clean water or justice for all?" Of course sports is "less important," especially if you are asking the wrong question.

At that point we liberals get close to crossing the line from educated enlightenment to snobbery or elitism. We call for investment in the leisure- time priorities of the well-educated, but not always of working people.

As liberals, we pride ourselves in caring about people more than the right wing does. We should be  a city that respects the desires and dreams of the child who falls asleep clutching a book, as well as the child who falls asleep clutching a basketball.

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