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The
views expressed
on this page are soley those of the author and do not
necessarily
represent the views of County News Online
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The Beneficiaries of
our Actions
Ackley, the Community & Lessons to be Learned
That’s My Opinion
By Bob Robinson
“I was showing the frustration… the hard work… trying to get that
elusive first win…” said cartoonist and local artist Paul Ackley on
Friday.
It seems that many members of the community missed his intent. For
almost every person who commented on it, there was a different opinion.
“I thought it was right on,” said one reader. “The game is about
winning. They aren’t winning.”
“I didn’t see a problem with it,” said another reader. “It is what it
is.”
“They were p****d,” said a GHS student, referring to members of the
football team. “They were really upset.”
Another student said the problem wasn’t the team as much as it was the
lack of support from the community…
If you’re winning, they show up. They get into the game. If you aren’t,
they stop showing up, she said with disgust. Or they sit there and yell
out things like ‘do something… get off your ***!’
Another reader was upset over what she referred to as a “ridiculous
emphasis on sports.”
“It’s just a game,” she said, noting that there was far too much
importance placed on football and other sports programs in high school.
“What about art? Music? Why do we have to put so much emphasis on
sports but almost none in these other areas?” said yet another person.
The controversy? A cartoon of Paul Ackley’s that appeared in the Daily
Advocate on Friday, Sept. 7. It depicted a football player on one knee
at a silent Victory Bell, holding a football, a look of frustration on
his face. Reportedly one or more coaches complained to the paper. This
has not been confirmed.
Ackley submitted
his resignation on Monday.
The Advocate published a letter of apology on Tuesday.
Ackley said that a lot of his fans have told him they are angry about
the series of events… “Freedom of speech… not a thing wrong with it…
your service to the community” and more.
“One reader actually sat down right over there,” he said, pointing,
“opened up her laptop and fired off a letter to the editor.”
Regardless of the perspective, the news of the day in Greenville, Darke
County, Ohio for the past week has been a cartoon drawn by local artist
Paul Ackley and published in the county’s local daily newspaper. The
controversy ended in the resignation of an award-winning cartoonist
with a 34-year history with the paper.
That in itself is unfortunate.
I talked with Advocate Managing Editor Christina Chalmers as well as
Ackley. I don’t believe either is happy with the way things turned out,
but as one reader said of the cartoon… “It is what it is.”
My concern is in the varied “messages” I got from the others I talked
with, and the general problem we seem to have with the concept of
“communication.”
Communication is tough, especially when taken lightly as we seem to do
today.
Good communication is a series of skills that seems to have been lost
over the decades. Sending AND receiving a message are almost unheard of
concepts. I can remember when I would publish a column in which there
was strong disagreement on the topic… it would sometimes be taken in a
half dozen different ways.
And not even resemble my intended opinion, no matter how hard I tried
to clarify it.
I don’t agree with the popular concept that sports is only about
winning, especially at the secondary and college levels. It isn’t… or
at least it shouldn’t be. Win or lose, it’s about learning the game,
building team spirit, cooperation, leadership, competition and the
strength of character needed to be successful in the real world beyond
the platform of education.
I also don’t agree that sports is over-rated, except in the cases where
individuals or institutions have chosen to abuse it. Sports is a
powerful teaching tool. It prepares students for life beyond the
campus. At the high school level, it can help students achieve a
college education that might otherwise have been out of reach. At the
college level it could be the preparation for a chosen career… just as
journalism, art, sociology or mechanical engineering might be.
The mental skills that should have been learned in a sports program can
be adapted to almost any career objective.
Here’s the real problem. We perceive success not as learning, striving,
improving, and finally reaching our goal, but simply as winning. We
seem to have forgotten that there is always a learning curve. We seem
to have forgotten that this is a training ground for how we will face
the rest of our lives.
With some exceptions, I don’t think the participants have forgotten.
But I think those who should be supporting and mentoring these kids,
especially in the community, have forgotten.
Schools are always hurting for money (another topic entirely). Art and
music, while requiring similar discipline, training and talent, don’t
generate the community interest that a winning football or basketball
team does. In today’s world these programs generate income.
To me, that’s sad. I love music, art and the performing arts. Much of
my time in college revolved around music and the theatre. But right or
wrong, this is a facet of our society that is not likely to change.
What can and should change, however, is how we as a community support
our young people.
When I was close to graduation with my journalism degree from Texas
A&M (1969), I attended a Little League game that a buddy’s little
brother was playing in.
I was ashamed. I wrote an article for the local newspaper depicting the
12-year-old kid, still standing on the mound after finally getting out
of a 6-0 hammering by the opposition… shoulders shaking with grief and
tears streaming down his face.
Not only had the opposition hammered him, but so had the parents in the
stands.
The parents!!! The models by which we learn so much as we grow up. They
taught that child a lesson that day. One that he likely will never
forget. And likely will pass on to his kids.
The parents, of course, later hammered me for writing about it.
Maybe we are seeing the fruits of that lesson? I hope not.
There has been a lot of anger expressed in the last few days. Maybe
it’s misdirected. Maybe it isn’t. Take your pick. The Wave won a
hard-fought game against West Carrolton Friday night. So was the effort
a reaction to that anger, or was it the result of a simple desire to
get better and chalk up a win?
Maybe there are lessons to be learned from these events. Did we? Learn
from them? I don’t know. Maybe we’ll never know.
Just don’t forget the beneficiaries of our actions… the ones who are
impacted the most in the long run.
After all, this is really about them. Isn’t it?
That’s My Opinion. What’s Yours?
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