Go Ahead, Start Calling Me Names
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by BlueCarp
Cold hearted. Mean. Soulless. I am sure you can think of others.
If you can’t, you will before you are done reading this.
What have I done?
I disagree with Woody Paige’s column in the Denver Post today. Normally, that would be no big deal. But today Woody did his best Mitch Albom impersonation. And why would anyone disagree with treacly sentimentality? It has its fans and has made Albom rich.
In this case, however, it demonstrates a complete misalignment of our priorities.
Woody has called for donations so murdered Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams can have a permanent headstone on his Fort Worth grave. The one he has now, for reasons unexplained by Paige, is temporary.
Woody wants to raise $7000 to do the job. The longtime columnist and ESPN television personality has donated $250 of his own to start the fund. I will not belittle the amount.
(However, if he really wanted to get the job done, he could have donated all $7000 anonymously and saved us the self-congratulatory column.)
My real complaint is asking the public for money to benefit a professional athlete at all.
Darrrent did not make millions of dollars. He did, however, make hundreds of thousands. His family also gets a death benefit from his union.
How many of our servicemen and women make less than that? How many have families back home while they fight overseas? How many of those families need public assistance? All of them. Thousands. Way too many.
How many schools need renovation? How many VA hospitals need funds? How many homeless need a meal?
How many in Fort Worth, Darrent’s hometown, could use some charity? How many youth football leagues could use football equipment in Darrent’s name?
Sports helped Darrent avoid gangs and trouble in general. Wouldn’t a donation to the Fort Worth Boys’ Clubs (or Police Athletic League or Catholic Youth Organization or Pop Warner or the Parks and Recreation Department of Forth Worth . . .) be a better monument to his life than a gravestone?
People can do anything they want with their money. They can buy beer with it. They can gamble with it. They can donate to any cause they desire.
They can donate money to Woody’s fund. Or they can do something meaningful with it.
