Fight For Sports About Protecting Individual Freedoms
Out-of-state communities affect change by rejecting autocratic authority
(Photo Credit: Quad City Times)
In late July, the fall sports in Illinois were altered for the 2020-21 school year.
A handful of pandemic-labeled ‘less risk’ sports are competing right now with minimal adjustments to seasonal routine. Good for those athletes and coaches. But most sports, including football, were either postponed and saw their competition days severely trimmed. Almost a month later, we still have no answers as to why these decisions were made other than the obtusely platitudinal ‘health and safety’ reasons.
Time allows for perspective and observation. What we’ve seen across the country is that local communities can do right by their kids—get them back in school, back on the field—independent of the opaque wishes of autocratic government leaders.
Here in Illinois, adopting these principles may be the only way save sports in 2020-21.
A video went viral on social media a few weeks ago.
It was of a Pennsylvania football state representative speaking in front of lawmakers. In his speech, he said this line:
We cannot allow one person (the governor) in Pennsylvania to discern for everyone which causes are worth the risks and which are not. That decision needs to be left up to parents and needs to be left up to families. Is it worth the risk? If we are going to leave that decision only up to one person than we have a problem that’s far greater than COVID-19.
You know what happened? The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association overwhelmingly voted against the governor's wishes (and presumably state health officials) and approved fall sports. The decision to play is ultimately left in the hands of the individual school districts. But there will be football and soccer and volleyball this fall in Pennsylvania.
Removing emotion from how things unfolded in Pennsylvania, it was fascinating to see how democratically their government operated in this circumstance. How they held hearings on the floor of the senate. How the state football association got involved. When the rubber met the road, the PIAA not only listened to their constituents but lobbied in open defiance of the governor. They used reason and data to make their argument, not emotion and fear.
It’s a form of governance grounded in religious principles, called subsidiarity.
In basic form (I’m far from a theologist so I’ll keep things simple), subsidiarity values local communities. It believes local districts, schools and stakeholders are far more suited, have better resources and have more skin in the game than state or federal government leaders to make decisions that effect their way of life.
Another rudimentary definition of subsidiarity:
Nothing should be done at a higher level that can be done well or better at a lower level. A community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life and community of a lower order
What we’ve seen this past month, over and over again, are examples of the ‘higher order’ making decisions that impact the ‘lower order’. In some cases, the ‘lower order’ is organizing to a level resulting in the usurping of authority. We saw it in Pennsylvania. We are seeing it in Kansas play out this week.
That state, like many, has had several starts and stops as it relates to the return of sports. The Governor, Laura Kelly, has been careful about making any sweeping proclamations, citing fluid health data. Although on Monday Kelly did recommend flipping football and soccer to the spring, she said final decisions should be made at the local level:
We have school boards…who are in position to implement public health practices that need to be there to ensure we can keep those schools open
What is happening in Kansas is the return to play is being navigated by the ‘lower order’—district officials, school boards and community stakeholders such as coaches, parents and kids. It’s challenging to keep track of what districts are deciding, so much so that school officials constructed a heat map to decipher which schools are playing fall sports and which are not.
One school district in Wichita first voted against fall sports. But Monday night, they voted to revisit the decision and according to one report, ‘is a clear sign of the momentum behind Wichita’s protests the past few days.’ Some may say what’s happening in Kansas is ‘chaos.’ The coronabros will say those folks (and in Pennsylvania before) should just shut up and take it and how the ‘higher order’ knows best. Really? I don’t think so.
Those Big Ten parents in Rosemont last Friday? They know football is not coming back in 2020. Their dignified protest was really about freedom of choice and what happens when a few people in power think they are smarter than those who actually live in cities and towns and villages to choose what is best for their families. And when tyrannous decisions are made, no accountability follows. That is a dangerous precedent. Regardless of the outcome, the Big Ten parents did the right thing by their families.
Here in Illinois, we still don’t know why Gov. Pritzker made the decision he made about fall sports. He has yet to cite any data, using anecdotal gibberish at his press conference about the Miami Marlins having an outbreak on their baseball team.
Guess what? Baseball is still playing. Virus cases are subsiding. The CDC is relaxing guidelines. Schools are re-opening with predictable hiccups. Freed from bearucratic overreach, leaders are staying the course.
With sports, Pritzker has since moved on and local communities are forced with deal with the residual scar tissue. The ‘higher order’ claims victory.
But it doesn’t have to be that way moving forward.
What can be learned from Pennsylvania and Kansas is how intermediate communities—organizations, groups, associations, boards, families—can work together towards a common goal. After all, they are the ones who have the most to lose and gain. Actions do not guarantee a desired outcome (Big Ten parents) but are impactful in setting the nature and tone of debate.
With each passing week, the calendar moves closer to the next sports season. How can we help ensure participation?
Reject those who diminish individual freedoms. Study and apply the principles behind subsidiarity.
Be better. Find a way.