'Character Counts'......I Think, Maybe, Perhaps

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For many years now, while listening to our local AM radio CBS affiliate, I have heard Michael Josephson’s short commentaries called ‘Character Counts’. Michael’s company, The Josephson Institute of Ethics deals with the day-to-day decisions that we all must make and how difficult it can be sometimes ‘to do the right thing’. I have learned a lot about myself through these ‘lessons’ and it has hopefully made me a better person. A current story on the national scene has me asking some important questions regarding character and ethics. I am referring to the Danny Almonte/Little League scandal out of New York City.

These appear to be the salient facts:

(1). Danny and his Father are in the United States illegally.

(2). Although he has been in this country for almost two years, Danny has never attended school and does not speak English.

(3). The age limit for Little League players is 12. There are strong indications that it will be proven that Danny is in fact at least 14 years old.

(4). Danny’s team is from the Bronx league, whose founder, president, and all-star coach, Rolando Paulino has a past history of improper behavior and was actually banned form another area for this same type of ‘cheating’.

The value system displayed here is the insidious disease that will kill our way of living in this country. Why would anyone feel good about young kids winning through ‘cheating’ and why do we allow it to continue? How do you think the rest of the kids that played in this tournament feel about this? What kind of people could be proud about winning in this manner?

What happened to OUR value systems here in the U.S.? Are we supposed to except all of this because it is ok somewhere else?

God help our country for we are slowly sinking into the moral abyss.

Just My Opinion.

-- Just (my@2.cents), August 31, 2001

Answers

This just in! The kid IS 14.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/2001/08/31/almonte_14_ap/

-- Fact (finders@inc.com), August 31, 2001.


This is blatant racism. Little (white-boy) League is picking on Danny because he is a black PR. Does anyone seriously think that those sniveling bourgeois suburban white bread snots are all under 12?

-- (Leon Trotsky @ gulag.glory), August 31, 2001.

Leon, Leon, Danny is from the Dominican Republic NOT Puerto Rico, and yes there is a significant difference. But then, you have been pickled on potato vodka for so long it should have little or no impact on your thought process. And Leon, you sound like quite the racist yourself with your derogatory comments. Haven’t you got enough problems to worry about in the Motherland?

Just My Opinion.

-- Just (my@2.cents), August 31, 2001.


THIS JUST IN!!!

Danny has been confirmed to be 14 years of age.

The Little League Foundation has taken away all of the awards and games won by these cheaters.

Rolando Paulino has been banned from Little League for life.

The government of the Dominican Republic says they will file criminal charges against Danny’s mother AND father.

The City of New York social agencies are posturing about removing the kid from his father, due to him not being enrolled in school.

The INS is talking about deporting them both back to the Dominican Republic.

Danny and his father have disappeared.

The Dominican community in the Bronx has experienced a massive mood swing today.

The teams that lost to these cheaters will carry the bitterness for the rest of their lives.

Isn’t great to be a kid?

-- Fact (finders@inc.com), August 31, 2001.


JMO,

I was just testing you.

-- (Leon Trotsky @ Sasha's.sushi), August 31, 2001.



This happened a few years ago. Team from the Phillipines I think. Remember most an opposing coach remarking that "When we all went to get lunch our kids were concentrating on the hotdogs and theirs were concentrating on the girls." (rough quote)

Dead giveaway!

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), August 31, 2001.


''Families in the Dominican Republic expect to generate income from their children's baseball future,'' said Pablo Peguero, the Los Angeles Dodgers' supervisor of baseball operations in the Dominican Republic.

'At any cost' he should have added, including lying repeatedly with no remorse.

How very nice.....welcome to America!

-- Do (as@you.please), August 31, 2001.


Here's an opinion slightly less self-righteous and more realistic:

http://espn.go.com/moresports/llws01/s/2001/0831/1246412.html

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), August 31, 2001.


This statement just jumped off the page in the ESPN article:

"What it's about is expecting desperate people to subscribe to ethical values that they can't afford."

So the poor illegal immigrants that flood into this country should not be held up to our standards of expectable ethical behavior? You disappoint me Flint. I would have thought you, of all people, to be a champion of American values.

-- Just (my@2.cents), August 31, 2001.


just:

You have such a wonderfully deep appreciation of poverty and hunger, I can tell. Moral virtues are always defined by those who can afford them, then imposed on those who can not. It is no accident that white males are vastly overrepresented among the wealthy, and poor people, especially black, vastly overrepresented among the incarcerated.

Now, this pattern could be a permanent, continuing coincidence worldwide for all of history. But I do not think so. Instead, I agree that the rules are written neither for nor by the desperately poor, whose participation is limited to following those rules (and staying poor), or breaking them and sometimes (but rarely) coming out ahead.

So I don't really see this as a question of morals or values. For the haves, it's a game. For the have-nots, it's a gamble. Ethics are for equals to debate. For the wildly inequal, such niceties are thoroughly irrelevant.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), August 31, 2001.



I love you always, Flint.

-- helen (good@for.you), September 01, 2001.

Nobody ever want's to take responsibility for their own actions, Danny and his father are low life law breaking scum suckers, period. The victims are all the other teams that followed the rules of the game and fielded a legit 12 year old player - team. Pretty simple!! IF Danny's father was so concerned about a better future for his 14 year old son, he'd have been in school learning the language and skills to succeed in this great country! I have nothing but contempt for this boy and his *poor* family!

-- spin doctors (suck@dot.com), September 01, 2001.

None of this would happen if people weren't such sports-mad morons. Also, sacrificing the poor to ethics doesn't seem like that bad a trade-off when you consider what would happen to society if we didn't.

-- dave q (scrape100@hotmail.com), September 01, 2001.

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