Non-YSU Sports and Other > General BS

Backlash over Ron Brown hiring has already started

<< < (3/6) > >>

Lets_Talk:
Of the people who have replied, it seems the only person that understands is Happy Penguin.

YSU would be wise to give Ron Brown a very, very, very short leash. He is known to be an excellent recruiter and a good coach. I hope it has been made VERY CLEAR to him and to Bo Pelini that Brown was hired to be a FOOTBALL COACH, not an Evangelist. He can do whatever he wishes on his own time, and provided he does not present himself, or is not presented as Ron Brown, assistant football coach at Youngstown State University" when doing public speaking about religion, same sex marriage, discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity, or other issues of this kind.

1AA Fan, I have no idea what you are talking about by saying Dana School of Music was "conservative", or that YSU was mostly a school teaching fields such as Business, Science and Engineering , and those fields are dominated by people with conservative ideologies? I graduated from YSU College of Business in 1991. I enrolled at YSU in 1986. At the time, many people did not even think the YSU College of Business was accredited, because the school did not have accreditation with AACSB, the highest standard of achievement for a business school. It was not until the late 90's at the earliest that YSU finally received AACSB accreditation. As for Dana School of Music, wow is all I can say to your comments. Just wow. I mean ,it's the arts for crying out loud. You do not find more diversity and a wider range of people from all backgrounds than in the arts, even at YSU. And, this was true when I was in school at YSU from 86-91. Maybe it was not the case in the 70's, but I find that very, very, very hard to believe. Most likely, people just kept things hidden more back then, which is a sad commentary on the way things were during that period of time.

Brown is free to have his beliefs. That is NOT THE ISSUE. Why is this so hard for people to understand? He represents Youngstown State University. And, he has made it clear when at Nebraska that he used his position as football coach to espouse his beliefs, and even try to spread those beliefs to others. He has said in interviews if there was a player on the team who is gay, he would go and try to help that player as they struggle with their sexual orientation. Well, what if the player is not struggling at all with being gay? What if they are fine with being who they are? Why would ther be any need for Brown to go and talk to that player about their sexual orientation?

Same if we are talking about a heterosexual player who is having sex with their girl friend. Brown has admitted he speaks to players he knows are having sex outside of marriage and tells them they are sinning. Who the hell cares? That is HIS PERSONAL BELIEF. Heck, not even all people who are Christian agree with Brown on that issue, nor do all people that are Christian agree with Brown's anit-gay views. He has NO BUSINESS chastising players for having sex with their girlfriend, with the possible exception of him finding out there is abuse taking place in the relationship.  I also do not see an issue with coach's reminding a player, or team as a whole, about the importance of practicing safe sex, taking responsibility for their actions if sexually active, and being man enough to help raise a child if they father a child? Otherwise, unless a player goes to a coach with a question or questions about what to do in regards to situations that arise in regards to dating, then there is NO REASON for a coach to be preaching to a kid about this topic. Same with drinking alcohol, provided the kid is 21 and not violating any school or team rules on the use of alcohol. Especially when it is not football season.

When it comes to players that are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Atheist, or even of Christian denominations that Brown mat consider to not actually be Christian, It is NOT his job as a football coach to try and "save" these players or ANYONE by getting them to accept the type of Christianity he practices. It honestly would not surprise me if Ron Brown consider's people who are Catholic to not be "saved". I have friends, well, former friends, that believe this to be true. Most of these are former Catholic's, who fell away, or had some kind of moment they deem as a "coming to Jesus moment", and then feel a need to save all of their family and friends who are still Catholic. Something tells me there are alot more Catholics in Youngstown/Warren than in Lincoln, NE

If Ron Brown wants to coach football AND use his position as a coach to evangelize and try to "save" people, then he ought to coach at a Christian College or at a Christian High School.

And, let me ask this question. What if Ron Brown was a devout Muslim instead of a devout Christian? And, what if he used his position as football coach to try and convert people to Islam? To spread the teachings of The Prophet Muhammad? How would that play in Youngstown and NE Ohio? My guess is not well at all, and my guess is it would not play well with people saying this issue is being blown out of proportion.

Ron Brown while at Nebraska, went to a meeting on an ANTI-DISCRIMINATION ordinance and spoke in opposition. When doing so, he gave his address as the football stadium at The University of Nebraska. That can easily be inferred that he was representing the University, or at the very least the football program with his views.

As a person who is both transgender and a lesbian, it saddens me that people such as Browen believe I am in some way helping cause the destruction of the United States. He would also lead people to believe that my marriage is in some way less valuable and less of a marriage than that of a heterosexual couple. My wife is an outstanding Elementary School teacher. She wears her wedding band. The Principal and a few teaches know we are married. Students in her class know she is married. However, she does NOT do anything that other teachers who are married do not do when at work. She will just mention her wife instead of her husband if having a discussion with another person, and mentioning me is pertinent to the conversation. A person such as Ron Brown would wish that we could not even be married, let alone her be able to talk about me openly in the same way people who are "straight" talk about their spouses and/or people they are dating. And, the same applies for me when speaking about my wife.

Ron Brown espouses bigotry, discrimination and intolerance, and does so while using his platform as an employee at a PUBLIC UNIVERSITY!! That is the problem I have with Ron Brown, not his beliefs. Again, he can believe whatever he wishes to believe. But he is NOT going to be working at YSU as an evangelist, youth pastor or anything of that nature. He is going to, or is, employed as a FOOTBALL COACH.

