Author’s Note:
I have two great passions: politics and Ping Pong. Only I prefer the correct nomenclature: Political Science and Table Tennis. I can talk for hours on either subject. But when I talk politics with my Table Tennis friends, I must be careful. If they have sharply different political orientations, namely they like Trump, anything said is likely to ruin the friendship.
On the other hand, if I talk Table Tennis to political friends who don’t play Table Tennis, their eyes often glaze over in boredom in less than two minutes.
Originally this letter was intended for the members of the Asheville Table Tennis Club. However, the officers of the club deemed it too political and too religiously controversial to publish. So, I thought I would publish here at Kos, even though only a few other readers are likely to also be passionate about Table Tennis. Perhaps the rest can relate to my lament—without their eyes glazing over in boredom.
Open Letter to All Table Tennis Enthusiasts
In college I was about to play a new opponent who openly prayed to Jesus to defeat me before my match. He lost. Either Jesus wasn’t listening, or God doesn’t take sides in Table Tennis.
An all-loving, merciful God doesn’t take sides in Table Tennis, regardless of how fervently we may pray to win. This is true in all sports. God isn’t a New Orleans Saints fan, (or even a Notre Dame fan) and even if he were, I doubt he would deliberately tilt the game for your team to win. Nor is God a Republican or a Democrat. And although they say there are no atheists in foxholes, it seems unlikely an almighty deity would favor one army over another, or one country over another.
Yet the idea of an all-loving God not taking sides doesn’t jibe with the Old Testament. Didn’t God favor the Israelites over the Egyptians? Didn’t God send ten plagues against the Egyptians so the Israelites could become free?
According to Exodus, not until the tenth plague, a deadly disease, did the Pharaoh finally relent and let the Israelites go. “For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and I will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt.” So, some poor Egyptian farmer, who had no say over the Pharaoh’s decisions, had to sacrifice his first-born child?
And how come the Israelites didn’t die? According to Exodus they painted the outside of their doors with lamb’s blood so the angel of death would pass over their home and spare them. Of course, the Jews didn’t have to paint their doors with blood just because Moses told them it was God’s will. They could assert their free will and refuse—but then they would watch their first-born die.
I wasn’t around then, and the story may have changed in a few thousand years. I like to think Moses told everyone, Jews and Egyptians alike, to avoid the angel of death by painting lamb’s blood on their door. Only it was mostly "the chosen people" who chose to follow the dictate and were spared. Those who didn’t, died.
Today we are beset with a modern plague called Covid. I don’t believe it is a plague sent by God. But I do believe people with some beliefs are far more likely to die than those with different beliefs. People who believe in science and medical experts and get vaccinated will live. Those who don’t believe they need to get vaccinated are far more likely to become terribly sick and die.
Yet all arguments I have given to get vaccinated to those who are “vaccine hesitant,” including members of my own family, have fallen on death ears. Not even the argument that by not getting vaccinated they are endangering the lives of others, gets traction.
So, I propose a completely new argument for vaccination: If you don’t get vaccinated, you can’t play Table Tennis.
Those who refuse to get vaccinated, for whatever reasons, endanger the health of other players who do get vaccinated. Indeed, these anti-vaxxers are harming the sport of Table Tennis.
The Montford Center in Asheville was one of the first Table Tennis facilities to close down because of Covid, and one of the last to re-open. At no other facility that I know of are players required to wear masks when they play. Masks are hot, sweaty, uncomfortable, impair breathing, and fog up glasses. No one would need to wear a mask if everyone were vaccinated.
Now that the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly, I fear it is only a matter of time before Asheville decides they have to close the Montford Center ending Table Tennis in Asheville indefinitely. And why? Because it is easier to shut everything down than to make sure everyone is vaccinated. It isn’t right.
Meanwhile, I know several players in Greenville who no longer play at the county recreation center because they know other players there are not vaccinated. One fine player, a doctor, told me he would end up arguing in vain to his unvaccinated Table Tennis friends. He figured it would be better to simply not play, than risk losing friendships over this issue.
Unvaccinated players, who pose substantially more risk to other players, are keeping vaccinated players away from the game. This simply isn’t fair.
Therefore, I have made it my own personal policy to refuse to play anyone who I know isn’t vaccinated. This was a difficult decision to follow through on, even when the anti-vaxxer either was someone I could easily beat or someone I had little chance of beating. It was even more difficult when I discovered my rule prevented me from playing with a player just as good as me, who I consider a long-time, close friend.
You might say, since I am now resolute not to play with unvaccinated players, that this is my resolution for the new year. Like many New Year’s resolutions, making them is far easier than keeping them. When I drove from Greenville to play in Charlotte Thursday evening, I was unfairly placed in Group Three. I knew I belonged in group two, and occasionally even moved up to Group 1, where I won a few matches. The previous time I played in Group 3, I won all my matches except one. The reason I didn’t move up was because I had to leave at 10:15 PM, as that was the time my ride, who finished at 9:30, had to leave. (It took us over three hours to get back.) I still had two matches to go, one of which I could easily win, and the other which would be a challenge. Yet, John, the player who once barely beat me, was most conciliatory and agreed instead of my forfeiting, we should simply not count the match, as he knew I was leaving only because I had to, and not because I was afraid of losing. (I was afraid of losing, but that wasn’t the reason I had to leave.)
Meanwhile, players I could easily beat had moved up to Group 1, including the guy who ran the league. Jim, a Chinese player who should have been in Group 1 but ended up in Group 2, told me all I had to do was win all my matches in Group 3, and next time I would be in Group 2. When I told him I often didn’t have time to finish he matches, he suggested a simple solution: move to Charlotte.
Too ad injury to insult, two out of the other five players in Group 3 weren’t vaccinated.
I few weeks earlier I had talked to one of these players who told me there was no reason to get vaccinated. I told him I had extensively studied this issue and wrote about it, and that he was misinformed. When I told him Thursday that I wouldn’t play with him because he wouldn’t get vaccinated, he argued we would be twelve feet apart while playing. This would seem like a valid argument; except I was unable to avoid his being closer than two feet from me when we weren’t playing.
The way I see it, I am a damn good player and it’s your loss if you don’t play with me, not mine—even if I have to forfeit a match and watch my rating plummet. I don’t care. I won’t be coming back. If you cheat to win, you already lost. As far as I am concerned, players who refuse to get vaccinated are cheating. They might not be cheating in the traditional sense, but they are endangering themselves, endangering anyone around them, and endangering the great sport of Table Tennis.
So, this isn’t a question of playing with players I like and avoiding those I don’t. It isn’t personal, but practical. I don’t want to play with anyone who won’t get vaccinated.
I have talked to people who have insisted they have a right to refuse to get vaccinated. Perhaps. But if you refuse to get vaccinated, you should forfeit your right to play Table Tennis.