The Mercy Rule

I heard what could be one of the most ridiculous things ever on the radio this evening. The host on my local talk radio station, 1210 WPHT, was detailing a recent story about a Peewee football game in Georgia. Why does a Philly radio station care about a kid's football game in Georgia? Allow me to explain...

Apparently, the league for these kids has a "mercy rule," which states that no team can score more than 33 points against another team. Not kidding.

Well, recently a team accidentally broke that rule when an 8-year-old boy returned an interception for his first ever touchdown, thus causing his team to exceed the 33-point limit. The team was fined - yes, fined - $500 as penalty for breaking the mercy rule.

But wait, that's not all. The coach was suspended for a week for running up the score. Nope, not kidding about that one, either.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is precisely what's wrong with this nation. Self-esteem is an awesome thing - when it's earned. As with all things, however, when it's just handed to you, it essentially means next to nothing.

The drive to compete is being exterminated from our society, and it's not by accident. All one need do is look to how badly our children are doing in worldwide education rankings over the last 40 years or so.

Liberals believe that fairness and equality mean that everyone, everywhere is equal, and if they're not then the government should make them so. What they don't understand - the equality is in the opportunity, not the results. Nobody on this planet is equal to any other in terms of talent, drive, etc., nor will they ever be equal. There's always someone out there better than you, better than me. That's just a fact of life.

We need to get back to teaching our kids that not only is life not fair, but success is OK. It's not something to be punished, but encouraged. Teaching them how to deal with failure is just as important, however, as people tend to learn more from failing than succeeding.

It's beyond time to bring back good, old-fashioned competition, and with it, American exceptionalism.

Let's have a mercy rule on the "mercy rule" before it's too late. ~ Hunter