This week's post comes from the world of sports. Last week, Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the Miami Marlins, told Time magazine that he "loved" and "respected" Fidel Castro, who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2011. These comments caused an uproar in the Cuban-American community of South Florida, even resulting in protests outside of the new Marlins stadium, which is located in the "Little Havana" section of Miami. Coinciding with the opening of the new stadium is a big push to attract new fans for a franchise that has traditionally had little support for the local community. On Tuesday, Guillen was suspended by the Marlins for 5 games because of the "seriousness of the comments attributed to Guillen." Major League Baseball supported the Marlins decision, with commissioner Bud Selig calling the remarks "offensive" and saying that "they have no place in our game."
Jeez, so much for that little thing called free speech. Now I am not saying that the Marlins or Major League Baseball should be unable to suspend Guillen. They are the one's who write the checks, so it's their decision on how to handle an employee that made questionable comments. Nor am I questioning the rights of Cuban-American's in the Miami area to speak out and protest comments that they find offensive. But since when did anybody care about the comments of the Marlin's manager? I understand that he is Latino, but this uproar over his "insensitive" comments strikes me as a bit overblown. I don't remember nearly this much controversy when Guillen was managing the White Sox and called Jay Mariotti(who really is a true asshole) a "fag."
Even more than this, do we really want to live in a society where nobody says anything offensive? A place where no one says anything that may hurt someone else's "feelings"? That place sounds incredibly boring and I don't think I would want to live there. I'm not saying that you should turn to the person next to you and scream profanities in their face because you can, but speech that goes against the grain and challenges the status quo is a healthy part of any democracy.
Sources:
-ESPN story
-CSM story
Jeez, so much for that little thing called free speech. Now I am not saying that the Marlins or Major League Baseball should be unable to suspend Guillen. They are the one's who write the checks, so it's their decision on how to handle an employee that made questionable comments. Nor am I questioning the rights of Cuban-American's in the Miami area to speak out and protest comments that they find offensive. But since when did anybody care about the comments of the Marlin's manager? I understand that he is Latino, but this uproar over his "insensitive" comments strikes me as a bit overblown. I don't remember nearly this much controversy when Guillen was managing the White Sox and called Jay Mariotti(who really is a true asshole) a "fag."
Even more than this, do we really want to live in a society where nobody says anything offensive? A place where no one says anything that may hurt someone else's "feelings"? That place sounds incredibly boring and I don't think I would want to live there. I'm not saying that you should turn to the person next to you and scream profanities in their face because you can, but speech that goes against the grain and challenges the status quo is a healthy part of any democracy.
Sources:
-ESPN story
-CSM story
I had not heard about this story this week. It could probably we attributed to the fact that I am completely oblivious to the world of baseball and everything around it. I do not think that this is the most terrible thing to happen. As much as I despise Fidel Castro he did wonders for the country in the first half of his tenure. He helped to stable a poltically corrupt and unstable governement. Now knowing you, you may completely disagree with these opnions.
ReplyDeleteI think freedom of speech is the most valuable right that we have as citizens of the US and I agree with you that even hateful speech should be allowed. Don't quote me on this but I'm pretty sure that legally, you can say anything hateful you want as long as it doesn't directly cause violence. But then again I'm sure MLB has its own rules...
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