Former sports editor (& SJ.com poster) arrested in connection with bank robbery

Re: Former sports editor (& SportsJournalists.com poster) arrested in connection with bank robb

Good questions, Notepad, and not as easy to answer as perhaps they should be.

Pretty much everybody I know has done things of which they are not proud. A few of those people have crossed lines I won't cross. I don't think less of them.

This situation, of course, goes a bit beyond "crossing a line." I concede that.

That said, my personal answer to your questions, speaking only for myself, is yes. After he serves his time and gets the help he needs, he'd be welcome to come hang out anytime. But, yes, I also would need to know he was sorry for what he did and serious about getting his life back on track.

 

Huh?
Every single post of yours is judgemental as hell.

Please. Spare us the "I wouldn't rob a bank" pronouncements. You have no idea what you'd do given the situation.

I used to know a guy whose son played hockey & baseball with my kid.

Terrific guy. First class parent, great with kids, would give you the shirt off his back. We coached baseball together.

Problem was, the guy was a petty criminal. Stole from trucks in the middle of the night while they were in the yard. Electronics, hockey equipment, that sorta stuff.

He did it because it was a challenge. He never got caught and eventually his wife laid down the law and he stopped.

I told him he was an idiot for doing it but it never changed the fact that --at the time --I considered him a friend.

 

In a heartbeat...and we'd listen to CDs all night of his favorite artist of all time - Prince.

 

Again, I say, you're wrong.

I'll make the same pronouncement.

Like IJAG, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the arguments with what Notepad said about this.

 

Agreed. I can understand desperation, but you have a moral core that you abide by. And it's something that can withstand "two or three bad breaks". I'm not saying I can predict exactly what I would do in every circumstance, but if you can rob a bank after a couple of bad breaks, then "not robbing a bank" isn't entrenched very deep in your morality.

 

Too many people apply apologism instead of empathy.

That's the problem.

 

If you can give me an example on this thread of what you consider apologism, I'll give you a nickel.

 

Absolutely right.

 

Oh... it's littered all over this thread.

The idea that because a few of a you worked with a guy for a few days a week and shared some sweat and laughs, that that should ameliorate the reaction here... THAT is littered all over this thread.

IJAG is right on with the post at the top of this page.

 

Well pick up a scrap of litter and get back to me then. I see people feeling bad for the guy because they knew him. Don't see anyone suggesting he didn't do wrong or doesn't deserve to get punished.

People screw up and do bad things. Doesn't mean they are all bad.

 

No... the posts I am referring to are not cases of people "feeling bad" for him.

Instead, I am talking about the scolding of people who don't seem to share such an outwardly fuzzy feeling about the guy.

But keep your blinders on.

 

Don't see what you're not getting. No, nobody is saying those words, but the feeling of "give the guy a break" oozes from this thread.