The National Football League just announced that they were hiring former FBI Head Robert Mueller to investigate who knew what and when in the Ray Rice domestic violence case.
It is my understanding that the investigation has nothing to do with whether Rice was guilty of anything since the video tape shows him slugging the woman, knocking her out cold on the elevator.
The focus of the Mueller investigation is the NFL itself. According to some news sources, the NFL was delivered the video months ago and it was reported that at least one person thought to be either an NFL executive or an assistant to the executive viewed the tape and commented on the content.
The outcry centers on whether the NFL knew long ago that Rice was a wife beater and willfully chose to ignore it because Ray Rice was a high profile player for the Baltimore Ravens.
Roger Goodell was asked when the NFL learned of the video and he said it was Monday of this week (September 8, 2014). Goodell was asked more than once to make certain he was sure he knew the importance of his answer. He then clarified that “to my knowledge, we did not know” or words to that effect.
Should we care when he knew? I don’t care, do you?
The moral outrage pushed by the press is laughable. Everyone knows businesses protect their image and make every effort to keep their dirty laundry out of the public eye.
For me, this is just another case similar to the NBA’s handling of Donald Sterling. Moral outrage over Sterling’s bigotry. If the press was actually doing their job every day, they would have turned up stories about racism, bigotry and domestic violence as it happened rather than weeks later.
The NBA knew Sterling was a bigot, but the video tape forced them to act out against Sterling because they didn’t want to be viewed as tolerant to bigotry. The truth is, rich guys like Sterling are all a little quirky and as a group NBA owners accept the quirks in each other because they don’t want their own to be exposed.
Once again, in the NFL case, the press is working to make a story. In this case they are focusing on the NFL cover-up rather than the substance of the event; domestic violence.
For me, I’m concerned about whether a crime was committed when Rice slugged the woman. If that was a crime and Rice wasn’t arrested then I’m concerned about the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction in the community where the crime took place. They had the tape, did they do their job?
If the event wasn’t viewed as a crime then what SHOULD be done? Is there a distinction between domestic violence that is criminal behavior and another type that is not criminal behavior? Is it okay to hit your girlfriend a little? At what point does slapping her around become a crime? At what point does it become unacceptable behavior even if it’s not a crime?
The issue of domestic violence in our country is wide spread, not just in the NFL. In this case, we are looking at a high profile football player who punches his girlfriend. A case where the girl friend absolutely refuses to press charges against Rice, a man who she married after the beating.
So is the important issue that should be investigated, the NFL, and whether they knew or didn’t know or whether domestic violence is acceptable behavior in our society regardless of the profession or line of work.
A “women’s” organization pointed out that more than fifty cases of domestic violence against professional football players have been filed with the courts without much more than a peep from the NFL. Seemingly, the NFL condones bad behavior because they choose to do nothing about it when they learn it exists.
It appears that the NFL came late to moral outrage. But without a formal investigation, they kicked Ray Rice out of the league. The Baltimore Ravens canceled Rice’s contract and released him. All of this took place without an investigation further than the one where the Ravens suspended Rice for two games. That would suggest that at least the Ravens knew the real substance of Rice’s behavior from the beginning and felt that two games was appropriate punishment. Then changed their mind when clear evidence showing Rice slugging the woman became public. What was the two game suspension for?
Keep in mind that they don’t kick players out of the league for clearly criminal acts. Drug dealing and homicide gets you jail time, but then you come back. Suspension for a short time, maybe. Ray Rice was kicked out… permanently.
If Americans want to be outraged about domestic violence then let’s do it right. Let’s look at baseball players, basketball players and hockey players. Then we should look at policemen, firemen, lawyers, doctors and beer truck drivers. The issue of domestic violence isn’t an issue unique to any one line of work; it’s everywhere. The question is how important it is in society and how tolerant we are when we find it.
The problem in our country is we have lost our morality. We’ve become a country that accepts bad behavior because it takes too much effort to stand up for the right thing(s). Ultimately, this is one of the flaws that will bring our country down.
How much bad behavior can we tolerate?
