The Unfair World!!!!

Hi! Just look at me. If you and I were to pass each other on the street, you'd never know what I am made of. No, I am not trying to be funny. I am very serious.

I am now 64 years old and a hairline away from retirement. I have worked 42 years as a teacher in Catholic, public, charter and private schools all over New York City. I spent 11 years as a student at a nearby university and managed to graduate 4 times from it. I have all of my degrees and diplomas nicely framed so that I can hang them in my classrooms or offices depending on where I work. I literally had thousands of students in my lifetime, many of whom had gone on to become doctors, lawyers and whatever else they dreamed to be. Yes, I accomplished all of that. There is just one thing I simply cannot figure out.

How come athletes make far more than I do?

As of this writing, my salary potential peaked in 2016 when my former boss, a turd of an individual, informed the entire staff I worked on that we were all getting raises. Mine went from $60,000 to an alleged $67,000. Alleged? Yes. He managed to find ways to create the largest staff turnover I have ever seen. That will just be another story for another day. At the time of the announcement, I was happy as a lark. Since then, however, the funds have decreased. If I have $20 in my pocket, I'm a rich man.

I was listening to a sports talk show on my radio. Naturally, the talk evolved into a discussion about players' salaries. On this day, they were discussing baseball players' salaries in light of the Houston Astros' cheating scandal (Don't get me started on this issue either.) In short, they said that the base salary - the minimum salary - for a baseball player is $800,000 a year. $800,000???? That's right. Meanwhile, there were top players who were trying to renegotiate their salaries to a far higher amount because they were unhappy with their current salary. So, a guy who is making 20 or 30 million dollars a year could conceivably be upset at that amount and demand much more. I kid you not.

When I heard this mess, I wondered to myself "Why?" How can someone be UNHAPPY when their salary description has the word MILLIONS in it? I really am stumped for an answer. Even if I was making the base salary as I cited earlier, I would be extremely satisfied and never complain.

What makes athletes so much better than the rest of us? To be honest, I say that there is nothing special about them. No, before you go off on a tangent and start calling me a Socialist, I am not. I am a person who is trying to figure out why two people - a person like me - and an athlete are not treated fairly.

As I mentioned before, I spent a combined total of 11 years attending classes at a university level. I worked my behind off. I toiled and toiled until graduation day. I anticipated reaping huge rewards for what I wanted to do. I wanted to become a teacher and by golly, I did. I went way beyond high school to do so. Many (but not all) athletes reach high school and either finish high school or drop out of high school in order to pursue their sport. In the case of basketball, for example, the NBA draft is their biggest dream. Fine, but that still does not justify the high salary. Yes, they have a talent that I don't possess, but I have a talent that they don't possess either. By that standard, we should be on an equal and level playing field and a level paying standard.

Some folks feel that teaching is a profession is so easy that anyone can do it. I HAD a friend named John, a pure idiot, who constantly believes this crap. He failed to see the amount of preparation that had to be done and the strenuous amount of tests that had to be passed in order to be state certified for the subject that one wished to teach. Weekends, unless you had a school event to attend, meant that you had 48 hours to correct tests, mark homework and prepare very detailed lesson plans, not to mention other things that had to be done like housework and laundry. And I am a SINGLE guy. I could only imagine what married teachers had to do as well. He also believes that this job gives you two months off. Really? My Julys and Augusts meant that I had time to return to school in order to keep up with the current trends in my job. That meant returning to school in order to take other courses no matter how many degrees I attained in my preparation. August itself was really half a month because I had to return to my classroom in order to decorate my room and prepare the supplies I needed for the first day of school. We also had to attend faculty meetings in order to learn our agenda for the coming year. Despite what the calendar says, school is in business for almost 12 months.

What does an athlete do? Well, I do follow some sports. Football season is usually from September to February. Baseball is from April until October. Neither has a 10 month schedule like I had. They have an off-season. What do they have to do in their off-season? Just stay in shape. Well, if that is the case, I have to stay in great educational shape in the summer just to get ready for my 10 month season. While football has the Superbowl and baseball has the World Series, teachers have the graduation as their championship showdown.

Again, where is OUR $800,000 check for all of our efforts? But wait! It gets so much better.

I am currently residing in my parents' home for the time being. Dad died in 2012 and Mom joined him in 2015. I am trying to find another place to live. I really want an apartment. I am unmarried and I have no children. Therefore, I have no need for a house when I can simply and happily live in an apartment by myself. I don't need any fancy accouterments. I am a simple (not simple-minded) man. I drive an old vehicle (a 1992 Jeep Cherokee Laredo) and I love Burger King hamburgers with loads of bacon on them accompanied by French fries AND onion rings. That is all I need to be happy every day. Athletes, on the other hand, want and usually purchase LARGE, expensive homes. What can a $10,000,000 house do that a $250,000 house can't do? They both do the same function. So, why do athletes (and other celebrities) feel the need to advertise their wealth? It is ridiculous.

There is one hypocrisy here. I remember seeing some athletes instructing children to stay in school and not drop out. Why? How can one tell others to not do what they did? Unless somebody had some misfortunes and wanted to make sure that others don't make the same mistake that they did, I'd understand. But, that wasn't the case. When you are dribbling a basketball around a court for about $50,000 a bounce, you have nothing to say. It brings to mind two situations I read about.

Last year, I decided to do some Wikipedia browsing. I read about Shaquille O'Neale. I have tremendous respect and admiration for the man. Yes, he played basketball, but when he retired, he pushed basketball away and returned to school in order to earn his doctorate degree. THAT is a perfect role model for young adults. He knew that basketball was not the be all and end all in life.

On the other side of the coin is Motown back in the late 1950's - 1960's period. There were many outstanding acts that emerged from there. I wish not to mention them, but they mostly shared the same story line. Although those of us from that time period can remember the songs and the people/groups that sang them, most of these stars were BROKE. How could that be? Well, because many of them dropped out of school at an early age in order to go after the fame that being onstage would provide. They lacked even the basic ability to read things - like contracts. So, they passed them off to their managers who hoodwinked them, took their money and left the entertainers with a pittance of what they earned. Some of them were even homeless or forced to live out the rest of their lives in nursing homes.

I guess that the old saying must be correct when it comes to sports and entertainment. "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."

In conclusion, I have absolutely NO regrets for the profession I chose. If I was given a chance to go through life all over again, with just a few minor changes, I would choose the same profession all over again. I'd just demand a faar bigger paycheck for the value I have contributed to society.

If that is not possible, I can hit some homeruns, too.