Posted on 02/11/2015 12:10:56 PM PST by nikos1121
Rev. Jesse Jackson said Wednesday he is planning to celebrate Jackie Robinson West at a “Reaffirmation of Championship” celebration on Saturday.
The event will be held at 9:30 a.m. at Rainbow PUSH Coalition, 930 E. 50th St.
”I was upset to the point of tears this morning,” Jackson said, adding that he already had spoken to some of the parents of the players and was distressed to learn they had heard the news through the media.
Their children already have been harassed over the controversy, Jackson said, and “it’s not like the children are cheating.”
Violating a boundary line when parents have dealt with housing difficulties and are trying to find decent schools for their children can’t really be compared to other cheating, such as lying about their ages.
“There’s nothing these kids have done to have their championship erased,” Jackson said. “I hope the Las Vegas team will have the strength of character not to accept.”
While the actions of the Las Vegas team may be in doubt, the feelings of Mayor Rahm Emanuel were not.
Of all of the state and local politicians basking in the glow of JRW’s Cinderella run, nobody did more of it than the mayor.
And on Wednesday, he echoed Jackson’s sentiments, and reaffirmed that the children who did nothing wrong are still winners in his eyes.
Emanuel had held watch parties for JRW’s games at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., organized a rally for the exhausted team when they returned home and arranged for the massive parade from the South Side to a rally at Millennium Park to celebrate the U.S. title.
The mayor also mentioned Chicago’s boys of summer in virtually every speech he gave in an attempt to rebuild his standing with African-American voters who helped put him in office — voters who had soured on the mayor after he closed 50 public schools — a record number. He also featured them at a City Council meeting.
After JRW’s title was stripped Wednesday, Emanuel issued a carefully-worded statement that tried hard not to diminish, either the boys’ athletic achievement or the political benefit that the mayor got from it.
“These remarkable boys brought our entire city together and reminded all Chicagoans how important it is to support our children. They created memories that will last a lifetime and nothing will take that away. They showed the nation their character both on and off the field,” he said.
“The city remains united in its support of these great children and in our hearts, they will always be champions in Chicago.”
Far South Side Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), who coaches Little League and high school baseball, said the decision to strip JRW of the U.S. title that was the feel-good story of the year in Chicago is “very unfortunate,” but probably unavoidable.
“The kids did nothing wrong. They went out there and played fabulously. They had no idea what the adults did. There should have been some type of penalty for the adults. The adults are the ones who needed to be penalized — not the kids. Unfortunately, there’s no way to do that without taking away the title. That hurts the kids. You never want to hurt the kids,” Beale said.
“That was an amazing group of kids. You can’t take away the experience and everything they’ve accomplished. They lived the dream. They met the President. They went to the [Major League] World Series and to Disney World. It’s just unfortunate that, here we are once again. The acts of adults are hurting the kids. Hopefully, people will learn from this less and we never have to go down this road.”
And what is the lesson from all this?
“There’s no quick solution to success. Hard work pays off. You can’t cut corners and expect to get away with it,” Beale said.
Well.... Parent. Singular. Mother, more specifically. I would suspect not a lot of fathers are hanging around. And she’s busy working 3 jobs, dontcha know?
Not likely Chicago imports influenced 2008 much. Obama won numerous rural counties where outsiders stick out like a sore thumb and people know each other. Iowans really are that dumb. They don’t need to be pushed.
I have no problem believing that the kids weren’t aware that the boundaries were being violated. Unless someone comes forward with evidence that they knew (like were talking about it on social media) I think thats an angle that should be dropped. These kids showed truly exceptional ability getting to where they did.
The adults clearly knew and cheated. So it’s absolutely appropriate to strip the title and give it to the team that played by the rules.
This should be a good object lesson to those kids that:
1. You need to play by the rules and cheating will be penalized
2. There are plenty of situations where you’ll end up as collateral damage when others don’t play by the rules. That may not feel good, but its often part of life. It should provide incentive for you to hold others accountable for playing by the rules.
The team recruited suburban club team players. I guess they wrongly believed that they all look alike to white people. The suspicions arose because some of the more local teams players recognized some of them as teammates on some of the exclusive suburban club teams. They knew they were not from where they were pretending to be from. It was the twelve year olds who first knew.
parents that changes addresses on paper
Naturally, amongst the kid’s peers, he stuck out, for not being Asian, or White, and when he got in trouble for being disruptive, the fraud was revealed. Of course, she screamed RACISM, and her kid was allowed to quietly withdraw from the district, where as other fraudsters where made to pay restitution.
Let’s give the kids the benefit of the doubt okay? So, let’s have some reporter interview the kids, all of them, esp the ones who were actually living in the suburbs if they knew or suspected that they were packing the team with ringers.
HOw badly did the Vegas team lose by?
I thought LL rules allow you to take your all stars from your league? IOWs it’s not only the first place team of the league but you field the best players.
SO, yes if these kids played together on different, but in the same league ALL season, then I would think, NO the kids didn’t know they were cheating, and they shouldn’t be dumped on.
OTOH, if NEW kids appeared on the LLWS series then HELL YES they knew.
How about
Must be a Patriots fan..................
Right, most of them lived miles away in the burbs, and played together on a club team.
The coach of that club team just happened to be the coach of that JR west team.
Lesson seems to be that Black kids can’t excel unless they cheat.
Nice job Jackson. One more giant step backwards for Blacks.
We already know they can’t obey laws other people have to.
We already know that when they try to kill people, it’s no big deal. Hey, they’re Black.
How much more primal does it have to get, before some folks start thinking Blacks just don’t have the tools to recognized the evil in all this?
Righteous Blacks, please take a stand against this. Remain silent no longer. Those of you who CAN live by the same rules as everyone else, start calling Jackson and the mentally challenged among you out on this stuff.
I can defend Blacks until I’m blue in the face, but until Blacks demonstrate they can grasp the simplest of black and white issues, it won’t do any good.
Another-words, you’re your own worst enemy folks. Wake the hell up!
“Cheating” it’s the “Chicago” way. It works in elections why not little league baseball? The kids may pick up a few pointers that will help them make it through life in the Windy City.
I agree, it’s not about the kids...it’s about the corrupt culture at Little League.
A Maxine Waters-type Chicago Alderman actually said this in the wake of the news:
‘The kids won the title fair and square.’
I can tell you this. We could have been tricked by some kid's age but if we had a kid that was supposed to be playing elsewhere, we would have known.
Good time to plug my new bidness. I'm ordaining Deacons @ $5, Ministers $10 and Bishops $15.
“Las Vegas may get the title, but they don’t get to go to Disney World or the World Series.”
And on the plus side they didn’t have to meet obama.
I was hoping this was satire. Pathetic!
Reminds me of the folks who thought that the women that Bill Cosby drugged and raped had an obligation to keep silent because letting the truth out damaged Cosby’s reputation and the legacy of a beloved black man. Here the Las Vegas team is being told that they have an obligation not to accept what is rightfully theirs due to cheating by the Chicago team because the players on the Chicago team happen to be Black. it all boils down to color. Not fairness. Not playing by the rules. Not skills. Just the color of the players’ skin.
when I think of moral compasses ...I think of Jesse Jackson. BWHAHAHAHAHA.
Maybe the non-reverend can pray for Divine intervention.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.