"Drawing ANY parallel between physical spousal abuse and cheating on a spouse was a mistake, in my opinion."
i suspect i'm going to regret even the attempt, but, i'll give it one last try.
when we all sit down in a room, and we decide where we're going from here - which we must do when we visit the code of conduct for athletes, RDs, directors, officers, etc., going forward - i'm going to have to lay aside my own "code" in order to agree with my fellows as to the proper sportwide code of conduct and penalties for breaking the code. you don't want my own personal code enshrined into law, or into the USAT bylaws. i don't want yours. you and i together want to come up with a path forward that is enforceable, defensible, reasonable, fair.
in my own view, my own code, cheating on one's wife is such an affront to the trust and partnership in a marriage as to raise it to a level of offense that it sits up there in the heirarchy of bad deeds roughly within spitting distance of hitting one's wife. however, it's not reasonable, or healthy, or fair, for me to lay my own trip on you. i have to leave much of my own personal code at the door when i sit down with you and decide what our community of athletes should adopt as a code.
maybe i should have used a completely different analogy. maybe i should have written that my own code says that anybody who's ever been DQd from a race for 3 drafting penalties should not be allowed to sit on the board. however, that view might not be shared by others, and maybe i'll have to give on that in order to find common ground with everybody sitting in the room coming up with a code of conduct.
my mistake for writing at 12th grade level when 8th grade was clearly called for. but, probably also my mistake for coming up with a bad analogy in consideration of the charged atmosphere created by a very, very bad act. had i to do it over i'd have worked harder to produce a way of making my point differently. still, my guess is that somebody would have come on the forum asking how i dare equate spousal abuse with a race DQ.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
i suspect i'm going to regret even the attempt, but, i'll give it one last try.
when we all sit down in a room, and we decide where we're going from here - which we must do when we visit the code of conduct for athletes, RDs, directors, officers, etc., going forward - i'm going to have to lay aside my own "code" in order to agree with my fellows as to the proper sportwide code of conduct and penalties for breaking the code. you don't want my own personal code enshrined into law, or into the USAT bylaws. i don't want yours. you and i together want to come up with a path forward that is enforceable, defensible, reasonable, fair.
in my own view, my own code, cheating on one's wife is such an affront to the trust and partnership in a marriage as to raise it to a level of offense that it sits up there in the heirarchy of bad deeds roughly within spitting distance of hitting one's wife. however, it's not reasonable, or healthy, or fair, for me to lay my own trip on you. i have to leave much of my own personal code at the door when i sit down with you and decide what our community of athletes should adopt as a code.
maybe i should have used a completely different analogy. maybe i should have written that my own code says that anybody who's ever been DQd from a race for 3 drafting penalties should not be allowed to sit on the board. however, that view might not be shared by others, and maybe i'll have to give on that in order to find common ground with everybody sitting in the room coming up with a code of conduct.
my mistake for writing at 12th grade level when 8th grade was clearly called for. but, probably also my mistake for coming up with a bad analogy in consideration of the charged atmosphere created by a very, very bad act. had i to do it over i'd have worked harder to produce a way of making my point differently. still, my guess is that somebody would have come on the forum asking how i dare equate spousal abuse with a race DQ.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman