Ben Mintz's Firing, A's Broadcaster's Suspension Prove Grace And Mercy Are Gone, It's Now About Destroying Lives Over Mistakes

America is on a bullet train towards a very dark place when it comes to lacking grace and mercy when a person makes an honest mistake.

Two notable examples have taken the sports world by storm over the past week, and both are a sad representation of where we're at as a society.

First, Barstool Sports fired Ben Mintz after he rapped the n-word while singing a Bone Thugs-N-Harmony song during a livestream.

It was clear the moment he said the n-word that it was a complete and total mistake. He slipped up reading the words, didn't catch himself in time and the word came out. In a normal, rational society, cooler heads would have prevailed.

Instead, Penn had Barstool Sports fire Mintz. Dave Portnoy claimed it boiled down to protecting gambling licenses. I didn't believe it then and I still don't believe it now.

Oakland A's broadcaster feels the wrath of the mob.

A few days after Mintz's slip-up, Oakland A's broadcaster Glen Kuiper accidentally said the n-word while attempting to talk about the Negro Leagues Museum.

(Warning: offensive language)

Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Museum, preached for forgiveness, but it didn't matter.

Despite it being a clear accident, Kuiper was suspended indefinitely. Don't be surprised if he never works again.

America is slipping past a point of no return.

To be clear, running around shouting the n-word at people is unacceptable. The word is incredibly dirty and disgusting. It's painful to hear and it's understandable why people hate it so much.

However, there's a huge difference between saying the n-word by accident and having malicious intent and hate in your heart.

Does anyone truly believe Mintz or Kuiper are racist? Of course not. The Oakland A's announcer looked ready to sob during his apology because he felt so bad. He looked like a crushed man.

There used to be a time in America where grace and mercy were virtues. We all had a blanket understanding that mistakes happen. When they do, you try to do better, forgive, educate if necessary and move on.

That era is long gone. It's honestly been dead for a long time, but the events of last week prove we're at a point nobody should be happy about.

Ben Mintz lost his job for singing a song and simply reading lyrics. Stop and think about the insanity of that. He sang a song the artists who wrote it clearly didn't feel offended by. Instead of Penn coming out and saying it was a regrettable situation and moving on, the company threw him under the bus, fired him, then presented fans with a comically ludicrous excuse for why.

Kuiper, while not fired, is suspended and there's an above zero percent chance A's fans have seen him work his last game.

In this era, forgiveness and mercy aren't just attributes, both require great courage. The mob wants blood. The mob wants to ruin lives. Only a truly courageous person can stand up to the insanity, look the mob in the eyes and tell them to get bent. We shouldn't ruin lives over mistakes.

Everyone is tough behind a screen.

A major problem is everyone feels empowered behind a phone or computer screen. It's easy to lob grenades online and call for someone's head when you know there's no chance you'll see them in person.

Shortly after Kuiper's slip-up, Twitter was flooded with people demanding he be fired. Very few people, initially at least, were calling for cooler heads to prevail.

People are so addicted to their phones and computers they forget these are real people. Ben Mintz is a real person with family and friends who care about him. He's now been tarnished as a man who used a racial slur and was fired for it.

Glen Kuiper accidentally said the n-word during broadcast. (Credit: Screenshot/Twitter video https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1654679569117372416/)

Glen Kuiper is in the exact same boat. How many of the cowards tweeting for these two men to lose their jobs would say a word to them in person? Not many. Hell, the answer might be zero. It's a lot harder to call for a person to lose everything when you have to look them in the face as you do it.

Unfortunately, we're now at a point in society where you can just hide in a basement. Losers who have nothing attack those who do and try to bring them down. There's no better example of misery loving company.

Dehumanizing people over mistakes and ruining their lives doesn't end with some utopian society. It ends with chaos. America must slam the brakes on this mentality of hate while we still can. Every step towards trashing people and lacking any compassion is one step in the wrong direction. Take a moment to have some understanding before ruining a person's life. If we don't change, we will find ourselves in a society nobody wants to live in.