Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

What a week for people in power. Three different instances showing how people have gone on power trips and basically shown their ass and shown how big of an ass they are. Let's get started.

Let's start on the high school level and work our way up. My first story comes from Illinois, where a team was given a technical foul at the start of the state 3A semi-final game for a uniform violation. North Lawndale College Prep received a technical because stripes on the sides of its uniform violated a National Federation of State High School Associations rule. Something they had not been penalized for all year long, at least until the start of the semi-final game. A game in which they lost by one point.

The rule states that the torso of the jersey must be a solid color and that side stripes must center vertically below the armpit and be no more than four inches wide. North Lawndale's uniform featured black stripes that curled around the armpits into the torso.This has to be the dumbest rule I have ever come across.

A team of young men, who had worked hard all year long and never been penalized before gets one game away from the state championship and then they get penalized? What the hell is up with this? Should the team, in the economy we are facing today, spent school fund to purchase new uniforms for the last two games of the season? That makes since seeing how schools across the country are shutting down extra-curricular programs left and right, letting teachers go and over-crowding the classrooms and not to mention schools are closing down all together.

Again, let me emphasize, the school HAD NEVER BEEN PENALIZED BEFORE THIS GAME!

In the end, they lost the game and played for third place and were penalized again for the uniform violation but went on to win that game with ease. This is absolutely ridiculous to punish these kids for something they had no control over and something that the state had not bothered to penalize them for before. This is just another sign of people in power taking it too far and penalizing someone who did nothing wrong. It was stated that the uniform violation made it hard to identify the team from the other team. How is this if the other team didn't have the same violation? If they had both had the violation then I could see it being hard to identify them apart. Then again, when one team is in a white uniform and the other is in a dark color, how is it so damn hard to tell them apart? Not to mention the names on the front of the jerseys as well.

Make all the excuses you want, but the bottom line is the Illinois UIL and the officials were wrong in their decision to penalize this team and costing them a state championship, or at least a chance at playing for one.

Let's move to the college ranks now, where a licensing agent for the University of Missouri has contacted the Harrisburg School District, in South Dakota, saying the school's tiger logo is "confusingly similar" to the Missouri tiger.

Here we go with more stupidity from people in power as the high school is now having to phase out the logo from all their school programs and properties.Last time I checked, the University of Missouri did not own the rights to the proud beast we know as the tiger. Hell, now we are at the point in our society where people are getting pissed because someone else's logo looks like theirs?

This is stupid and again, will cost school districts a boat load of cash as I am sure this will not be the first school forced to change their logo because someone else feels their individuality has been infringed on because someone else's uniform logo or mascot looks like theirs. DAMN PEOPLE GET A LIFE!

It was bad enough that people raised hell over the Indian mascot of several professional and college teams stating that it was not fair to those of Native Indian decent. Now we have people upset over an animal mascot picture base?

What next?

Are we going to have problems because people have the same last name as another player on their jersey? Perhaps people will be upset because the school colors are too "confusingly similar."

In the state of South Dakota, their are 11 high school teams with the tiger as a mascot and countless others across the United States. If this is allowed to happen, you can bet that mascots will seriously have to be looked at as being done away with since there are simply not enough animals or "things" in the world to account for every high school, college, semi-pro and pro sports team to have their own mascot.

I don't know about you, but I am not looking forward to an NCAA March Madness game between the Paperweights of Davidson University and the Hand Drills of BYU just because someone got their panties in a wad because they had to share their mascot name with another school.

This brings us up to the big one that everyone has been talking about, the Dallas Police Officer that pulled over Houston Texans player Ryan Moats and cost him the chance to see his mother-in-law before she passed away due to breast cancer.

Officer Robert Powell pulled Moats over just outside the hospital for stopping at a red light and then driving through it to get to the hospital. Powell also drew his gun during the March 18 incident involving Moats.

"I can screw you over," he said at one point in the videotaped incident.

When another officer came with word that Moats' mother-in-law was indeed dying, Powell's response was: "All right. I'm almost done."

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle apologized to the family and announced that Powell would be on paid leave pending an internal investigation."When we at the command staff reviewed the tape, we were embarrassed, disappointed," Kunkle said. "It's hard to find the right word and still be professional in my role as the police chief. But the behavior was not appropriate."

