The First Lady has invited several people to sit in her box during tonight’s State of the Union including survivors of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the Moore, Oklahoma fire chief. Her most high profile guest, however, will be former NBA player Jason Collins, who became the first professional athlete to announce that he is gay.
TheBlaze reports Collins played for six NBA teams over his 12-year professional career averaging less than three points per game. After his announcement in April, President Obama called Collins to say he “couldn’t be prouder” of him.
While Glenn has no problem with Collins or the First Lady’s decision to invite him to the State of the Union, Glenn did question what qualifies as ‘courage’ in today’s society.
“Can I ask you a question? I mean we're not living in Iran. We're living in the West. We haven't erased hatred by any stretch of the imagination. But… what makes people heroic is when they stand up against power, [and] the power in this country is all progressive,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “What I'm saying is: You're not being a hero really anymore coming out and saying, you know, ‘I don't believe in God.’ There's nobody in power that is going to silence you.”
Glenn explained that he views Collins coming out of the closet much in the way he view the election of President Obama – it is a milestone, but that fact alone should not dictate the conversation.
“I feel the same way [about Collins] that I did when the President was elected. I don't know anybody who is racist. I know that racists exist. I know that racism is a human disease,” Glenn said. “And it was a cool milestone that the President is black and he was elected president of the United States. That's a cool milestone. Good. We checked that box. We got it. It shows America doesn't care about the color of your skin.”
“[Some could claim] Martin Luther King's idea of ‘judge me by the content of my character, not the color of my skin’ [box] has been checked. I don't think it has been, quite honestly, because I don't think we judge the man on the content of the character,” he continued. “I think a lot of people voted for him for the color of his skin. A lot of white people said, ‘You know what? I'm not racist. I'm for him.’ I don't think they even know his character.”
We used to judge people based on the content of their character, but we have become too concerned with checking off the politically correct box to really judge a person’s performance objectively.
“We're starting to judge people now not on the content of their character, we're judging people on: Can we check the right box,” Glenn explained. “Are you pro-abortion? Are you homosexual? Are you black? Are you a minority of some sort? Are you a protected class of some sort? Because if you are, well, then you're in. This is your time, I guess. That's what it's being made to feel like… [But] most Americans don't think that way.”
As society has evolved, in many cases what was once considered courageous or against the grain is now widely accepted.
“The ones who are really truly heroes and brave now are the ones who peacefully stand up and say: God bless everybody. I'm totally fine with whatever, but let's judge people on the content of their character. Not their sexuality. Not the color of their skin. Not any of that,” Glenn concluded. “Let's judge people on the content of their character. And I have a right to disagree. You're a hero when you have a lot to lose by standing up… What's courageous is somebody who goes against the grain.”