Top Five Reasons Cavs Fans Despise LeBron James

Yesterday marked the publicized-to-death return of LeBron James to the city he publicly spurned in his much-maligned "The Decision" broadcast last July. As a lifelong Cavs fan, it's pretty obvious to me why the city of Cleveland, and Cavs fans all over the globe, myself included, foster such ill will toward the self-crowned King James, but it was evident from my Twitter timeline, the announcers' commentary, and the words and attitudes of every single person on television and radio who talked about LeBron before, after, or during the game, that the perspective of the anti-LeBron contingent is not nearly as self-explanatory as one might think.

Never fear--I'm here to clarify this for all of you LeBron fans and/or tolerators out there, in Top Five list form.

5. "The Decision" was, well, a bad decision. In the days leading up to the obnoxious display of arrogance that would go down in infamy as the day LeBron James broke up with Cleveland on national television, I remember defending James' planned broadcast to various detractors. He's only doing it so the money will go to the Boys and Girls Club, I kept telling people. This is just a colossal display of unchecked ego, they responded. Guess what? They were right. I was wrong.

4. It wasn't just the arrogance of "The Decision", it was the timing of "The Decision" that was a problem for the Cavs and the fans. Cleveland reached out to other capable players, and they wouldn't sign with the Cavs. Many people say that this is because nobody wants to play in Cleveland, and that is false. Anybody will play anywhere if they get a decent salary and feel they have a legitimate shot at a ring. Nobody wanted to commit to Cleveland because nobody knew what LeBron was going to do. Obviously, LeBron had considerable success with his supporting cast in Cleveland. Many of the players available in free agency would have been able to come in and make the best of it without LeBron, but why would anyone commit to that not knowing whether or not LeBron would be there? As far as I know, most star players don't want to come into a situation to play second fiddle to a guy like LeBron--even though that seems to be totally fine with LeBron, as he bows at the throne of Dwayne Wade in Miami. But I digress.

If LeBron had any integrity, he would have handled his departure in a mature, responsible way, giving Cleveland the opportunity to field a team for the 2010-2011 season that had a chance of being competitive. It is my opinion that he wanted to move on to pursue a championship, but did not want Cleveland to have the opportunity to be successful without him, and that was the deliberate reason for his timing.

3. One can't explore the effects of "The Decision" on Cleveland and the Cavs community without looking at LeBron's attitude after the broadcast. From the Miami Heat's championship celebration in July, to LeBron's bizarre comments on Twitter about keeping track of everyone who said anything bad about him, his attitude has been absolutely poor. Throw his obnoxious "What should I do?" Nike commercial into the mix, and it's completely transparent that not only does LeBron not feel that he should have handled things any differently, but that he's somehow cast himself as a victim in this situation. Cavs fans, myself included, find that difficult to accept. What should you do, LeBron? Judging by the mediocre performance of the Heat thus far, you should probably shut up and play basketball. But, that's just my opinion.

2. It's interesting to me that so few people talk about reason #4, because when it happened, LeBron's detractors were all over it. Cleveland could have won a ring with LeBron, if he hadn't quit on them in Game 5 of the playoff series with the Boston Celtics last June. His performance in that game was lackluster and passive. The Cavs needed 100% from him to win that series, and he did not give even close to 100%. If his goal was to bring a championship to Cleveland, he sure didn't act like it in last season's playoffs.

1. For me, the most difficult aspect of the LeBron James saga has been to discover that LeBron is the person all of his haters claimed he was for all the years that we blindly supported him. I was still living in Ohio when he got drafted, and had been watching footage of his high school games on the local news every day. I was so incredibly excited when the Cavs drafted him, because it brought us the kind of hope a Cleveland sports fan does not often get to experience. When the Cavs actually started gaining credibility and being competitive in the NBA, it was such a gratifying experience for the fans. So, when LeBron did things like eating a kid's fries when he ran up into the stands, we thought it was cute, while his detractors called it juvenile. When he didn't give 100% on the court, we made excuses for him. When we didn't get a ring, again, we didn't call out LeBron for his lack of effort; we demanded that Mike Brown be fired. When LeBron dragged his feet and then scheduled "The Decision," we defended him and all the while were certain he'd never turn his back on Cleveland--not at the end of free agency, not on national television.

