If millions of people tell you that something is right, even though you know that something is wrong, does it matter what those people think?

 

No. Of course, people have a right to their opinion. But consider the dangers of an uninformed opinion forcefully argued, like the sports fan who loves his hero.

 

The sports fan opines based blindly on emotion, and this distorts his view of reality.

 

Sports fans should not be trusted, then, to run important enterprises like government. So why are we letting our love for sports lead us right now?

 

We confront, then, a lack of leadership in this state, and this country. Bumper sticker wisdom says “When the people lead, the leaders will follow.”

 

While believing a $2 proverb on beat-up junker is comfortable, Jon Green, the head of the Connecticut Working Families Party, knows better.

 

“People take cues from leaders,” Green said. “When we have leaders in elected or non-elected office saying the right things in a forceful and direct way, people respond to their better instincts.”

 

However, Green warns, “When only one perspective has a megaphone, it is not surprising that a smaller percentage of the population will spontaneously on their own push the leaders,” he said. “It takes the leaders to pull the rest of the people with them.”

 

Right now, Connecticut has multiple leaders telling us many different things, but only a few of them have strong megaphones.

 

The men’s basketball coach has the biggest megaphone of all. He tells us that the winning de facto professional sports franchise he runs under the protection of an academic institution is good for us because it generates profit and winning makes us feel good about ourselves.

 

He tells us to shut up when we ask about his salary and we like it.

 

The women’s basketball coach has a megaphone, too, and he tells us the it is impolite to ask about salary, which essentially means that the discussion should not be had at all. He tells us the questioner should be in jail.

 

The university president tells us that in-state tuition should rise by 8.67 percent because the tax credits from the stimulus package from the president of the country will more than offset the rise in tuition.

 

The university president, by inaction, tells us that the coaches’ salaries are sacred.

 

The university board of trustees tells us we only need a six percent tuition hike, which means that 160 jobs will still be cut, and the student teacher ratio will its five-year slide from 14-to-1 to 17-to-1 will no doubt worsen.

 

The university spokeswoman tells us that the cost of a single credit will rise from $300 to $318. That means for a part-time student, a three-credit undergraduate class will now cost $954, as opposed to the $900 it just did.

 

The governor, with her mighty megaphone, tells us that the coach embarrassed us all, but that the coach has a contract. Instead, the governor repeats that the state must find the money it needs to balance the budget not from more taxes on the wealthy, but from cuts to services.

 

The university's student government voted for the 8.67 percent tuition increase, over worse, more damaging options.
The university’s student paper tells us that the coach is more powerful than the governor.

 

The university students, with no megaphone at all, will only have to work more and borrow more to make the $20,000 annual tuition.

 

The two legislators who run the higher education committee tell us that the coach should be punished.

 

A polling institute that allegedly reports mass opinion (with a big megaphone) tells us eight in ten people in the state think the coach should not be punished. The polling institute tells us just more than half of us think that "shut up" and "are you really that stupid" are appropriate ways to grapple with difficult public policy issues.

 

The leadership of the legislature tells us that the polling institute is right when, by not using its big megaphone at all, it doesn’t support the higher education committee in its goals to punish the coach.

 

The leadership of the legislature tells us with its big megaphone that to close the state’s $2 billion budget deficit, two branches of the university will have to close.

 

My experience tells me that the people of Connecticut are good people. My intellect tells me that that the people of Connecticut are being hoodwinked by the voices from behind the curtain. My critical thinking faculties tell me that when 80 percent of the people think it okay to act disrespectfully without consequence, those 80 percent must be disregarded.

 

Sure, my opinion is skewed because I was the one disrespected. But I cannot accept as valid opinions that approve of a 30 percent graduation rate for a basketball team.

 

Publicly-held opinions must be disregarded when those opinions allow leaders to violate social norms because these leaders provide a service we value. We tolerate a basketball coach who is a jerk because he wins, even if that priority is counterproductive to our larger goals.

 

This is the same tolerance that granted the Bush junta the green light to invade two countries illegally and reign death upon innocents for oil and global domination.

 

Does my disappointment in my fellow Nutmeggers for their purported acceptance of Coach Calhoun’s tirade even matter? Yes. Because it seems like eight in ten people around me are crazy.

 

If anyone – a teacher, a principal, a governor, a doctor, a lawyer - acted the way Coach Calhoun did, we would demand punishment.

 

But because we are Americans, because we value being first, because we prioritize winning, and we want to feel good, we tolerate such belittling indignity.

 

“People want to defend their heroes and icons when they are under attack,” said Jon Green from the Working Families Party.

 

Because only three women (a governor and two legislators) shouted into a small megaphone about this one abusive man (the coach), people ignore their better selves. Connecticut residents allowed the bigger megaphones drown out their own voices of reason.

 

The emotional tide that rises with victory creates such dangerous, uninformed opinions among millions of sports fans. Seemingly, no facts can alter the view elevating athletics and competition over education.

 

Where are the leaders willing to stand up to a bully? Where are the leaders willing to challenge us to be better people? They are out there, but they are not getting a megaphone.

 

Calhoun's Spinning Plates...