Sometimes
I think our society goes too far with the idea of political correctness
but I'm with football writer Peter King on this one:
A note from me about the use of the nickname “Redskins.”
I’ve decided to stop using the Washington team nickname. It’s a name
you won’t see me use anymore. The simple reason is that for the last two
or three years, I’ve been uneasy when I sat down to write about the
team and had to use the nickname. In some stories I’ve tried to use it
sparingly. But this year, I decided to stop entirely because it offends
too many people, and I don’t want to add to the offensiveness. Some
people, and some Native American organizations—such as the highly
respected American Indian Movement—think the nickname is a slur.
Obviously, the team feels it isn’t a slur, and there are several
prominent Native American leaders who agree. But I can do my job without
using it, and I will. My 2,400-word story on Washington offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan
and his unique approach to the read-option Thursday proved you can
write about the team (insightfully, I hope) and not make a big deal
about not using the nickname.
I have no idea if this is the right thing to do for the public, or
the politically correct thing to do, and I’m not going to sit here and
ry
to preach about it and tell you if you like the name you’re wrong or if
you hate the name you’re wrong. I can just tell you how I feel: I’ve
been increasingly bothered by using the word, and I don’t want to be a
part of using a name that a cross-section of our society feels is
insulting.
I’m not speaking for my staff at The MMQB, or at Sports Illustrated.
I haven’t ordered anyone who works at our new website to not use the
name; it will be up to each person to decide. We had some discussions as
a staff about the nickname in August, and I said in those discussions I
didn’t want our site to use it. But I felt after some thought that it’s
not my place to order people who I work with to do something they may
not be comfortable doing. So I decided to make my own decision, then
allow the other writers and editors on the site to do what they want.
Also, we won’t be changing quotes to eliminate the name in stories, or
editing it out of pieces from outside contributors who choose to use it.
It will also appear in web tools that categorize stories for searches.
Some of you will view this as grandstanding. Some of you will wonder: You’ve covered the NFL for 30 seasons, and just now you realize this nickname is objectionable?
All I can say is, you grow in your business, and you grow as a person,
and you try to always be open to ideas and to what others are thinking. I
told someone the other day: “That’s right. I changed my mind about
it—just like I changed my mind and voted for Art Monk for the Hall of
Fame.’’ Some will say you won’t read me, or the site, anymore. That’s
okay. It’s a free country. Here’s what it came down to for me: Did I
want to be part of a culture that uses a term that many in society view
as a racial epithet? The answer kept coming back no—and now that I have
been charged to run a website, I thought I would finally do what felt
right to me.
J's ball hockey team lost 10 to 4 today. His team was in first place and the other team was winless. A kid on the other team scored seven goals. It was a monster effort. He worked his butt off fighting for the ball all game long. J's team's effort was weak at best.
After the game I followed J's team into the dressing room to pick him up. The coach immediately launched into whining about how hard it is to compete when the other team's best kid is able to play 90% of the game because they only had eight players. Is this really what we want our kid's coaches to be? Apologists and excuse makers when the kids themselves haven't given a good effort? Personally I think the coach owes it to the kids to be honest with them. As a parent I put my kid in sports so they can get exercise and learn about a variety of things: being part of a team, competition, accountability, decision making, the value of hard work and practice and many more. This type of coaching helps with none of that.
Heard a great quote recently attributed to Emmitt Smith: "All men are created equal. Some work harder in preseason.". I think this is a great concept and I try hard to teach it to my children particularly my son where his sports are concerned. I tell him it's perfectly ok to play a sport recreationally. To show up once a week, play the game and let the chips fall where they may. However if you are going to complain about losing and you want to play better, win etc. it's all about how hard you work in between games. Despite what many in this world seem to believe you can't improve very much by complaining. You have to get up and do something. Practice, reflect, strategize, exercise, work on skills etc. depending on what it is you are trying to excel at. It's ok to dabble in something and just have fun with it. However if you are going to complain about your results do something about it. The time to do something about it is in preseason. For us everyday folk that means in between games, in the driveway or the basement gym when it would be easier to be watching TV, at work when others have slowed down and are spending the last hour of the day chatting, on Saturday afternoon when it would be more fun to be sitting around drinking beer etc. Work on your craft, work toward your goal and then you will beat the ones you started out equal to.
Some
of you have probably heard me rant about "participation" medals, not
keeping score in kid's sports etc. Frankly I think sports and
competition are great tools for raising young people. That being said I
LOVE the catcher's reaction to this home run. This is the type of
passion sports should be played with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CmwMyQn5wg&feature=player_detailpage#t=42s
Yesterday a woman knocked on the door. The kids answered and she asked to speak to an adult. When I got there she started to pull some material out of her book. I have little patience for door to door people at the best of times let alone Sunday morning. I coldly told her I wasn't interested and shut the door. A few minutes later sitting on the couch Jason asks: "Dad why couldn't you have been nice to that woman and heard what she had to say?".......sometimes it takes a kid to re-adjust our values. It's more important to be kind than to be right. We shouldn't forget this because we're busy or tired or have our own petty grievances.
Found this quote today: "Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating. Youngsters need good models more than they need critics. It's one of a parent's greatest responsibilities and opportunities." - John Wooden
Something that amazes me is when I see parents doing things in front of their kids that I can't imagine they would want their kids to do. Yelling at their kids is a good example lol. Seriously though I think we all can take some time and reflect on what behaviours we want our kids to model and then try to do more of them. Surely we can't aspire to have our children cut people off in traffic, be rude to strangers, cut in line at stores or amusement parks etc. etc. etc. I think a good thought moving forward for the New Year would be to try and consider that the little people are always watching and ultimately they will learn how to behave as adults from watching the adults they are around the most: us.
