Maybe it's an older person attitude, but I celebrate when I see someone rewarded for their dedication and loyalty, or maybe it's the military's effect on me. But, I mean, it's really nice to see that there are some people in management and ownership that value these things in an age and society where people are just replaceable throw-aways.
For some crazy reason we tend to be OK with people being tossed away the moment it appears as though they have seen better days. Oddly enough, this is not an attitude that ANY of us would want to see happen to ourselves or anyone we care for in their workplace, and yet we tend to race to the bottom by attacking each other rather than those you support a system that treats workers like replaceable parts.
We should be supporting each others' successes, and being happy for a workplace that has compassion and loyalty to the workers. We should recognize that our personal desires for a sports team to win, should never become more important to us that the treatment of our fellow people. Not after a moment of thought.
So often we allow how much a person makes to be an excuse for how some people are allowed to be treated, or how we feel we are entitled to treat people, as though people deserve less compassion and humanity because they have more money than we do. We plugs that keep the machine going focus our disdain on the wealthier workers, rather than on those that hoard the wealth to begin with. Keeps us focused on the moot, keeps us raging on each other, while the power group gets smaller and more consolidated.
We don't get more because we don't fight for it, don't focus on it, and don't deserve it. We seem to enjoy watching people fail so much more than people succeeding, like their failures validate our own; misery loves company and all that.
Not so much of a surprise when our culture has moved away from areas of positive collaborative study such as philosophy (viewed as a joke study area in Uni) in favour of sciences, math, engineering, etc... Getting a job coming out of university, becoming a functioning member of the workforce, is no different now than it was in the industrialization era. What we need is a focus on critical thought and debate, celebrate the growth of the human spirit, of right and wrong, morals and ethics. We need a new period of enlightenment, but it's next to impossible when the areas that lead to the development of such thinking have been methodically crushed from elementary school to university.
We should never be OK we saying so much of what gets said in here, and I'm no bleeding heart. This board is sometimes the most brutal and harsh environment, where devoid of accountability so many of us get truly nasty, and for many it's constant.
Why is that?
Chris Neil has worked hard every minute of his 15 or so years with this team and deserves a retirement with the single team he has played and bled for. Some of you behave as though he has loafed for 1000 games, when the reality is that he has throttled the league for every single one of those games. When it seemed the leagued was passing him by he hit the gym hard over the summer to lose weight and gain speed, making him relevant again as a fourth line winger. This is a man who works hard to keep his job, never once being able to relax and rely on skill or draft position. So he gets a one year deal to get his 1000th game in, and people here are upset at this? As though the replacement fourth line winger is going to make a difference? As though the players in the room have nothing to gain by playing with a 4th line grinder who has managed to stay in the league for 1000 games? I mean Phaneuf credits Brian Marchment for crying out loud, as being one of the main influences on why he was able to become a steady professional in the league.
As a bonus, these kids need to play with role models (maybe Yak/Drouin would be better young professional players for example), and there is much to be gained from Neil for our young pros looking to become professionals in this league, AND he can still take a solid regular shift. There is a difference between role models that have retired and work with the team, and a few legends still playing; let's let our kids hove both while we can.
Hahaha, so there's that...
Wow!
Well put. I've watched Neil his entire career and love having him on the Sens. Remember when Leafs came calling and he turned them down!!! Loyalty needs to be rewarded
