According to NPR [ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102591978&ft=1&f=3 ]:

A soccer coach says he was joking. But when parents didn’t get it, Michael Kinahan resigned from a Massachusetts youth soccer league. He sent an e-mail saying “losing is for losers.” He said the team would be known as “Green Death,” and that parents should cheer instead of sitting there “sipping mocha-latte-half-caf-chinos.”

…Honestly, I’m not surprised. Today’s soccer-parents (and many adults their age—that being slightly younger than the baby boomers) are children themselves who stare blankly into space, then throw a fit when someone breaks their meaningless concentration. The fact that just an email can escalate to someone loosing one’s job is the least surprising aspect of this story. These unengaged parents can throw quite a fit; and they’ve been doing it all their lives… they are the ones who will sue you for anything, paint over the arts, and raise a nation of undereducated brats, i.e. these parents are the modern manifestation of evil in our society (in line with other evils of western culture in recent history a la the Nazis, the KKK, the Evangelicals-in fact some may even fall into these groups).

The best part though is that one person who I assume is the only enlightened parent supporting the soccer team and felt she needed to comment on NPR’s website [ same link as above ]:

Red Hake (Red99) wrote:
To be fair you have to read his e-mail, keep in mind that the letter is written to the parents not the kids. The letter does have a sort of disclamer note alerting the reader that he is long winded and that they might need a sense of humor to read on. He has also written an e-mail resigning from his volunteer coaching position, this and the original can be found at -barstool sports-.

He explains that he is poking fun at the very same mentality he is accused of having. The entire second half of his letter is written in jest, some of if a little bitting if you have thin skin but in jest never the less.

He has coached many of these girls before and year after year thay want to be on his team because thay have fun. 

It all comes to end (apparently) when Mr. and Mrs Thurston Howell III (yes – this is a Gilligans Island reference)get offended.

The blow up of this from e-mail to the parents to someone (not him) posting it on the internet to local and reagonal papers and news stations to NPR picking up this story is a testament to our overal compleat lack of a sense of humor, the revolting level of political correctness and the apparently shallow uninteresting lives we lead that allows us to get somting this far out of proportion.

Now, while this parent has some spelling and punctuation issues, the last paragraph is dead-on. Behold another example of failure on a human level.

As I lingered out of bed this morning, I heard the familiar meter of the voices of National Public Radio beating from the alarm clock in the corner. The woman begins listing the stations currently broadcasting her voice, and I am reminded how odd it is that, while I’m a good 45 minutes by car from West Virginia, it is West Virginia Public Radio that reaches me on the mountain. Occasionally, I can pick up WETA 90.9fm (Washington, DC Public Radio—a good 45 minute drive in the other direction) from my car in the driveway, but that’s really only on a good day. I am saddened a bit that of the public radio available to me in my new home, I have only West Virginia and Washington, DC; nothing more local.

Just when I cross through the doorway to leave my bedroom, our radio lady announces “…and at 11:42am today, the sun crosses the equator and autumn officially begins.”

My mood quickly shifts from being a bit disappointed with the world around me to excited for the changes to the world around me. Very soon I will begin seeing the trees start to don their harvest colors. I look forward to discovering which of the trees around me will color first, which will carry more bright yellow, and which will elegantly flash orange and red. I delight in the fact that our local supermarket may even carry some local produce in the next few weeks. I think about making soups and chilies. Fall is only a few hours away, according the the soft-voiced woman on the radio; and I’m excited. Continue Reading »