I don’t voice my opinion about political issues often on my blog, but I think this is going to be a hot topic since so many of you have children in sports. We live in a very small town in south Louisiana and our children play baseball/t-ball on the community league along with about 400 other children. My husband and I have coached and helped coach for the past three years and we LOVE IT! Our son made the all-star t-ball team last year which was a load of fun and we have been making preparations for him to be on the all-star coach pitch team this year. Isaiah does very well in the sport. We have invested a lot of time and money into this town and helping to build their recreation department as many other parents and children have. There are parents in our town who have many children playing on the recreation department’s league and have been for many years. My disappointment in this situation, I’m sure, pales in comparison to what some parents are feeling right now.

Let me start with saying that I did not witness the situation I’m about to describe; all of the information I have gotten has been second hand. The people I have gotten the information from are in positions of authority and “in the know” in our town, so I feel it is as accurate as any at this point. It seems our mayor had a “beef” with the coach who runs the recreation department for the town and, in a public display of anger and rage, fired the coach in a very unprofessional way in front of the entire crowd at the baseball park. Now, all of the children and parents who have invested so much into this program are left with tons of unanswered questions. Do we play more games? Is there going to still be a recreation department? Is our mayor sane? Is there going to be an all star team? Where do we go from here?

From what I have gathered, from several witnesses, the mayor won’t return phone calls and the few that he took today ended in frustration and the mayor actually hanging up on the callers, also known as TAX PAYERS! I tried to get in touch with the mayor to reach out and try to help organize the all-star teams. There was no answer at the mayor’s office at 4:00 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon. Not only was there no answer, but there was no voice mail or answering service. As ridiculous as this situation is; I have a feeling the same type of behavior happens across the country and the children, the reason we’re even playing, get caught in the crossfire. Why am I upset? Well, I’ll tell you:

A. Because my son, along with many other children,  were SO looking forward to playing on the all-star team.
B. Because we, as parents and coaches, work very hard to instill an atmosphere of sportsmanship and the mayor, a man with the highest ranking position in the town, can tear it all down in a few minutes of rage and anger.

Now, there are hundreds of parents and children who want and deserve to have their voices heard. I have a feeling, from my experience today, that it won’t happen. Have you ever experienced a situation like this? How did you react? What do you tell your children?