Coach Slocum has a very strong faith in God. So does Jim Tressel, Ron Stoops Jr and likely several others. Both Coach "D" and Dan Peters had/have a strong faith in God. I used to see them at Mass on occasion at St. Columba Cathedral. I would also see them on occasion at Mass in Kilcawley on days such as Ash Wednesday. None of these people made the kinds of comments publicly that Ron Brown makes, and fror which Brown sees no reason to apologize. They may well have used their faith in God to help shape the way they coached and dealt with people, but that did not mean making comments that can be deemed bigoted and/or discriminatory, or even creating an environment in which this would be allowed or tolerated.So, does this mean that Ron Brown is a "better man of faith" than the coaches I mentioned?

Jim Tressel did an interview in 2010 with Out Sports,  a magazine that bills itself as “a lifestyle and advocacy publication” for the local gay community is enough. Here was Tressel's answer about gay athlete's and sports and when asked how he would deal with a player who was openly gay:

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-tressel030810
..."Why are there so few openly gay athletes, the magazine asked Tressel.

...“What we have, quite often, with our athletes, and with a number of young people in any sport, is that from the time they were 6 or 7 years old, their identity has been through sports,” Tressel wrote back. “You’re the tallest, you’re the fastest, you’re the best player. All their feedback has come in terms of their role as a player, and they are often hesitant to go beyond that narrow role.

“An opportunity and a real challenge we have when they get to college is to get them to see themselves with a broader lens. … We want our guys to define themselves in terms of who they are and not simply ‘what they do’ with a certain block of their time. …

“The greatest achievement we can have as coaches is that a young man leaves us with a concept of who he is, what he wants from life, and what he can share with others – someone who is ‘comfortable in his own skin,’ and that identity can go in a number of directions.”

What would the reaction be to an openly gay Buckeye player, he was asked.

“One, we are a family. If you haven’t learned from your family at home that people have differences and those strengthen the whole, then you are hopefully going to learn it as part of the Ohio State football family,” Tressel wrote.

“Two, every part of our team is important and every role has value – no job is too small and no person is irrelevant – that’s a great lesson that transcends into society. When I think of the diversity we’ve had on our team the past few years, it goes way beyond just a racial, sexual or ethnic mix. We’ve had players who had different religions, players who came from different economic backgrounds, players who are parents, who are spouses, who are caring for ailing parents, who are wheelchair bound, who are battling cancer, and on and on.

“Whatever a young man feels called to express, I hope we will help him do it in a supportive environment. Everybody is important, and maturity is learning to find and appreciate those differences in others.”"...

Now, compare this to Ron Brown, who believes that HIS version of Christianity is the ONE AND ONLY WAY. Who believes that people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender are abominations, and who need to be "cured" of their affliction. Trying to "cure" a person who is LGBT does NOT make said person comfortable in their own skin. Trust me, I know that from life experience. Yet, Ron Brown makes no bones about the fact he would try to cure or fix a player who is gay.

guinpen:
Couple of final points by me on this topic,

There is something to be said for brevity.

How about we treat the players as adults and trust that they are mature enough to deal with him, and what he may or may not say, as they should.

IAA Fan:
Lets_Talk, in the time period that you were talking about (looks like I am 3or4-years your senior) YSU was even more conservative then at almost any post-1950 era. Come on, the school was commuter-based, with far more land dedicated to parking than all sports and academic facilities combined. Lot's of family men trying to get a raise at work or hoping to get out. Lot's of post war era people getting the GI bill.  Just what % of these people are socially liberal? How about .0000000001% (which is probably an over-estimate). (no matter what Cimino, Kubrick, or Coppola would have you believe ...most military men are quite conservative).

As to Dana, the school was quite different back then. Students dreamed of performing in the Cleveland Orchestra ...not at the Cleveland tryouts for "American Idol" or "Voice". I remember when the president agreed to initially fund the alternative school they nicknamed "FAME", just to keep that kind out of Dana.  I had a second major in Speech, Communications & Theater (damn you WKRP) and also played horn in YSU Jazz-III; so I roamed the halls of Dana most-every day. I am well-aware of "the arts", but believe me; Dana was such a completely different animal back then.

Today, we (YSU) have built over those parking lots (unfortunately maybe too many of them), we have become far more of a destination campus which attracts a much more diverse student population. Title-IX has reshaped our student population more than anyone will ever know. It is just a whole new world. That world holds good and bad ....far more bad than I am used to from the late 70's through the 80's. When I was once one, it used to be that naivety & artlessness caused fear in a young man ...now it is artfulness and sophistication. That is why we like our football to be smash-mouth :)

go guins:
 This whole thing has me at a loss.  Ron Brown should be on a short leash because??  I understand he is outspoken, but let's be honest, Muslims certainly wear their religious beliefs "on their sleeve."  Literally, you can see it from a 1/2 mile away.  And isn't free speech part of what we believe and teach at YSU? 
If we are going to be "all inclusive" and everybody's opinion is valuable and in fact needed.  How do we justify our bias against bigots?  If Muslims are welcome, gays welcome, transgenders welcome why aren't fundamentalist Christians and bigots welcome? 

go guins:
Let's_Talk
“Whatever a young man feels called to express, I hope we will help him do it in a supportive environment. Everybody is important, and maturity is learning to find and appreciate those differences in others.”"...

What about homophobes?  Don't we want to welcome them?  Appreciate their contributions?  Welcome their input?  If we want to be “all-inclusive” for only those who agree with us isn’t exactly being inclusive, now is it?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page