The Solution is Community
Guest Column
By Gerry Chidiac
One of the most important qualities of a good leader is the ability to listen. It is very easy to jump on a bandwagon and it is easy to jump to conclusions. It takes true courage to hear another person’s point of view, admit we were wrong, shift our beliefs and move forward.
To be honest, my first reaction to National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell issuing a statement regarding his changed sentiments toward the Black Lives Matter movement was quite cynical.
Only four years ago, Colin Kaepernick chose to kneel during the playing of the National Anthem to draw attention to the issue of police brutality toward African Americans. This resulted in Kaepernick essentially being blackballed by Goodell’s league. Now you say that you support his cause, Mr. Goodell? And you expect us to take you seriously?
The same can be said for Drew Brees, the star quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. Brees had always objected to peaceful protest by other players, saying that it disrespected the American flag. He even made comments opposing their actions after the death of George Floyd.
Brees then listened to his African American teammates and has since apologized for his statements. After receiving strong criticism for this in Tweets from Donald Trump, Brees replied, “I realize this is not an issue about the American flag. It never has been.”
Perhaps prominent people like Goodell and Brees are not just trying to look good for the media. Maybe we are finally able to cut through the noise and rhetoric. This is a moment like none other I have ever experienced. It appears that the truth is finally coming clear.
As a teacher, I relate this to seeing a concept become understandable to a student. I can vary the way I teach trigonometry to meet the learning needs of my students. I can draw diagrams, make models or sing loud obnoxious songs. When a student says, “I got it! SOH, CAH, TOA!” It is a moment of enlightenment, and suddenly one can begin moving forward.
Up until now, we’ve been using the wrong formula to solve our problems. We’ve been trying to do trigonometry without understanding the characteristics of a triangle. We’ve been trying to solve social problems by chasing a racist narrative. When certain groups have higher levels of incarceration, unemployment and poverty along with lower levels of education and life expectancy, you don’t improve the situation by cutting educational and social programs, putting more people into jail and painting a racist narrative in the media. But that is what we have done for decades, even centuries.
The great American scholar Cornel West points out that we always have a choice between chaos and community. Until now, we have chosen chaos.
The solution is community. We are all in this together, we are not our nationalities, ethnicities or genders, we are a global community.
It has been so encouraging to hear people finally say, “Black lives matter.” We don’t only look at our American neighbors when we say this, we recognize that all over the world, people of color have been unjustly treated for far too long. It has been so refreshing to see symbols of oppression, including statues of men who were responsible for some of the most horrendous crimes against humanity in history, like King Leopold II of Belgium, finally removed from places of honor.
I’d like to believe that the world has really listened and has come to a moment of enlightenment.
The proof will be shown as we move forward.
— Gerry Chidiac is a Canadian educator and a columnist for Troy Media.
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #7 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Brain Trauma and CTE Risk in Sports With Dr. Ann McKee – Dr. McKee is a true superstar in the field of neuropathology and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and has demonstrated that “mild” repetitive head trauma can provoke CTE, a devastating neurodegenerative disease.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Anchor.
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Episode #6 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Need for Quality Physical Education in Our Schools is Greater Than Ever – The guest is Clayton Ellis, one of our nation’s leading advocates for getting our young people to be more physically active.
Episode #5 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Youth Sports with Positive Coaching Alliance Founder Jim Thompson – Thompson started Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) in 1998 to help create a movement to transform the culture of youth sports from “win-at-all-costs” to a positive, character-building experience.
Episode #4 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Biggest Issue in Sports Today? Brain Trauma – The guest is Patrick Hruby, a journalist who has done extensive research and in-depth writing on the topic of brain trauma in sports, most notably football.
Episode #3 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Coaching Styles with Sports Sociologist Jay Coakley – The guest is veteran sports sociologist Jay Coakley, a former college athlete who went on to earn a Ph.D. in Sociology from Notre Dame.
Episode #2 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: College & High School Athletics: Where Do We Go From Here? The guest is John Gerdy, a former college athlete and NCAA and SEC administrator who became a sports reformer later in his career.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
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