Powell, 25, a three-year member of the force, stopped Moats' SUV outside Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano after Moats rolled through a red light.

Police officials said Powell told his commanders he believed he was doing his job, and that he drew his gun but did not point it. Kunkle said Powell was not necessarily acting improperly when he pulled his weapon out, but that once he realized what was happening should have put the gun back, apologized and offered to help the family in any way."His behavior, in my opinion, did not exhibit the common sense, the discretion, the compassion that we expect our officers to exhibit," Kunkle said.

Moats' wife, who was in the car along with other relatives, said Powell pointed his weapon at her."He was pointing a gun at me as soon as I got out of the car," Tamishia Moats told The Dallas Morning News.

Powell ordered Tamishia Moats, 27, to get back in the SUV, but after pausing for a few seconds, she and another woman rushed into the hospital. She was by the side of her mother, 45-year-old Jonetta Collinsworth, when she died a short time later from breast cancer.

"Get in there," said Powell, yelling at Tamishia Moats as she exited the vehicle. "Let me see your hands!"

"Excuse me, my mom is dying," Tamishia Moats said. "Do you understand?"

Ryan Moats explained that he waited until there was no traffic before proceeding through the red light. When Powell asked for proof of insurance, Moats grew more agitated and told the officer to go find it.

"My mother-in-law is dying! Right now! You're wasting my time!" Moats yelled. "I don't understand why you can't understand that."

As they argued, the officer got irritated.

"Shut your mouth," the officer said. "You can either settle down and cooperate or I can just take you to jail for running a red light."

By the time the 26-year-old NFL player received a ticket and a lecture from Powell, about 13 minutes had passed. When he and Collinsworth's father entered the hospital, they learned Collinsworth was dead.

Kunkle said the video showed that Moats and his wife "exercised extraordinary patience, restraint in dealing with the behavior of our officer."

"At no time did Mr. Moats identify himself as an NFL football player or expect any kind of special consideration," Kunkle said. "He handled himself very, very well.

What bugs the hell out of me about this is now we have Maritza Thomas, the former wife of NFL Linebacker Zach Thomas coming out and stating that she had problems with Officer Powell as well. Back in July of 2008, Thomas was jailed for three hours after Powell pulled her over for an illegal U-turn. Thomas, who is Latina, is now playing the race card after the Moats incident.

Hmm, if you had a problem with Powell and questioned his ethics as an officer, then why not say something after the incident happened? Why wait almost a year later and now jump on the media band wagon that has been caused by the Moats incident? Here we have Thomas getting her name out to the world while the Ryan Moats and his family are trying to put this behind them.

I commend Moats for not once playing the NFL card when Powell pulled him over. He never gave the, "Don't you know who I am" speech and he kept his cool throughout the entire ordeal. I give him even more credit at the fact that he has kept his thoughts and feelings to himself and has not once been a voice in the outcry against Powell. Moats showed character in this ordeal and proved that he is one of the good guys in a sports world that seems littered with wanna-be thugs and criminals.

You also have to give credit to the police officers that turned Powell in for the incident. It is not an easy thing to do, turning in one of your own, when you wear the uniform. It can make things difficult for you and brand you for life. However these officers stepped up and did the right thing and should be praised.

Officer Powell should lose his job and the Dallas Police Department should be ashamed of putting Powell on a paid suspension. Let's do the math, no work plus getting paid equals a vacation if you ask me. How does this teach not only Powell, but the youth of our communities, the error of his mistakes and that doing wrong is not good. Powell is getting paid to sit at home in hopes of things blowing over. We set a bad example for the children that see this story unfold if Powell does not lose his job and never work as a police officer again.

These three incidents are a prime example of how absolute power can corrupt absolutely. What needs to happen is people need to step back from their position of power from time to time and look at what would be better for not only the situation at hand, but for all those involved and people in general instead of going stark raving mad with power and screwing over a few innocent people that had no need to go through the situations they did and suffer anything from the loss of a game, to the loss of a mascot to the loss of a family member.

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Q49VztpLI

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzjg2EhNLY0