The state of our world

Great column by TJ Simers

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-simers25-2009jan25,0,1111653.column

 

That's nice work.

 

Very nice of Simers and nothing against Dilbeck. But in the last couple days, Pfizer Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. each cut 8,000 jobs, Caterpillar Inc. cut another 5,000, Home Depot Inc. 7,000 jobs, and General Motors Corp. 2,000. Last week, it was Microsoft Corp. (5,000 jobs), Intel Corp. (6,000 jobs) and United Airlines (1,000 jobs). Each of those 42,000 people, many of whom also have families and mortgages and car payments, is worthy of a nice sendoff story, too.

 

Only problem is..... without so many giving a shit about Kent crying, none of us ever had these jobs.

Steve wrote a hell of a column on Matt McHale, IIRC.

 

That's 42,000 Plan Bs.

 

Uh, I think the point is that Dilbeck and by extension, the other millions out of a job, are more worthy of a nice sendoff than a rich, self-absorbed prick like Kent.

 

Exactly. And how many people getting laid off actually loved what they did? I'm sure the vast majority didn't...but got every day because they had to.

 

And my point is that precious few people care about Dilbeck losing his job, nor should they, when people in their own families are losing their jobs, too. And regardless of what you or anyone else thinks about Kent on a personal level, he was a Hall-of-Fame caliber player and readers are interested in his retirement and parting thoughts. Kent is newsworthy, Dilbeck isn't.

 

Columns aren't about "newsworthy" or not.
They're about analysis and about perspective and about opinion.
I thought Simers did a helluva job with that here.
And AL, you can replace Dilbeck with any one of the 20K at Caterpillar. Doesn't diminish the point at all.

 

I'm not.

But then again, I have my priorities straight.

I know, I'm in the minority there.

 

I couldn't care less about Jeff Kent.
Don't even know who Dilbeck is.
My opinion of Simers is very well documented here.

And I thought that was an outstanding column.

 

Holy shit. I did not see that one coming, at all.