Tragedy should beget solace, but not silence.
In that spirit, many Illinoisans wrote to government officials earlier this week, prompted by a young man’s suicide, asking that the COVID-19 restrictions on high school sports be lifted.
We join them and hope more speak up.
Dylan Buckner was an exceptionally talented student and quarterback at Glenbrook North High School, unable to play his senior year because of Illinois’ restrictions on athletics. His suicide was reported last week by NBC Chicago.
This message was delivered by his father:
Covid is a complex issue. I don’t have all the facts or any answers. But for Dylan, football was worth the risk. Like many, he tried almost every day, often for hours. Speed training. Weights. Nutrition. Throwing. Film. Mental skills. For Dylan, what was best for him was clear. He needed to be in school. He needed to be with his friends. He needed to be with his teammates. He needed to be able to play football.
We may never know whether the ban on sports is what overcame Dylan, but we know that countless young men and women are distraught, and that Dylan’s suicide was not the first. We know how much sports mean to so many.
The COVID risk to them from sports, and the secondary risks they might impose on others if they were infected, are minimal. All of Illinois’ neighboring states are allowing high school sports, and each has seen fewer deaths per capita than Illinois.
We hope schools will reopen generally for in-person learning and all extracurricular activities, but short of that we ask that all who are responsible for setting policy, at a minimum, to reconsider the ban. Since Dylan’s death, however, we are aware of no reevaluation.
Please do not allow Dylan’s tragedy to end in silence. Lift the ban.
-Mark Glennon
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
So Pritzker has now decimated the Illinois populace to begging for freedoms from him?
One thing for sure Pritzker could never be a Hollywood star but in his current position he has more headlines than most stars and maybe that is his goal.
JB has decided that it’s better to be as absolutely partisan as possible and angering only 45% of the state’s population instead of taking a middle of the road approach and angering everyone.
I wonder what the logo will look like for his Presidential campaign. Mark/Ted aren’t going to like me for this, but does anyone want to take a stab at describing the logo?
🙂
Well, to be fair, let’s also ask for suggestions for what the Trump presidential center will look like, and where.
South Florida in a neo-classical style.
Neon. Lots of neon, like a Ft. Lauderdale Lamborghini dealership.
If you’re not promoting, you’re getting passed by.
Kool-Aid Man giving everyone the middle finger
LOL. I literally laughed out loud.
Mark, you are being too nice and polite.
If only the Left had such manners, we might be able to have civil discussion in this country.
Civility doesn’t work. Four years of TDS incivility ‘won’ them the presidency, the house and the senate.
I’m with you. I just miss it. I wish every discussion didn’t turn into a life-cancelling, Hitler-calling shout fest from the other side. I’m able to keep my composure, but I’m wary of talking with many, who I know have a mental illness that doesn’t allow them to control themselves.
And you don’t see that same wacko mental state operating here? I do! Civility died in America eons ago in much of our country.
It’s a valid point. But I see it as a chicken or the egg sort of thing. Conservatives generally like to be left alone and not bothered. Our whole mantra is less government and less intrusion into our lives. The Left, on the other hand, seems intent on controlling every aspect of our society and living condition. The Left has an opinion on what I should say, do, see, hear, feel, earn, pay, get, etc. (the list goes on). After being relentlessly attacked (first) for being racist, bigots, etc. conservatives just start shouting back. If you want to claim conservatives… Read more »
My sense of politics is more toward the middle generally but a little toward the left at times in terms of tolerance for my fellow man particularly. My comment was really aimed at those who are far right in their preferences expressed here. They are full of hate for anyone not sharing that view of how society should be. You surely recognize those people here—the ones who hate just about everything political in modern big-city American life, are prone towards wanting guns or some other form of intimidation, etc. They want action, and they want it NOW! Those are the… Read more »
Funny thing is, I live in the “modern big-city” (right in the heart of it), own a gun and can completely understand what happened at the Capitol a week ago. No, I wouldn’t be one that would have done it, but I don’t know why politicians are suddenly sacred, and exempt from the same things we have seen in our own cities all summer long. It’s a complicated issue — more than just the Left’s insistence that everyone on the Right is a piece of trash that should be cancelled, and more than the Right’s paranoia that everyone is out… Read more »
Who put the ban in place? The same person who’s been handed unlimited executive power 4eva! There is the malfeasance.
Oh stop begging Pritzker. He doesn’t care. I think he enjoys pretending he is a king and seeing people grovel.
I’ll bet he never played sports and doesn’t know the first thing about them.
Nor does he care.
Stop this groveling.
But if it applies to teddy then you can bet sports would be happening
Spanky’s only tool is a hammer, so every problem is a nail.
The Dictator must face criminal charges for the murders he has committed
The people of Illinois are far to stupid to know what is best for them, this is why the great and noble Governor Pritzker, needs to make sure you and your family are safe and well cared for, and if you disagree you are clearly a white supremist.