To: Michael D’Innocenzo
Your letter to the editor, emphatically calling for the abolition of tackle football, impelled me to thank you for its unequivocal stand.
So many other unnecessary ways to “build character” must be “outed.”
As a mother of sons, I never really had to make a decision to withhold permission for my boys to participate in violent sports.
After watching some behaviors when some sports were coached and played, I felt there were many other ways to build character.
In fact, my husband carried that value to the extreme of coaching a Little League team that included any boy who wanted to play.
Of course, our sons, bemoaning the fact that they never won, understood and accepted their father’s stand.
Swimming, tennis and soccer were enough for them.
Now, as I watch what is happening here and globally, I am so concerned about the direction that so many aspects of our society are taking and I wonder when we can turn from valuing violence and hatred in thought and action before we destroy our world.
Can we hope that thinkers such as you will be listened to?
Esther Confino
New Hyde Park