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The Federalist Diaries
Are
We Going to Lose This One?, Part 2
Libertarian
ideologues and moneygrubbers stand aside. Make room for the people.
Statement
of August 19, 2008, by Don McCanne,
retired
physician and an advocate on behalf of Physicians for a National Health
Program, an organization of fourteen thousand American physicians advocating
for single-payer national health insurance.
As you read the
following, ask yourself how Holyfield’s and others’ thinking affects our
democracy. In other words, do
you see here the same problem which led to the economic recession in which
we now find ourselves? And is
the cause of that problem a lack of good judgment, which begs the question
whether a democracy could function well if its constituents lacked the
self-control, knowledge, and experience to make good judgments?
The
Real Deal With Holyfield
How
come so many rich athletes are so poor?
by Glenn Minnis,
TheRoot.com
Aug.
1, 2008--"I'm not broke. I'm just not liquid," 45-year-old Evander
Holyfield argued earlier this month upon narrowly avoiding a court
appearance on charges that he was around $9,000 behind in court-ordered
child support payments for one of his 11 children.
…All
the "Why-does-Holyfield-keep-fighting?" questions have now given
way to thoughts of how can any one human manage to blow through some $200
million in riches before so much as embarking on life's golden years?
…He
spent and squandered so lavishly because, well, he felt he needed to do
that, too.
Consider
it the curse of being a world-class athlete, the maddening sense of
invincibility and entitlement that simply seems to come with the territory.
It's a formula that's proven as deadly as any opponent. One that can cut
short careers as quickly as it depletes bank accounts.
Michael
Vick and Mike Tyson both had it. So
did Marion Jones and Latrell Sprewell. In fact, so do roughly two in every
three NBA players, according to a recently published Toronto
Star article that assures that some 60 percent of them are guaranteed to be
destitute within five years of retiring.
…Sociology
professor Todd Boyd said on a segment of ESPN's Outside The Lines, when
attempting to delve into the mind of the modern day athlete, "You find
that there are many people who are depending on this person, who are looking
up to this person and who see this person's success as their own
success," he said. "As you go up the ladder, it's not always easy
to simply say to them, 'OK, now I'm in this new position. Would you back
off?'"
…"A
lot of players get in trouble because they want everyone around them to lead
the same lifestyle," he said. "You buy this big house for people,
and they no longer want to drive the low-end car to go with the big house.
So the big house leads to the big car, to the better clothes, to the better
restaurants and stuff. It's a snowball effect. You see how guys live."
…
November 13, 2008
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