The Associated Press reported that a Gonzaga star basketball player by the name of Adam Morrison got hit in the nose during one of Gonzaga’s games and needed gauze to stop the bleeding.  Seems that Morrison threw this used gauze onto the floor under the basket (double yuck) and it was snatched up by a Gonzaga fan, turned entrepreneur, who didn’t see the gauze as just some bloody red piece of fabric, he saw the gauze as fortunate green.  Apparently, Morrison is a basketball star who is seen as someone who will soon be rich and famous and his blood on a piece of gauze is worth a lot of money.  Not so fortunate for the entrepreneur, however, according to the article, is the fact that there are certain rules involving student-athletes and because Morrison is still in college, it is illegal to sell his gauze.  Shoot!  Just when the bid had gone over $60.00!  Not to worry, this entrepreneur sent a message to the bidders that the gauze would return for bidding after the National Basketball Association’s draft in either 2006 or 2007, depending on whether Morrison will leave Gonzaga his junior year or stay and complete his senior year.

            So I have a question…..have we gone mad?  Who, oh who, would pay for a piece of bloody gauze?  Perhaps I’m naïve.  Perhaps I’m not enough of a capitalist to see beyond the red and envision the green!  The whole idea of picking up someone else’s dirty gauze makes me cringe!  I guess that’s why I have the utmost respect for those in the medical field!  I just couldn’t do it myself!  Let me restate this, if it were my family, pets, close friends, yes, I would clean up after them if they were sick.  If it were a matter of life and death for a stranger, yes, I would do this, but Morrison’s gauze goes way beyond reason!  I don’t care how much money I could make.  This isn’t a homerun ball hit by Barry Bonds!  This isn’t a football signed by John Elway!  This isn’t a basketball autographed by Micheal Jordan!  This is a piece of bloody gauze!  I can see the headlines now…
“Killer stampede occurs as fans rush into locker rooms to obtain soiled items of superstars!  Used Band-Aids reach $100.00, athletic tape $1,000.00 on e-bay!”

            What is gong on here?  Perhaps this phenomenon is due to our attempt to place value on something that we perceive to be within our reach.  Something tangible that we can control.  Perhaps it’s our way of looking beyond the reality of freedom of choice being stomped into South Dakotan soil.  Perhaps it’s our way of discounting the volatility of restricted marriage rights.  Perhaps it’s our way of trying to forget the tap dance inside our phone lines.  Or even our way of dimming the pain of hearing one more name being added to growing scroll of the war on terror.  Could it be that we are so trying to medicate our lack of control and pain that we place such high importance on used gauze? 
            Yes, there is a message in this.  We want to stop the bleeding.  We want to stop the bleeding of severed civil rights and although gauze may do the trick for a bloody nose, it will not suffice for a hemorrhage.  And make no mistake, our civil rights are hemorrhaging and the only way to stop it is by applying justice against the wound.  “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”  (Amos 5:24 NIV)  It is only through justice that the profuse loss will subside.  Make no mistake, justice begins with each one of us.  We must stand against injustice every day in our workplace, in school, at the grocery store, on the streets.  In other words, we are called to be the gauze in the nostril of injustice and that my friends, is gauze that is truly valuable!