Although it's hard to confine our disappointment to mere words, I think the most painful aspect of the situation was that Cavs fans were lulled into believing that surely LeBron wouldn't wait until the last minute and go on national television to say that he was leaving. It was such a classless move that it was incomprehensible until it happened. The moment he said, "I'm taking my talents to South Beach," it was like a punch in the gut for fans who really believed he was committed to the Cavs and to Cleveland. We all collectively realized that he was most definitely the person all of his detractors had pronounced him to be while we staunchly defended him all those years. That disillusionment was as sad as his actual departure.

Yes, the hardest thing to swallow about what LeBron James now means to the city of Cleveland is that LeBron was always the person his detractors made him out to be. We could gloss that over when he was our hometown hero, but now that he isn't, we have to come to terms with the fact that for years we blindly supported a juvenile, selfish, egotistical player who never truly gave his all because he felt like he was above giving his all. He fooled us, because we were happy to be fooled.

We all wanted to be LeBron fans forever, even if he left Cleveland. Everyone understands why he left Cleveland. Nobody understands why he left the way he left. Yes, it's just a game. But LeBron let us believe it was so much more than that, and reveled in our undying loyalty until he no longer had need of it. "We are all witnesses," they told us, but what we witnessed was a spoiled kid who quit on his team and then played the victim. Analysts and LeBron's new fan base insist that Cleveland fans should "move on", while LeBron asks the passive-aggressive question, "What should I do?"

What should we do, LeBron?

A Competition that Does Not Interest Me

I'm an extremely competitive person, about things that matter, and about a lot of things that don't. It's part of the reason I love football so much, and part of the reason my Twitter feed gets so amusing on Sunday afternoons, or so I'm told. My competitive nature drives me to complain about poor fantasy football performance from some of my starters, even when I'm beating my beloved twelve-year-old daughter by 30 points. When I taught my sweet, but brilliantly competitive in her own right, younger daughter how to play backgammon, I pulled my punches with her on the first game. After that, she was on her own. (To her credit, she beat me two out of five games.) Recently, my husband and I were playing a trivia game on PS3 against each other, and I kept the game going until 5 a.m. because he is a formidable trivia opponent, and I just really wanted to win once or twice. Competition brings out my Mr. Hyde, turning me from the kind and compassionate person I generally am to, honestly, kind of a jerk. Hey, knowing is half the battle.

There is one area of American life about which many people feel competitive, and I simply do not, and that would be the realm of American politics. Election Day this past Tuesday highlighted this in such a conspicuous way. Let me preface everything that I'm about to say by stating this, clearly and simply. I am not a Democrat. I am not a Republican. I don't care if you are a Democrat or a Republican. I don't care if you have political ideals that you hold particularly dear. I don't. And, when I say I don't care, I don't mean that in a derisive or confrontational way. I mean that it literally is of no consequence or concern to me. If you read this, and decide you want to comment to fiercely defend your particular views, you're welcome to do so, but know that you're not going to change my mind, and I really don't care to try to change yours, because, and I'm not sure if I've made this clear or not, I don't care.

However, as a keen observer of the sociological impact American politics has on citizens on the whole in our modern age, I feel that the whole experience is worthy of some truly objective commentary, and truly objective commentary is nearly impossible to come by these days.

Many people (most people, actually) are still vilifying George W. Bush for the way he ran the U.S. into the ground during his eight years in the White House. While I think he was well-intentioned (in the sense that he wasn't an evil genius making bad decisions just to ruin the United States), and acknowledge that he faced some really difficult situations during his two terms, I have to agree that he was a terrible president. The situation he left behind for Barack Obama to resolve is untenable, and the election results that rolled in two years ago weren't really a surprise to anyone. Everyone was ready for some hope and some change, and few were willing to be realistic about what it was going to take to effect that hope and change.

