Rutgers and animal rights - stopping cowards

For those of you who read my posts about the Rutgers basketball coach this week, calling for him to be fired, you might have been surprised to read about sports in one of my blog posts. With such violence and anti-gay slurs coming from a person in power, I felt I had to write about it.

But what we saw in the videos from Rutgers we have seen before.

If, like us, you support all of the groups out there who do undercover work to give animals in factory farms and in labs a voice, the actions and abuse of power coming from a coward is nothing new.

Recently Mercy for Animals has made headlines with their undercover work. I decided not to show a video (Mercy For Animals is linked on our main page if you'd like to take a look). Their videos have a lot in common with the Rutgers video: people in power doing unspeakable things to those they are charged to care for. In the MFA videos we see, time after time, terrified animals being kicked, thrown, tortured and sometimes killed. By cowards.

In some stats, legislators are talking about passing bills to stop undercover investigations. In Iowa this is now law. These so called "ag gag" bills are meant to keep people who care about animals away, to keep profit up, and to be able to treat their product as they see fit.

I think "ag gag" is going easy on them. I prefer calling them "coward protection" laws.

Whether it is a group of factory farm workers beating a piglet with a shovel, teens bulling a perceived gay student or a basketball coach who makes $700,000 a year to perpetrate violence and fear on young players, cowards exist among us.

They can be stopped, which is why I felt the need to write about the Rutgers coach. He was fired. And then the athletic director resigned.

We have the power to be a voice for the voiceless and we have the power to stop these cowards.

Sometimes I may sound like a broken record when I write about getting involved, in connecting with your state legislator, in writing a letter to the editor or visiting your local chief of police.

These actions make a huge difference to those affected by the cowards.

Our silence strengthens the cowards. Our voices and actions can stop the cowards.

Thank you for reading!

Fire Tim Pernetti at Rutgers

Mike Rice, the head basketball coach at Rutgers, was fired yesterday morning. He was fired based on the same information the school had back in November, the only difference was that now the whole world knew of his cowardly, pathetic and violent behavior.

Tim Pernetti, Rutgers Director of Intercollegiate Athletics failed in his job. He failed to protect young people from a clear abuse of power.

Fire Tim Pernetti.

From Mr. Pernetti: "I spent more time with that option on whether we should fire Mike or not than any other option," Pernetti said on WFAN Radio Tuesday. "At the same time, the results of the investigation and where we ended up, the determination was made to suspend him."

Some investigation. Look at the videos. Then fire the guy being violent, abusive and using anti-gay slurs. Mr. Pernetti saw the videos back in November.

Didn't something similar just happen at Penn State. That case involved sex abuse. Yet the same abuse of power existed, and people who knew about it did nothing to stop it, let along shine a light on it.

Does anyone at Rutgers believe that Mr. Pernetti is a shining example of someone young people should look up to and respect? Should anyone have faith in his judgement?

Let's speak truth to power. Hopefully those in power at Rutgers will tell Mr. Pernetti to take a hike.

Thank you for reading!

"Fu**ing Faggot" - proper language at Rutgers

UPDATE: Mike Rice has been fired. Rutgers should also fire Mr. Pernetti who clearly failed in doing anything about this until the public found out.

I hesitated writing the title of a blog post that includes words that make me uncomfortable. I assure you this is a direct quote, and because of the power of the two words combined, I decided to go ahead with the title.

I was enjoying morning time with the furries watching the CBS Morning Show and watched as they showed video of the Rutgers (university in New Jersey) head basketball coach Mike Rice hit, pushed, threw basketballs at and shouted gay slurs to his players. One of the things I heard him say on the tape is the title of this post. He also called his players "fairies".

As I have written about many times here, language is huge. In a time when it seems equality is getting stronger and more and more people are getting comfortable with the idea of gay people getting married let alone existing, we get to watch video of a very well paid man call someone this.

How far have we seriously come when the worst thing a coach can think of calling one of his players to denigrate him or make him feel small is a faggot?

And just in case you're wondering, this guy, as of this morning (April 3, 2013) still has his job.

The violence. The words. These are not actions and statements from someone who should be respected in any way. This guy is a coach!

Fire him. Today.

From the athletic director Tom Pernetti on suspending the coach:  "This was not an easy decision for me to make but absolutely necessary to ensure what is best for our program."

Seriously? He saw the video in November! It seems he is now only taking action because of the video becoming public. By the way, thank you ESPN for showing the video. It was not an easy decision to suspend him?

I simply don't get it. Oh, I get the world of sports. I don't get that any university, school, program, etc would want anything to do with a man like Mike Rice.

Fire Mike Rice. Fire him today.

Thanks for reading.