There's A Time And A Place

Discussing anything regarding politics is usually well beyond the scope of this entire organization.  However, on occasion, if something political crosses into the world of competition and sportsmanship, we have to take the opportunity to address it since we spend so much time on the subject.

For example, we tackled the New Jersey legislation regarding high school "super teams" in the first episode of our podcast for 2018.  The legislation specifically dealt with fair play and athletic competition in a manner that applied to our mission, so it felt right to discuss it.

We also tackled the 2016 Presidential Election because of the poor sportsmanship that accompanied such a competition.  It may not have been an athletic competition, but it was the perfect example of how a contest/competition outside of the world of sports operates and how our message can apply.

Towards the end of 2017, there was another incident where something didn't feel quite right.

Senator John McCain was in for the fight of his life due to a battle with brain cancer.  His daughter, Meghan McCain, took to Twitter to thank people for their thoughts and prayers during such a trying time on their family.  The problem was that there were some responses to those Tweets that didn't quite understand the situation.

Many people took this opportunity to instead criticize Meghan and her family for their politics, practically kicking Sen. McCain while he was down.  It was sad to see people think that this was the proper time and place to say and post things that, to them, was probably the product of karma or hypocrisy.

The fact of the matter is that good sportsmanship also consists of knowing when the competition needs to be put on hold during something more important.  It's perfectly fine if you disagree with the McCain family politics.  That is part of the beauty of the United States.  But consider the golden rule:  would you want people berating you and your family if you or someone you love is fighting for his or her life?