The dire economic situation coupled with the media-savvy nature of the 2008 campaigns, I believe, made people more invested in the political process in general, and the immediate accessibility of information via the internet in all its various forms facilitated and propelled this level of investment.

We heard a lot of talk about "working together" and "bi-partisanship" and "mutual compromise" and "the good of the country" over the past two years, but if you look objectively at the inner workings of our federal legislative branch, what occurred was the Democrats refusing the Republicans a seat at the table while working out the details of health care reform and other pertinent legislation, and Republicans, instead of working in a mature, professional, conciliatory way, were petulant and juvenile about how they wouldn't cooperate anyway. The Democrats responded by using questionable modes of pushing legislation through to approval, bypassing the need to have any Republican support, which, in my mind, is a slap in the face to the voters who elected those men and women to represent their interests on Capitol Hill.

Civility has disappeared from public discourse, and our elected representatives are chief among the offenders. Truth in the campaign process is definitely viewed as optional. One of my favorite web sites, PolitiFact, does an excellent job of fact-checking statements made in and about the political arena. Recently, the reviewed the respective campaigns of Nathan Deal and Roy Barnes, who were running against each other for governor in Georgia. They rated their campaign efforts as a whole "Half-True." I think that decent human beings with any level of integrity will be honest and truthful and respectful. I'm not seeing many decent human beings with any level of integrity running for public office, and this bothers me. The fact that it bothers few others bothers me even more.

The absence of civility isn't limited to official political communication, though. It extends all the way down to normal citizens like you and me. Social media has made everyone a pundit, and it turns out that everyone knows everything, and if you don't agree with them point for point, you're an incurable idiot. The anonymity of the internet is empowering to those who are convinced they are right with no regard for facts and no consideration for perspectives that might differ. I find that the people who "yell" the loudest on the internet about their political beliefs are consistent in demanding cooperation and compromise from the other side while being completely unwilling to compromise their perspective. It's a microcosm of what happens consistently on Capitol Hill.

In the realm of politics, opinion has become indistinguishable from fact at every level of society, it seems. A major cause of this is the evolution of news into entertainment. I can't watch any major news channel--CNN, Fox News, MSNBC--without being told exactly what I should think about what's happening in Washington D.C. I'm intelligent enough and confident enough in my own opinions to develop them without input from news producers or anchors. I resent the transition of a free press to a press that's driven by sponsors and ratings rather than truth. The Glenn Becks and Rachel Maddows of the world consistently sacrifice truth for ratings.

The truth has been marginalized to the point that nobody knows what it is anymore. I was waiting at the chiropractor's office a couple of weeks ago and a sweet older lady was telling me how she was there to tell the chiropractor she could no longer afford to visit his office, because, and I quote, "Obama made all of my bills go up." Numerous people have referred to the fact that the tragedy of the recent suicides of homosexual teens is directly to blame on the GOP as a whole, rather than a result of cruelty from peers and irresponsibility of parents who don't teach their children that kindness and compassion to everyone is fundamentally necessary and not negotiable.

The marginalizing of truth is not the only thing I resent about the contemporary political climate. I resent the patronizing attitudes from people when I say I'm not a Democrat, or I'm not a Republican. If I tell a Democrat that I'm not a Democrat, they immediately decide that I'm a racist and a homophobe and that I probably think waterboarding is awesome. If I tell a Republican that I'm not a Republican they immediately assume that I am going directly to hell. (As a Christian, I have some gigantic theological problems with the Republican/"Christian" connection but it's too extensive to try to incorporate here, so I'll save that for another post.)

