The Angry Rant

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A Nation of Babies

February 1st, 2009 by The Angry Rant

“No one gives it to you. You have to take it.”
-The Departed

On January 13, a high school basketball game took place between The Covenant School and Dallas Academy, a game that The Covenant School would end up winning by a score of 100-0. But there is far more to this story than just the score, as the Dallas Academy is a school that specializes in educating children with “diagnosed learning differences,” such as attention deficit disorder or dyslexia. In the days following the game, the national media got hold of the story, resulting in a firestorm of controversy regarding the ethics of high school sports and the rules of fair play. The Covenant School has since fired their basketball coach who was accused of running up the score to reach the 100 point mark, as well as allegedly using a full court press defense throughout the game, despite having a 59-0 lead after the second quarter.

While I agree in principal that The Covenant School was wrong if they were indeed running up the score or using a full court press defense in the closing quarter, I also feel that the controversy is doing more harm than good for the psyche of all involved.

In professional sports, there is such a thing as sportsmanship. A team will (most likely) not run up a score on another team, out of respect for the game and the opponent. In baseball, if a team has a 13-0 lead in the 8th inning, they aren’t going to be swinging away on a 3-0 count, nor will they be stealing bases. However, they aren’t going to purposefully make errors or take bad swings. They will play the game, but not at a level to embarrass their opponents any further. The same thing happens in pro football and basketball, where a team won’t continue to score at will, but they also won’t hand the ball to their opponent and say “Here, go ahead and make yourselves feel better.” If they would continue to score, or if they gave the opposing team mercy points, it shows a lack of gamesmanship, and no one looks good.

There was definitely a need for that in the aforementioned high school basketball game. The Covenant School had the game won after the first quarter, and when it was 59-0 at the half, they could have (and should have) taken their foot off the gas. Play defense, but don’t steal and don’t press. Take shots, but don’t score right away, and don’t shoot threes. In other words, give a good effort, but don’t go all out.

Of course, that didn’t happen, and now The Covenant School is apologizing for winning the game, and they are now seeking to forfeit the game, even though the Dallas Academy hasn’t won a game in over three years.

And here we are, yet again, getting beaten into submission about how children need to be nurtured and cared for and how we need to tell them that they can be whatever they want and that life is nothing but roses and clouds and chocolate fountains!

Pfft.

The idea of “You can be whatever you want” is fine for a seven-year-old who wants to be a pirate. But when that same kid is 16-years-old and failing high school, a dose of reality needs to set in, and fast. Because at that point, mommy and daddy can’t coddle them anymore and they need to get off their tails and start to earn their life.

Of course, it’s not like the kid will fail, because teachers can’t give out bad grades without being threatened with a lawsuit from the parents, even though the kid knew there was a test and knew what to study. But perhaps more importantly, the kid knew his parents would come to his aid and bail him out, even though they’ve never taught him the value of a hard days work, instead taking the BS psychology route and just handing their kids everything. No wonder Clint Eastwood called it “The Pussy Generation.” And guess what? When Dirty Harry talks, you listen.

But seriously, everyone, can we please put a stop to this? The younger generations need to learn that they can’t (and won’t) always win, and that the only way that they can grow is to learn from that. Back to the basketball game: If the losing team played the entire game and never gave up, then they learned something. Despite the bleak outcome, they were going to keep trying because that is the only way they will get better, which builds character. You can’t always win, but the effort is as important. However, if that team was handed points by the opposition, or perhaps they throw the game, then they don’t learn from it because it wasn’t earned. It was out of pity that they won the game, and nothing else. And one day, that pity is going to manifest itself in every kid in this country whose parents didn’t allow them to work for their rewards, and that will only lead to a very dangerous sense of entitlement.

And that’s the issue, folks. We are raising a nation of babies, a nation of whiners and quitters, instead of the next generation of leaders. Kids want everything, and more often than not, their equally stupid parents give it to them.

There is a sweeping notion among the bleeding heart PC’ers in this country that everyone is the same, and that everyone should be given an equal chance. That sounds good in principal, but at a certain point, everyone is not equal, which is why everyone can’t go to college, why everyone can’t be a millionaire, and why everyone can’t be president. Look, if I could play left field for the Philadelphia Phillies, I would. But the truth is that I’m not good enough. (Also, I’m a natural second baseman, so I’d be out of position anyway.) The end result is that America is becoming a land for people who want to be spoon fed everything, and we continue to let it happen. It is occurring in our schools already; where is it going to end? People are being punished for exceling at something because it is at the expense of someone else.

If you are running a marathon, you chase the guy in front of you, and once you pass him, you chase the next guy in front of you. That’s how you get better at it; when there is someone in front of you, when you have competition, you try harder and you get better. If the guy you were behind slowed down on purpose to let you catch him, you didn’t get better. The competition just allowed itself to be passed, and what is the lesson in that?

There are two types of people in this world: those who can, and those who can’t. If you are one of the few who can, then go ahead and do it. But if you can’t, you need to try harder until you can. Bottom line: There has to be a loser so there can be a winner.

And if you’re not a winner, the only thing holding you back is yourself.

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