Tag Archives: Down syndrome

Sports news

Greed, selfishness? Not with this superstar

I used to watch baseball religiously. I don’t do so much any longer.

Free agency kind of took a lot of the fun out of the game for me. Athletes are getting paid a lot of money to play a game. Many of them behave badly when they get those millions of bucks. They move around from team to team, looking to play for the outfit that offers them the most money.

Many others of them keep it all in perspective.

One player I do enjoy watching is a future Hall of Famer, Albert Pujols. Yes, Pujols looked for a fat contract after playing many years in St. Louis. He’s now a first baseman for the Los Angeles Angels. His best years likely are behind him.

He also has maintained his reputation as a thoroughly decent human being.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/albert-pujols–touching-gesture-for-brother-of-dodgers-outfielder-joc-pederson-033106483.html

This link is about Pujols meeting a young man with Down syndrome, something about which Pujols has intimate knowledge: His eldest daughter, Isabella, also has the disease.

This story is heartwarming in the extreme and it illustrates that goodness does reside even inside ballplayers who often are tempted to look the other way when given a chance to demonstrate an act of kindness toward those who follow their athletic exploits.

Well done, Albert.

 

national news

PETA gets its dander up again

I’ve posted plenty of negative comments about the former half-term Alaska governor, and one-time Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Does she deserve the beating she’s getting over her son’s treatment of a family pet?

I don’t believe so.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/sarah-palin-peta-criticism-113928.html?hp=l1_3

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has criticized Palin because her son, Trig, is using the dog as a step-stool. Why, it’s just cruel, PETA says. Palin should teach her son how to treat animals. It’s irresponsible of her to allow young Trig to brutalize the family pet.

“It’s odd that anyone — let alone a mother — would find it appropriate to post such a thing, with no apparent sympathy for the dog in the photo,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement to POLITICO.

Come on.

Trig has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. He’s a special needs child. What’s more — and perhaps this is most critical — he is a child. A boy.

I posted some commentary on this blog how right-wingers should refrain from criticizing President Obama’s daughters. The kids are off limits.

The same rule ought to apply to Trig Palin.

When I first heard of this dust-up my thoughts turned immediately to President Lyndon Johnson’s (in)famous incident in which he lifted his beagles — Him and Her — off the ground by their ears. PETA would have raised a lot of hell back then as well. If memory serves, the pooches enjoyed long lives after LBJ hoisted them by their ears.

Sarah Palin continues to be a prime target for criticism almost every time she opens her mouth. But on this issue? Leave her son alone.