I resent that the priorities for politicians have become so skewed. Their commitment is to party first, re-election second, special interests third, and their constituents and the common good barely make the list, if included at all. I resent that our current culture of news as entertainment has elevated politicians to the highest levels of celebrity. They aren't movie stars (although John Boehner looks like he may have been a supporting cast member in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)--they're supposed to be public servants--but the media plays out the day-to-day in D.C. like it's a serial network drama as opposed to real-life decisions that impact the daily lives of those of us who vote to choose people to represent our interests.

Campaign finance is probably the thing I hate the most about our current political situation. Reform is needed, and now. It makes me physically ill to know how much is spent each election cycle. In this most recent midterm election cycle, the total spent was $4 billion. Let me just say that again. $4 billion. About $300 million of this amount was contributed by outside groups, but the bulk of these funds came from each candidate's own money that they spent for their own mudslinging ads and yard signs that they put in my yard without permission. Part of the problem we currently face is that normal people can't run for office and win. It renders the idea of a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" completely impossible. Does anyone really think that a multi-millionaire or multi-billionaire understands the experience of normal people, who have to work for a living, who have to tighten their budgets because of the current economic climate, who have to try to figure out how to get by on unemployment when they lose their jobs, and have to try to figure out how to get by when unemployment runs out eventually? Yet our elected congressmen keep voting to give themselves pay raises, and hold fast to their federally-funded (which means we pay for it through our taxes) health care benefits, which far exceed the minimum benefits they established in the recent health care legislation.

The reality is, regardless of which party is in power at any given time, not that much changes. I have actually really enjoyed, in a rueful way, seeing all of my Democrat friends and acquaintances freak out over the Republicans taking the majority in the House, because it's identical to the freaking out my Republican friends and acquaintances did when the Democrats took the House four years ago. Since that time, nothing has really changed. Abortion laws have stayed the same. Gay marriage still isn't legal. Tax rates have, by and large, stayed the same for all but the highest income brackets. The Second Amendment is still in full effect. Health care reform has been enacted into law but no major changes have yet been implemented. So, now the Republicans have the House majority, and mark my words--not much will change over the next two years. Or for the two years after that. Or the two years after that. Let me clue you in on a little secret--and I'll apologize in advance if this blows your right- or left-leaning mind. The Republicans are never going to make real efforts to criminalize abortion, and the Democrats are never going to take real action to legalize gay marriage. Each party needs their respective controversy to propel their voters to the polls, and they need the promise of eventually addressing these issues on behalf of their constituents to maintain consistent voter support.

Maybe now that the Republicans will have the majority in the House both sides will learn to play nice and work together a little more effectively. Maybe we'll all see that the balance of power at the highest levels of government as prescribed by the Constitution is a good thing. Maybe in a crazy, unprecedented lapse of selfishness and pride, our elected representatives will decide that, hey, maybe we shouldn't keep giving ourselves raises in the worst economy in decades, and maybe we should try to actually do what's best for our constituents and our shared future instead of just towing our respective party lines, and maybe we should pass the DISCLOSE Act, and the Fair Elections Now act!

Oh well, a girl can dream, right?

Brett Pevre and the Dangers of Sexting

The Daily Beast reported today that Apple is developing some sort of feature for the iPhone that will be prohibitive to sexting. Well, maybe the Vikings should chip in and buy old Brett Favre an iPhone, because it seems like he has a bit of a problem with sending inappropriate text messages to the ladies, and by ladies I do not mean Deanna Favre.

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Brett Favre. I used to be, when he was with the Packers, prior to his first retirement, however, all of his actions since then have tarnished my view of him. His blatant animosity and vengefulness toward the Packers have made it impossible for me to respect him as a player or as a person. That being said, even I bought the "Aw, shucks," family man bit.

