BTW – My site uses Gravatars (Globaly Recognized Avatars) if you guys haven’t assigned one to your email addresses already. You can just go to http://en.gravatar.com/ and upload a picture to have you avatar go with you all over the place. We need more than just my mug on this thread, methinks.

It depends on whether the purpose of the reaction is to punish, or to discipline. Which is the better course?

Would it be fair to say that your thoughts on good and evil mostly have to do with our perception of consequences? I guess my question back to you would be this: Do these consequences have to be real in some sort of natural or social sense, or do they just have to be perceived in order to discern the nature of someone’s goodness or evilness?

It is interesting to consider that we are who we are when we believe that no one is looking.

In your 99% vs. 1% statement, it still seems that the “bad” people somehow turn bad due to their environment, education, or lack thereof. This starts to delve into the nature vs. nurture argument. Do you believe that humans are born with the tabula rasa? Maybe a diversion off of the sports discussion, but I think how we view our own nature has everything to do how we “play” with others. On the field, and in the rest of life.

I’m just saying it’s not that big of an offense…

Um, I’m probably the last one who should comment on someone losing their cool during a soccer game (Or perhaps I’m actually the most qualified?) but her comments that were published today were so ridiculous that I felt compelled to post, so let me address those first:

I would agree with her that most of the plays, while physical, were pretty typical plays that happen in every soccer game.

One issue that I had was that the “apparent punch, which she said was inadvertant” was clearly intentional (1:13 in above video). To me, this destroys her credibility, and sort of sours me on the rest of what she had to say.

The other issue is the claim that people are treating her more harshly because of her gender. The things that she is being judged so harshly for had nothing to do with rough play, because they had nothing to do with soccer. Punching someone in the face is not rough play. Nor is ripping them to the ground by their hair. In her defense, she should have been thrown out of the game long before that incident occurred for her very reckless “tough, physical play.”

As far as the good versus evil aspect of the argument? I think that there are varying levels of good and bad people all around us. The most indicative actions of the nature of a person are those that take place when no one is watching, or when there is no negative consequence for an action. Elizabeth Lambert surely would’ve acted differently if she knew millions of people were going to see that video. However, I think what we saw on ESPN might be more true to her character. We’ve seen what she is willing to do to get something as trivial as a win in a soccer game, so what reason would anyone ever have to think that she is the person she claims to be in her interview?

To answer your question 99% of people, in my opinion, are good people who occasionally do bad things in the heat of the moment. Every once in awhile you meet someone who seems to be the wrong balance of immature and ignorant about life, and thus comes across as a bad seed.

This happens during sports all the time and I agree with her that its over-hyped because she’s a woman. People don’t like seeing these pretty girls act the fool, but its gonna happen. Yes she was way over the top but I feel this was not nearly on the level of the Florida’s Brandon Spikes trying to gouge another players eyes out. He got suspended for a half I believe. Double standard.

Sidenote: How much better would that interview been if when asked why she acted like that she had responded “I’ve been spending most my life living in a gangsta’s paradise” ?