Starting today we here at Moose's Beard are going to start the "Friday Rambles." Where anything is on the table.
US Women's Gymnastics was in the news this week. And this is not a ramble about what happened, but more for the bravery of the young women who had to suffer through this for so many years. This story brought me to tears this week. Not many things really can, but when you hear or read what Ally Raisman said along with the other young women, as well as the judge, I'm not sure how you cannot get a little teary eyed.
I read a Washington Post article by the incomparable Sally Jenkins. She goes into enough detail about this that I would rather not sensationalize it. I would say just read the article. In it though, she makes a plea, more like demands Congress to dissolve the governing body of U.S. Women's Gymanstics who swept all of this under the rug and, while they may have not committed the crime, they are culpable. Which in my opinion is just as bad.
Knowing that something is wrong and doing nothing about it is deplorable. Especially when you are the authority and have the authority to make it to stop. We've seen this in far too many cases where something tremendously horrific was happening and the powers that be simply swept it under the rug, or "dealt with it in house." Rather than exposing it from the beginning. Joe Paterno won a lot of games for Penn State, and good for him, but Jerry Sandusky happened under his watch.
Culpability is at play and whcn culpable you receive no empathy from me. Michigan State University is part in parcel of the governing body of the latest. The president of the university resigned, but gets no empathy. Nor does the university.
This isn't athletes accepting bribes from agents. This is something far worse. This is something that has been going on for years, and not just years a decade and longer. No sympathy from me. So many questions of how and why would the one's who knew continue to let it happen and do literally nothing. Until finally some brave women stood up and said no more. They are the story in this, and there are likely many more who have not come forward.
I ramble about this in standing next to them in solidarity with them and anyone who has gone through something similar. Luckily for me I have not. Luckily for me I have loving parents and coaches in baseball who were never like this. My luck is someone else's pain or someone else's bravery with standing up.
In a world of selfies and likes and wanting the attention, this is disturbingly ironic how after twenty years this finally got attention. For that all these women should be applauded, and hopefully soon Senators McCain and Gillibrand will dissolve the USOC, and we can progress into something much better and with more oversight.
Until that pound of the gavel I hope folks will not be afraid to stand up and say something. That is the take away for me. That these intense and strong competitors took that and used it to fight a monster, and won.