For those of you who are unaware, if that's even possible, the NFL is currently investigating allegations that Favre made inappropriate advances via voicemail and text-messaged photos toward a Jets sideline reporter, Jenn Sterger, during his brief and inauspicious stint as the Jets starting quarterback. The league is investigating this issue aggressively for two reasons, in my opinion: one, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been effective and consistent in enforcing the personal conduct policy, and Favre is someone who arguably should know better. Two, the Jets recently attracted a lot of negative attention for their obnoxious objectification of Ines Sainz. Now, there's a lot that I could say about the Ines Sainz situation, but it's irrelevant to Favre, so I'll save it for another day.

There are a number of things about the allegations surrounding Favre that bother me tremendously as a football fan, as a woman, and as a human being in general. For one thing, as a football fan, I am very tired of players, and professional athletes in general, behaving irresponsibly because for some reason they feel entitled to do so. It's a little ironic, because I remember a discussion I had with my mother in law right after the salacious news about Tiger Woods' many mistresses broke. I commented that the sense of entitlement these rich, privileged professional athletes seem to share is so disappointing. She responded that Tiger's sense that he was above the constraints of human decency was reminiscent of Favre's cavalier attitude about his retirement/unretirement.

The other thing that made me furious as a football fan in general was the analysts' treatment of this issue during the Monday Night Football broadcast this week. If I have to hear one more time about how Favre has "handled this kind of adversity before," when his dad died, and when Deanna was battling breast cancer. Um, no. No way. There is no way you can compare Favre dealing with media scrutiny because he sent his Pants on the Ground photos to a sideline reporter with the death of his father and his wife's cancer treatment.

As a woman, I find the whole thing disturbing and pathetic. Guys, listen to me, because I shouldn't have to tell you this at all, and I'm only going to say it once. Women do not want to be texted photographs of your man-business. Ever. For any reason. It's gross, it's uncouth, it's inappropriate, and it's childish. Jenn Sterger rebuffed Favre's advances because he's married--and that's the short, polite version. The long, more accurate story is that Jenn Sterger rebuffed Favre's advances because he's married, and old enough to be her father. But I digress. Once a young lady indicates that she is not interested in pursuing an extramarital affair with you, it's a good idea to not continue to pursue the young lady, because if you do, you confirm that you are desperate and pathetic.

As a human being, I just find the whole thing disappointing, from every conceivable angle. It's sad that a man whose wife has stood by him through football ups and downs, through her own battle with cancer, his father's death, his myriad retirements and the accompanying media circus, and so on--that this man would have so little respect for his wife and his marriage confounds me. What disappoints me the most is that Favre's persistence with the voicemail messages and the text-messaged photos indicate that he's accustomed to receiving a favorable response in these situations. The way that he addressed the situation indicate that this is not the first time he's pursued a woman in this way, and other allegations have already surfaced. It's so disrespectful to his family, and my personal feelings about Favre aside, I cannot tolerate a man who cheats on his wife, or tries very hard to cheat on his wife.

Is it possible that the allegations about Favre are false? Sure. I guess. But I'm not nearly idealistic enough to think that they aren't true. What remains to be seen is whether or not Favre will learn something from this escapade. For Deanna's sake, I hope he does. Truly.

Top Five Reasons it Doesn't Matter that Randy Moss was Traded to the Vikings

If you know me at all, you know that I am neither a Vikings fan, nor a Favre fan. I'm a Packers fan by marriage, so as far as I'm concerned, the Vikings are a mortal enemy, and Favre is an unforgivable traitor. All of that being said, the big news about Randy Moss being traded to the Vikings this week is nothing to get excited about, in my humble opinion. Below are the top five reasons I feel this way.

1. Randy Moss may be a deep threat, but can Favre's arm handle deep passes with any degree of accuracy? I don't think so, and guess who else doesn't think so? Brett Favre. When asked how he felt about the trade, he said that he feels under pressure, because now he has to get the ball to Moss. That doesn't sound like the happy-go-lucky gunslinger of last season. That sounds like an old man who knew he wasn't physically prepared to perform this season. Moss on deep routes opens up the possibility of stretching the field and creating a new offensive dimension for the Vikings, but also creates an opportunity for Favre to throw more interceptions.

