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What a week! Starting with a 13-year-old girl calling Swans legend Adam Goodes an ape, to Roarers tearing Kurtley Beale limb from limb over his drinking, and ending with Eddie McGuire suggesting that Goodes promote the King Kong musical.
Does vilification end with McGuire? Does it ever end?
I don’t know the answer.
In fact, I don’t know why there’s any vilification at all: we all breathe the same air, we all live together, we all share the same hopes, the same fears.
I’m not looking for utopia, just an even break for all – irrespective of their creed or colour.
For starters, where would a 13-year-old girl get the idea Goodes was an ape? Parents, friends, heard someone else suggest it?
Aboriginal Goodes, a two-time Brownlow Medalist and two-time premiership winner, is an icon in AFL – and the community.
He is universally revered, and rightfully so. To be called an ape by a kid was devastating for him especially, as it would be for any fair-minded person.
Just six days later, to have another icon in McGuire suggest he promote the King Kong musical was the last straw.
Had McGuire done that on American radio, his on-air career would be over forever in a nano-second.
“A brain fade,” was how AFL coaching legend Kevin Sheedy described it.
“The mistake cuts me to the core,” was McGuire’s reaction. And he means it.
He’s offered to stand down from his multi-media commitments, and the presidency of Collingwood, until the aftermath is settled.
But what will that prove? Absolutely nothing.
So what will the AFL reaction be? Another unanswered question, just proving there’s no cut-and-died end to this saga.
And yesterday, another Aborigine, Kurtley Beale, was torn apart by Roarers over his drinking problems.
Instead of waiting to see how he emerges from the rehab process he has undertaken so willingly by his own volition, Roarers condemned his drinking and the incidents that have been well-publicised because of it.
I will stick to my strong belief that alcoholism is a sickness not a weakness, and trust the great people who work so tirelessly in rehab organisations around the country can help Beale overcome his demons to not only lead a long and fruitful life, but give rugby-lovers around the world a lot of pleasure in a gold jersey.
So where are we at?
Stuffed if I know, except it’s an unholy mess.
Even if the 13-year-old is banned from attending games until she’s 21, even if McGuire is fined $10,000 and suspended from all media for six months, and Roarers back off until Kurtley Beale has completed his rehab, what does that prove?
What does that achieve to stamp out vilification?
Just a band-aid to paper over the cracks.
Vilification is like performance-enhancing drug-taking. It will always be there no matter how vile both are, and no matter how hard it’s policed.
It’s up to each individual to limit both by their own vigilance to make the world as good as it can be.
That’s simply not nearly good enough, but it’s realistically as good as it’s going to get.