The NCAA has canceled March Madness? The NBA has canceled its season? The Atlantic Coast Conference has canceled its 66-year-old basketball tournament, along with tournaments and scheduled games in all other sports? Major League Baseball is delaying opening day? Colleges and universities are canceling in-person classes and replacing them with online classes? Broadway shows are being canceled? The Masters golf tournament has been postponed — The Masters!
If these aren't signs of the apocalypse, I don't know what is.
The NCAA basketball championship game was played nearly 40 years ago hours after a failed attempt to assassinate the president, who was still hospitalized and in serious danger at tip-off.
This Covid-19 virus must be truly virulent to disrupt American life so thoroughly. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of this new disease to be a pandemic — a disease that endangers the entire world.
Although some irresponsible individuals in and out of government have attempted to minimize the dangers and impact of the new corona virus, top scientists in U.S. health agencies have strongly urged action to avoid spread of the disease. Without such actions, the rate of infection could grow exponentially, ultimately overwhelming the health care system as hospitals run out of beds, equipment and medicines. Each infected person is likely to infect more than two people they encounter. It's not influenza, which has a much lower fatality rate.
Because of a slow initial response by officials, the United States still does not have adequate numbers of test kits for the virus, allowing the virus to continue its spread. Although "Quarantine" signs have not gone up on people's doors, as they did in earlier smallpox and polio epidemics, limiting contacts and practicing good hygiene are essential to preventing a far greater crisis.
Covid-19 is said to be especially hazardous for people 65 and older, especially those with heart or lung disease or a compromised immune system. As an older-than-65 man with a not-noticeable heart condition, I am paying close attention to this corona virus. I'm not panic-buying Clorox or toilet paper, but I am washing my hands more often and more carefully than in the past.
I am also hoping for government leaders to be more transparent, empathetic, honest, scientific, prepared and trustworthy in the future.
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Friday, March 13, 2020
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Even free speech has consequences
No doubt, the sports and entertainment world is a better place without the execrable rantings of Donald Sterling, the Los Angeles Clippers owner who is now banned for life by the National Basketball Association.
When a secretly recorded audio of Sterling's disparaging and repugnant remarks about African-Americans became public, the reaction seemed universal: He should be shunned and silenced. Racist remarks will quickly clear a room or ruin a conversation, but the mega-attention and instantaneous transmission of today's information makes those revolting remarks of a man most of us had never heard of the Big News of the Day. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver swiftly issued a lifetime ban on Sterling and fined him the maximum amount within his authority, and he strongly suggested that Sterling should be forced to sell his team.
I have heard no dissenting voices in reaction to these events, and I should not be surprised. Speaking up for a racist is no less respectable than speaking up for a child molester, and I can't think of any words that would defend Sterling's bigotry and hatred. Nevertheless, is taking away a person's right to express his opinion in a private conversation any worse than disrespecting others because of their color or race?
As repugnant as Sterling's opinions are, if the purloined audiotape is credible, he has not expressed support for racist policies or violence. The tapes show only that he objected to his girlfriend's choice of friends, based on their race. That's an attitude America has shunned and forbidden as we have purposely steered away from the racial attitudes of past generations.
This is a country, it should be remembered, that allowed neo-Nazis to march through a Jewish neighborhood (that included some Holocaust survivors), demonstrating a hatred far more severe and violent than anything Sterling expressed. Does freedom of expression allow stupid people to say offensive things? Does freedom of thought allow people to hold opinions that are repugnant to the vast majority of Americans?
I would answer yes to those two questions, but I would also assert that words have consequences, and even protected speech might be costly to the speaker. Politicians get into trouble by using the wrong words in unrehearsed remarks and then face costly repercussions even though they might not have meant how the words were taken. They have the freedom to say those things, but they suffer the consequences.
Donald Sterling is facing the consequences of his unedited, private speech. Americans can rejoice in his punishment but should not celebrate too much. When free speech and free thought expressed in private conversations are penalized, we all are vulnerable.
When a secretly recorded audio of Sterling's disparaging and repugnant remarks about African-Americans became public, the reaction seemed universal: He should be shunned and silenced. Racist remarks will quickly clear a room or ruin a conversation, but the mega-attention and instantaneous transmission of today's information makes those revolting remarks of a man most of us had never heard of the Big News of the Day. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver swiftly issued a lifetime ban on Sterling and fined him the maximum amount within his authority, and he strongly suggested that Sterling should be forced to sell his team.
I have heard no dissenting voices in reaction to these events, and I should not be surprised. Speaking up for a racist is no less respectable than speaking up for a child molester, and I can't think of any words that would defend Sterling's bigotry and hatred. Nevertheless, is taking away a person's right to express his opinion in a private conversation any worse than disrespecting others because of their color or race?
As repugnant as Sterling's opinions are, if the purloined audiotape is credible, he has not expressed support for racist policies or violence. The tapes show only that he objected to his girlfriend's choice of friends, based on their race. That's an attitude America has shunned and forbidden as we have purposely steered away from the racial attitudes of past generations.
This is a country, it should be remembered, that allowed neo-Nazis to march through a Jewish neighborhood (that included some Holocaust survivors), demonstrating a hatred far more severe and violent than anything Sterling expressed. Does freedom of expression allow stupid people to say offensive things? Does freedom of thought allow people to hold opinions that are repugnant to the vast majority of Americans?
I would answer yes to those two questions, but I would also assert that words have consequences, and even protected speech might be costly to the speaker. Politicians get into trouble by using the wrong words in unrehearsed remarks and then face costly repercussions even though they might not have meant how the words were taken. They have the freedom to say those things, but they suffer the consequences.
Donald Sterling is facing the consequences of his unedited, private speech. Americans can rejoice in his punishment but should not celebrate too much. When free speech and free thought expressed in private conversations are penalized, we all are vulnerable.
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