2. Randy Moss is a diva with a bad attitude. He clashes with teammates, coaches, and team administration. He vents to the press without a filter. Chilly has done a poor job of managing Favre's attitude and essentially bows to Favre's whims at the expense of the team. If you have two of those types of players on a team with weak coach leadership, a schism truly might be on the horizon.

3. The Vikings have bigger problems than just a shortage of receivers. They've looked weak on both sides of the ball, and Favre looks old and slow, and sometimes a little panicked as the pocket collapses. Randy Moss can't fix those problems.

4. The Vikings are off to a pretty rough start in a tough division. The Packers and the Bears both have a 3-1 start, and the Vikings are 1-2. I just don't think Randy Moss can make a big enough difference for this season.

5. Favre is done after this season. As ambiguous as he's been about retirement over the past couple of years, I genuinely believe that this is his last year. He has no passion left for the game. I realize that Moss' contract is up after this season, so it's possible that the Vikings are looking at this as a temporary one-year fix, but if that's the case, then that draft pick they gave up for him is just a waste if Tarvaris Jackson is the only one available to throw to him next year.

But, there is one positive to Randy Moss coming to the Vikings. He isn't cute enough for Favre to want to send him inappropriate text messages, so at least he won't be a distraction in that regard.

The Falcons/Browns Dilemma

Tomorrow is going to be a difficult day for me as a football fan, because my beloved Atlanta Falcons will make the trek to Cleveland Browns Stadium to take on the team I've pulled for all my life.

On one hand, the Falcons are off to a wonderful start. I feel really good about our 3-1 record, and in my opinion the Steelers, the one team to whom we've lost, have established themselves as the best team in football right now, and nobody can disagree that we gave them a run for their money. The Falcons are legit this year. Our defense is formidable, and that's not something you could have said about the Falcons over the last few years. When we make mistakes, we correct them. Our guys play to win until time expires. We can pull out solid offensive drives when it counts. We can come from behind to win a game. I don't like to make bold, sweeping statements at this point in the season, but we've got all of the components we need to make the playoffs and be successful in postseason.

On the other hand, the Browns, at 1-3 for the season, stand very little chance of making the playoffs considering the start to the season and the toughness of their division. However, they've played each opponent tough and last week pulled off a win over division and in-state rivals the Cincinnati Bengals, who were a playoff team last year and have had a decent season thus far this year. My friend Dana implored me to root for the Browns, because she says, "they need a winning streak." They do! Browns fans are hopelessly optimistic. We have to be, otherwise we couldn't survive each devastating season. If we were to beat the Falcons, it could turn our season around! It could be the fresh start we've all been waiting for since Holmgren's arrival! I desperately want to see a new era in Browns football. I want this to be a playoff team. I want the Holmgren dynasty to bring some legitimacy to the Browns. I can't hope for the Browns to lose.

But I can't hope for the Falcons to lose, either. I'm too emotionally invested in both of these teams.

So, tomorrow at 1 p.m., I'll be watching. I'll be cheering, for both teams, on every drive. And at the end of the day, one of my teams will win, and one of my teams will lose. I'll be happy for the one that wins, and I'll be upset for the one that loses, and I'll be happy that it's over so I don't have to feel so conflicted about it anymore.

Maybe I should just hope for a tie.

Why Braylon Edwards is an Idiot

I'm sure most of us in the football-following world are aware by this point that NY Jets wide receiver, and former Cleveland Browns wide receiver, Braylon Edwards was arrested in the wee hours of the morning yesterday for driving while intoxicated. The breathalyzer he was administered showed that his blood alcohol content was approximately twice the legal limit.