When you know the guy you work with beats his wife or girlfriend, you assume some of his guilt if you don’t do something to stop it. The time when you kept your mouth shut and mind your own business has passed. If we expect society to deal harshly with domestic violence or drug use or any other criminal behavior, it has to start with each of us standing up and demanding that we start at the grass roots level and work out way up from there. Or we can start at the top and demand that our leaders perform to a higher moral standard and work down. Either way we have to start.
I don’t view Ray Rice any different than I do a police officer who beats his wife.
Demanding that Roger Goodell be fired is ludicrous. I don’t even care if Goodell was flat out lying. Absent a conduct policy in the NFL that is enforced like the drug use policy, it’s up to the individual teams to deal with cases. It certainly suggests that a discussion is warranted at the highest levels in every sports organization to determine their tolerance or willingness to act regarding bad behavior.
Sadly, I’m not holding my breath. Just look at professional organizations for lawyers and doctors. When they know there are members of their profession who are of questionable moral standing, they just keep their heads down and their mouths shut because they don’t want to speak up and strip a fellow of his or her ability to make a living. Bad behavior is accepted practice.
School teachers, fire fighters, policemen, accountants, stockbrokers… you name it; bad behavior is acceptable behavior.
Unless we stand up and demand better at a local level.
No Loss for Words 
America – The Land of Opportunity or Entitlement?
by Steve DanaIt never ceases to amaze me that millions of people from other countries want to come to America, the United States of America because of the opportunities, freedom and liberty that our country represents. Untold thousands of them are willing to literally risk their lives to come here illegally for a chance at a better life. Not the guarantee of a better life, but a chance at a better life. I can’t help but feel privileged to be an American.
The thing I admire about the immigrants is their courage to face the unknown; the only hope being that there would be the opportunity to work hard and be successful as in “the American Dream”. What an incredible motivation.
As you can probably tell, I’m a big proponent of “the land of opportunity” here in the USA. I can’t say that opportunities don’t exist in other countries, but the entrepreneurial attitude in America is special.
At the same time a significant segment of our population continually alleges that they are being held down, prevented from being successful “by the man”. Most often, the “man” is white men.
I don’t doubt that they have good reasons why they feel that way, but I wonder which “man” is really holding them down. I think sometimes that the industry of civil rights activists would be severely damaged if those people in the down-trodden communities discovered that they were being held down by their own leaders. Think about the quality of life of the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Reverend Jesse Jackson and other “leaders” in poor black communities, how many of them are poor black men? The leaders all seem to be doing well.
From an anecdotal perspective it appears to me that the communities that have received the most government assistance (supposedly to raise poor black people out of poverty) for the longest time (40 or 50 years) are the ones still in the worst condition. It is from my observations that I conclude that the type of assistance they are getting isn’t the type that produces the stated goals of the programs. Opportunity is the answer. Even in minority communities opportunity prevails. Just look at the kids who have athletic ability and make it out of the ghetto in sports. Or, look at the ones who have other obvious artistic ability like musical talent. Keep in mind that talent alone doesn’t get you out. Those athletes and musicians worked their butts off to be successful. They did take what they had and develop it enough to get to a higher level.
There is no question that a percentage of the population in any ethnic group will be victims and another percentage will be victimizers. I’m not just pointing my comments to black communities; the same thing is true in Hispanic, Asian and White communities as well. The vast majority of them will do what they must to not be the victims; they educate themselves and work their butts off.
Just as the immigrants who come to America don’t come with the intent of being a burden to society, but are victimized by the system (good or bad), native Americans can also be victimized. That’s native with a small n; Americans who have been here for generations.
That’s not to say that they can’t overcome that victimization because there are millions of examples of black Americans who work their butts off to get out of their personal ghetto and be successful along with white, brown and yellow Americans who have overcome their own challenges.
I don’t live in a minority community so my comments are just observations from the outside. I do know immigrants who have come to this country both legally and illegally and they are all hardworking people dedicated to being contributing members of American Society not looking for or expecting anything but an opportunity to show what they can do.
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