The Lessons of Rutgers Women’s Basketball

The Don Imus comments on his show where … unfortunate to say the least. The statement was one of hate from a very hateful man. I believe Glenn Beck put it best when he said, “Don Imus hates everybody, but he hates himself the most”. But the statement was not what concerned me the most. In fact it was really nothing about Imus that concerned me most. What bothered me about this whole situation was the way the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team reacted to it.

I’ve faced a lot of hostel verbal bashing in my life and the one thing that I’ve learned is that the only way that someone can really offend you is if you give them the power to do so. And that is exactly what the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team has done.

They have allowed someone who has already been established to be a very hateful man, with many serious issued, to offend them. Rutgers Forward, Heather Zurich said during yesterday’s press conference, “Our moment here was taken away, our moment to celebrate our success”. The fact is this moment of success was not taken away by Don Imus, it was allowed to slip away by Heather Zurich, Coach C. Vivian Stringer and the rest of the Rutgers Basketball team. They’ve allowed themselves to be offended and they are the ones who are allowing the anger to burn inside their hearts.

Coach Stringer said, “Who amongst you could have heard these comments and not be upset?” Well, since she asked, I may as well answer. I wouldn’t have been upset. Why? Well, first of all I’ve been called a lot worse then a “nappy-headed ho”. Second, consider the source. The fact is the Rutgers Basketball team shouldn’t be offended; they should be looking upon Don Imus with pity.

He is just a sad man, who is not happy with the way his life has turned out and his comment is only a symptom of that.

The Rutgers Women worked hard to get to where they are and they have every right to pat them selves on the back. It just bothers me that they would leave one stupid comment destroy all of their hard work and accomplishments.

I would hope that we could all learn a lesson from this situation. The lesson is when someone offends us, we need to first consider the source. If the source is anybody like Don Imus, we need not give that person the power to destroy our lives. If we do, we are not only dragging ourselves down, we are also giving the offender validation.

Unfortunately, I believe that most people who have become familiar with this story over the past few days will not learn this lesson, because most of the media is busy talking about how bad a person Don Imus is. Ultimately this is going to give Imus all the free publicity he has ever wanted and, at least for a short time, he will be more popular then he has been in years. And as long as the Rutgers team chooses to let their anger simmer, they will not have a chance to enjoy the fruits of their labor.