As a Browns fan I can attest to the fact that Edwards is indeed an idiot. He had a physical altercation with a member of LeBron James' (incidentally, another idiot, but that warrants its own post) posse last season, which resulted in a lot of negative legal and media attention. He's prone to making sweepingly grand comments about his abilities as a wide receiver, and is notoriously unable to deliver on said promises on the field. He made some exceedingly ignorant comments to the press regarding his trade to the Jets about how his "New York essence" made Cleveland fans resent him. Just for your information, Cleveland fans resent Braylon Edwards because he dropped easy passes and never lived up to his potential or his obnoxious mouth when he played for the Browns. I'd like to know exactly how one develops a "New York essence" growing up in Detroit and playing for that dreaded school up north, aka the University of Michigan. Also, Abe Lincoln called, and he wants his beard back. But, I digress.

My main issue with Edwards' arrest this week is that I think everyone should be smart enough to not drink and drive. When you choose to drink and drive, you not only take your life into your own hands, but you put everyone else on the road at risk. It's pure idiocy. Ask Donte Stallworth how it worked out for him. It is totally unacceptable when an NFL player drinks and drives, because they have resources available to them that the rest of us simply do not have. To wit, the league provides players the opportunity to call for a ride anywhere, any time. They can choose from a variety of luxury cars with amenities from satellite television to an armed guard, and here's the kicker--despite their obnoxiously generous salaries, it costs them NOTHING. It's charged as a club expense. I'm sure the Jets would have gladly paid for Braylon and his teammates who were passengers at the time of his arrest, Vernon Gholston and D'Brickashaw Ferguson, to be transported in style to avoid the scrutiny they are under because of this issue.

I'm not even going to start on whether I agree with Rex Ryan's decision to play (but not start) Braylon Edwards this Sunday against the Dolphins. I'm not going to analyze the fact that once the Jets stopped talking as if they'd already won this year's SuperBowl they started playing like a team that might be able to get there. I'm just going to say that Braylon Edwards made a very poor and inexcusable choice this week when he got behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated. No amount of media spinning or legal wrangling will change my mind about that. I think that playing professional football is a privilege, and the league gives players every opportunity and tons of support to stay out of trouble, and when a player willfully rejects that and makes a choice that endangers himself and others, it can't go unpunished. Grow up, Braylon.

Unfair

People often say that life isn't fair. My kids in particular frequently voice this concern, and I invariably agree with them. Life ISN'T fair, and it's never going to be, so you have to learn to roll with the punches. However, sometimes something happens that is so devastating that it makes it impossible to even wrap your mind around how very unfair life actually is. My extended family is in the middle of one of those experiences, and my heart breaks for them even as I write this.

My cousin Brittany's five-year-old son, Damien Baker (pictured above), landed in the PICU at Children's Hospital in Columbus Ohio about a week and a half ago with severe head trauma. He had extensive swelling in his brain and was unresponsive. At the time that his symptoms presented, he was in the care of Brittany's boyfriend, Mike Brown, who lived with Brittany and her children, and kept her children regularly while she worked. Brittany received a text message from Mike alerting her to the fact that Damien had said his head hurt, and then he vomited, and then he lost consciousness. Mike took the boy to Mike's father's home before calling 911. After a brief examination at the hospital in the town in which they live, Damien was life-flighted to Children's Hospital in Columbus where a team of neurologists and experts assumed responsibility for his care. Some of the experts involved specialize in child abuse cases, and it was determined that abuse was the cause of Damien's injuries. Mike Brown was subsequently charged and arrested as the suspected abuser in this case. He is currently in jail and bond is set at $500,000.

Damien never regained consciousness, and the family was told early in the process that it was very unlikely he would ever recover. He passed away yesterday at 4:53 p.m. He was deeply loved by his mother and father, his baby sister, his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as extended family and family friends, and he will be terribly missed.

I have no patience or compassion for anyone who would harm a child. I pray that the truth is established and that the perpetrator who caused these life-ending injuries to this child is held accountable and punished to the fullest extent of the law. I pray that Damien's death will not have been in vain; that other children will somehow be spared because of his story. And, I pray for comfort for all who knew him.