Enough Is Enough

I’m sure you’ve heard the seemingly endless news stories concerning pro athletes and their off the field violations. They vary from DUIs, drug possession and of course, domestic violence. It seems as though there has not been a week that has gone by without a story breaking about a pro athlete and their brushes with the law. We in the public have come to know exactly what to expect once a pro athlete is accused of their crime. First comes a flat out denial from either the accused, or his lawyer. Once the evidence becomes more prevalent, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to hush the victims or witnesses, a press conference is called and there is usually a tearful confession laced with plastic apologies. Every news station runs the story ad nauseum, and there is a public outcry for the athlete to be tarred and feathered in the town’s square, and the league’s commissioner’s head on a platter. After a month or two we forget about it…that is, until another pro athlete goes on a rampage, then the whole sickening escapade happens all over again.

Unlike a vast majority of the public, I have been on both sides of the proverbial fence in this situation. No, I have never beat up my wife or been caught in a drunken or drugged out stupor, what I mean is that I was once a pro athlete. I wasn’t a multi-millionaire superstar, I played professional arena football, so I know what it’s like to be under a microscope by the fans and the media. Now, being that I have been in their shoes, does not mean that I have an ounce of sympathy for any pro athlete that screws up. What befuddles me, is that the money these guys are making has their minds jaded in the sense that they truly believe that because of their status and celebrity, they’re above the law. Now don’t get me wrong, I completely understand that we all make mistakes in the heat of the moment, but when you take zero precautions to prevent those mistakes from escalating into crime, you deserve to pay the price. In my opinion, if you decide to get loaded and smack around your wife, the privilege of making millions of dollars to play a game should be taken away for a MINIMUM of one year. These guys should not get slapped on the hand by the judicial system and the league, and given the opportunity to sit at home collecting a fat paycheck. Hell, if you or I were to commit these crimes, we would have the book thrown at us & prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It’s pathetic that the commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, thinks more in terms of ratings and sponsorship money, than that of the consequences his players’ actions have on the youth of America that look to these guys as if they were gods. I mean, there are so many underlying factors and consequences that are overlooked in these cases, that the up and coming athletes are being taught that because of your social and economic status as a pro athlete, you will be able to weather any criminal storm by throwing money from your over-flowing bank account at it. Even kids that have no aspirations of becoming a pro athletes are seeing that its ok to raise your hand to a female. In far too many cases, pro athletes serve as a role model to these kids that are being raised in a home where the male figure is absent. You would think that more athletes and celebrities would use their fame to encourage and inspire the youth, but sadly, that is just not the case. To many, it is “cooler” to show off their tricked out cars and their wads of cash. What a complete let-down we’ve become as a society as a whole. Instead of helping and assisting our fellow man, we instill envy and create hate. As a father, former athlete, and concerned citizen, I say enough is enough.-DG

Be A Parent, Not A Puppet

In starting this blog, I wasn’t sure what exactly it was going to be, or what exactly I was going to write about…hell, I still don’t know for certain. What I do know, is that I am very uneasy with the world that is developing around me and my kids. Now, I’m not going to rant and rave about how TV and video games are warping my kids’ poor little minds, because I’ve taught, and I am continuing to teach my kids to know right from wrong, and more importantly to truly be able to know the difference. I’m here because I feel that there are tons of parents out there that think the way I do, but don’t always hear about it in the news or in print, because the media always present things through rose-colored glasses. I’m here because people need to be made aware that they need to be held accountable for their actions, and to hold those around them accountable for the things they do. I feel that our society as a whole need to get back to the morals and values we once had way back when. In a time when there are so many advancements in science and technology, it seems as though we’ve taken numerous giant steps back when it comes to how we raise our children.

When I was coming up, there were many things that you just couldn’t do without extreme consequences. You could not go near the telephone when it was ringing. “Are you going to pay the bills around here?” my grandmother would ask. Children had no business answering an adult’s phone calls. Doing so would get you sent to your room, and repeat offenses got you a few swats of the belt. You can’t even raise your voice to children these days without being threatened to have CPS called on you, so parents are now being controlled by their kids. Talking back? Oh, I wouldn’t have dreamed to question ANYTHING my parents said. If my father said to me that I couldn’t go outside because it was raining fire, you’d bet your sweet butt I said “yes sir,” and walked right back inside. Children today are yelling and cussing at their parents in public! If I had yelled at my mother in the supermarket, she would’ve politely walked me to the car, while grinding her teeth while she smiled, only to throw me in the car and beat me with the seatbelt. (Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I can tell you it would’ve ended badly for me & I wouldn’t have been able to see the sun for a month.) Now that I’m a parent, my son’s mother & I agreed to not spank our kids unless there is an extreme case of disrespect, or if they do something dumb like bow up and challenge our authority. I think in my son’s 9 years of living, I’ve only spanked him twice. Never with a belt or switch, but just my hand. I can tell you that in both instances, it hurt me more than it hurt him. You see, since he was a baby, we have done our due diligence when it comes to teaching him right from wrong. His mother never let him pout until he got his way, she never let him yell and scream to get attention, and we both made sure that we wasn’t spoiled by either one of us, or by relatives. We never raised our voices to him, nor did we threaten him, it was just the norm for us to talk to him and explain why we don’t do such things. I’m not saying that this is the formula by which to raise all children, it is just what we found worked best with our son. I believe that if you truly exhibit a little patience and put forth the effort, you will find what works for you and your kids. I see parents that, instead of giving their kids a fraction of their time, they cower when it comes time to lay down the law. The result? You have kids having kids, children getting addicted to drugs younger and younger, and the drop-out rate in America skyrockets.

We as parents need to lay the groundwork early on in our households to ensure that our children don’t keep the ‘bad parenting cycle’ going for the next generation. I feel sick to my stomach at the thought that these children are going to grow to inherit the responsibility of running this country and ‘taking care’ of my generation. I hate to say it, but that’s the Ferocious Truth. -DG