Mayor Kevin Johnson (D-Sacramento), a former NBA All Star point guard for Phoenix Suns, endorsed NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's lifetime ban of Donald Sterling for taped racist comments made in private to V. Stiviano.
Johnson confidently asserted that the swift and severe reaction to reprehensible comments shows what sports can do.
However, it is questionable if sports allows people to talk about real issues, as history is instructive. During the French Revolution, the goal of establishing a "Republic of Virtue" was thwarted by the mob rule from Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety which oversaw the "Reign of Terror" when those accused of being "enemies of the revolution" were purged and eliminated.
As deplorable as Sterling's utterances sound, they were made in private and did not correspond to how he conducted affairs as the L.A. Clippers' owner. Sterling was accorded little to no due process as NBA Commissioner Silver swiftly acted to politically correct calls for action and deprive an "owner" the ability to attend, much less run, his business.
Does this sort of mob rule for political correctness encourage an honest exchange of views?
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