Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
What does the media have in common with the first three? Not much.
I am a UFC MMA fan. I tried to fight as a young man and wasn’t very successful, but I think I understand the mind of a fighter. So, I bought the Paramount Plus Sunday Night Fights on the White House lawn. And frankly, the last fight of the night may have been the greatest I’ve ever seen. It was incredible.
Next comes patriotism. It’s how I feel, my love, devotion, or attachment to this country. Or maybe a combination of my childhood, my young adulthood, and now as an old man. Folks, this is one hell of a country. And it did come in loud and proud and standing tall Sunday night.
I watched the fighters come out of the Oval Office and the media being so upset that “the Oval Office was being used as a locker room.”
I don’t recall that same media being so upset when Bill Clinton was using the Map Room, where FDR planned the defeat of the Axis, for his personal bordello.
Did you see CNN having a cow over that? But by God, a UFC fighter has more guts and more heart than all those media idiots combined to walk into a ring to do something none of the doofuses ever did in their lives.
Or the Congressional Medal of Honor awardee in a wheelchair being pushed to the ring by a young GI on one side and a 9/11 hero on the other side.
The Marines were lined up on both sides of the ring and, as the group went by, snapped off a sharp salute.
These media clowns actually thought that Donald Trump told the Marines to salute. If they knew anything about what it took to get awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, they would know four-star generals salute them. But, of course, you would have to know something beyond the capabilities of those newsrooms.
The next big thing of the night was a UFC fighter calling Michelle Obama a man after he won his fight and then shaking Trump’s hand. Once again, I harken them back to Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay. In June of 1961, he met professional wrestler Gorgeous George in Las Vegas. Young Cassius was in town to fight Duke Sabedong.
George was in town to wrestle Freddie Blassie, the King of Men. Both made the media rounds to hype their shows, and they crossed paths. A young Muhammad looked at how many people came to see him fight and how many came to watch George. George sold 13,000 seats that night for five minutes with Freddie.
But he started being a big mouth and a braggart on Las Vegas radio. Ali later said that people came to see him get beat; others came to see him win. Either way, he kept them coming. He taught Ali, who loved pro wrestling as a kid, that was the night he became the Louisville Lip, shooting his mouth off about who he was going to beat. He went from a quiet young man to becoming the greatest of all time.
Sunday night, Josh Hokit simply performed what professional wrestlers have known for decades. People now will come and buy tickets to watch him get beat. He knew it. I know it.
I was trying to keep a record of how many headlines I could find tying Hokit to Donald Trump. I ran out after counting 50.
Trump, like him or not, had nothing to do with that. Hokit knew that if he did that, he would be the center of attention, just like the young Ali understood it. But morning television reports didn’t have a clue.
I had tears in my eyes watching what Jerry Jeff Walker said in one of my favorite songs, “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” where Jerry Jeff sings, “These are heroes of our country,” and asks why they are dressed up like these old men. Screw a bunch of CNN, MSNOW, NBC, CBS, ABC, and morning newspapers and talking heads.
Insiders look at you and say, “Happy birthday, 250 years, United States of America.”
And you’re right. We did come in loud as compared to Jane Fonda and the drag show hosting an alternative event. That shows you exactly where this country is headed.
More next month when we take a look at public schools and what they are teaching Muffy and Buffy.
Happy Birthday, America.
— Peter Boyles
