Is Principle Worth Its Price?

Too bad, but it comes as a surprise any more when a big-time college coach is willing to put integrity on as high a footing as competitiveness.

But cynics who think principles no longer have a place in collegiate sports programs should take note of Washington State University men’s basketball coach Kevin Eastman.

More than once, Eastman has shown he’ll bench even key players who won’t live up to his standards - standards that apply to a player’s commitment to the team, the school, his character and his education.

He took a firm stand last year with record-setting point guard Donminic Ellison who had been plagued by academic and legal problems.

Now it’s Tavares Mack, a starting forward whom Eastman suspended from the team after he skipped a practice. Listen to Eastman’s comment about the incident:

“We have to educate Tavares what’s going to happen to him when he gets a real job. There are a bunch of Tavares Macks looking for jobs out there - heck, if you don’t want to do it with our company, fine, you’re out of here. We’ll get the next one in. All we can do is bench a player. At IBM, there’s no bench.”

Even Eastman acknowledged that this year’s team would be weaker without Ellison. Knowing there’s a price to be paid for principle, how far will fans go to support Eastman - if at all - or to encourage other coaches and other schools to emulate him?

Hawaiian Wedding Song has a new verse

As expected, a state judge in Hawaii has ruled that gay and lesbian couples must be treated the same as heterosexuals in Hawaii’s marriage laws.

In anticipation of that ruling, Congress and President Clinton already have enacted a law denying federal benefits to same-sex couples and allowing states to ignore such marriages.

As for the Hawaii case, one critic declared, “an activist judge has flouted public opinion and a perfectly good law and imposed his own agenda” - as if judicial rulings should be based on public opinion rather than the law and the constitution.

Not that the Washington Legislature is likely to view it as an especially high priority, but if same-sex couples are prevented from making the same officially sanctioned commitment to a long-term relationship that heterosexual couples can make, what provisions should be made regarding such matters as inheritance and survivorship, financial planning, property rights, taxation, insurance coverage …?

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