Exercise Your Faith in Democracy
January 7, 2008 on 2:49 pm | In Uncategorized |In my opinion, these are particularly bleak times for the state of democracy. In Michigan’s upcoming state primary, for example, before you are allowed to vote, you must declare a party affiliation.
After you have been subsequently pigeon-holed, if you declare Democrat, you have four Democrat candidates to choose from because the Michigan Democrats broke ranks and moved their primary up a few months, against the national party’s wishes. At any rate, as a form of punishment, all of the major candidates, except Hillary Clinton, chose not to campaign in Michigan or allow their names to be included on the primary ballot.
Realistically, your choices are limited to: voting uncommitted, voting for Hillary, or declaring yourself Republican, even though you may ACTUALLY be a Democrat, and voting for a candidate that will hurt the Republicans. Is this democracy?
At any rate, my belief in democracy. although shaken, is not completely ruined. If you are a Lions fan, and you believe, like I do, that in order for real change to occur, Matt Millen must be fired immediately by the Fords. This is an online petition that a Lions fan has created, that he intends to present to the Ford’s and Millen.
Obviously, given Millen’s 31-81 tenure, and the fact that the Lions have won exactly one playoff game in 50 years, ultimately, little will change while the Ford’s still maintain ownership. That being said, the petition currently has over 700 signatures, and remains one of the few means for Lions fans to voice their desire for change, other than choosing not to watch the team or continuing to purchase tickets.
4 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^
[…] Here’s another interesting post I read today by Detroit Lions Weblog […]
Pingback by Hillary Clinton » Exercise Your Faith in Democracy — January 7, 2008 #
Personnaly, I refuse to sign the petition.
Despite the fact that Millen hasn’t had good
results in his tenure, I’m ready to give him
another year.
I see two guys, Millen and Marinelli, who are
working very hard. Sure they both lack experience,
but they compensate in hard work and determination.
The season is over, and Marinelli never even
considered taking some time off. He’s evaluating
his team, he’s gonna be attending Bowls
to evaluate talent, …
When Millen hired Marinelli, I gave him a clean
slate. That was a very smart move so I consider
that he’s going on his third year. I thought that we improved this year. Marinelli realized that
the hiring of Martz was a mistake. He realized
that in the middle of the season but he knew
it wouldn’t have been a good idea to change the
OC at that point.
We’ll make the playoffs next year. If not…
then the petition won’t be necessary!
Comment by Simon — January 8, 2008 #
HUCKABEE ‘08!
FIRE MILLEN 01.08.08!
Comment by SleePac — January 8, 2008 #
SleePac—How many horses do you have in the presidential race? I thought you were a proponent of Fred Thompson? At any rate, looks like you might be backing the lead dog right now.
Simon–your patience is astounding. Doesn’t 31-81 in 7 seasons, say enough? With the disarray down the stretch, how can you believe that somehow Millen/Marinelliweg are going to wave a magic wand and turn this around?
The other major issue that I have in regards to Millen, is his complete invisibility. He is essentially hiding from accountability at this point, in spite of all of the criticism he has received, he is paid a hefty price to answer to the continued failings of this franchise.
If you are happy with the status quo, more power to you. In my eyes, like you said, the writing is on the wall, and the Lions ownership can make their decision now, pro-actively, or later, after another failed campaign which sets Millen’s career record at about 34-94, your choice?
I agree with your assessment of Marinelli, he is fully committed, but his hands are tied by the continued poor decision-making from Matt Millen.
The other problem, in my opinion, is that his “pound the rock”-stuff has been drowned out the internal losing culture of the Lions players. They clearly have been searching for a convenient excuse for their losses, i.e. Martz, and shamelessly Millen gratified them. Marinelli, and the Tampa-2 scheme, are the next logical step in this process.
In the meantime, I think a 2-14, 3-13-type of season is staring the organization the face for ‘08. They have 13 Free agents, of which, arguably, two or three worth retaining. They are likely to release Kalimba Edwards and Shaun Cody, too. Should they decide to remove Shaun Rogers or Roy Williams, then you are looking at close to half of the roster turning over. Do you believe, with the number of new faces that will in Honolulu Blue next season, that Matt Millen should be involved in this crucial rebuilding process?
Comment by Steve — January 8, 2008 #