“You can’t go online and burn someone!”

“You’ve made public statements against members of Softball Leinster, and you’ve done that publicly!”

“Do you have to put it all out there in public?!?!”

“You’ve thrown <person 1> under the bus, you’ve thrown <person 2> under the bus…

“How do we know we’re not next?”

Well, one way to ensure you’re “not next” is to be honest. Tell the truth, be competent, respond to emails in a reasonable amount of time, and generally “do what you say you will do”. It’s so simple for most people, but clearly other people find it really, really hard.

“I’m not gonna argue the issue, because ‘it is what it is’. I’m disappointed in how you portrayed it. You’re bringing other people down, saying significantly negative things about people.”

Oh no, we don’t want to argue over the facts. We only want to discuss our feelings, our emotions… “our truth”. <soft voice, whimper, borderline cry>

Never mind that they’ve brought themselves down.

Never mind that what you say is true, factual, and correct.

What may be one of the most pathetic truths of the entire shitshow that is softball in Ireland is that this is how most people think. The treatment received by several notable whistleblowers in recent years in Ireland, has been nothing short of horrible. Three examples: Jonathan Sugarman, who exposed the bank liquidity scandal in UniCredit bank; Shane Corr, who uncovered the state-supported strategy to deny people reparations for overpayments to nursing homes in the HSE; Maurice McCabe, who exposed corruption in An Garda Siochana. Each of these whistleblowers were, basically, fucked over, for telling the truth, and persisting.

What we have here in “softball world” is pretty much the same. Unfortunately, what we do not have is any oversight or accountability under the law, so it’s basically a bunch of assholes that can get together and bully, browbeat, intimidate, sideline, and excommunicate you from their clique – and no one cares, as the assholes rely on the bystander mentality prevalent in Irish culture.

When one man stood up and continued to question what the fuck was going on with a particular accounting error, and fought back and called liars out for lying about it, exposing corruption, cover-ups, negligence and incompetence, and then had the audacity to think he could attempt to encroach on their turf by becoming the chair of their league committee, they appear to have concocted a straw man argument to whip up a frenzy, in order to get everyone else to help burn him down. “He said mean things (that were also true), publicly! It’s so embarrassing! He hurt people!”

I suppose that means you can’t be an agent for change if you’re willing to tell the truth.

Do you think that maybe, not doing embarrassing (or incompetent, or negligent, or corrupt) things, would be a better place to start? Do you think being honest, and transparent, would be a good idea?

Now it looks like the focus, as usual, will be on maintaining the status quo, meaning “whatever suits our team in our division”. Things that might be best for the greater good, health of the league, or implementing changes that would improve honesty, integrity, and transparency, will take a backseat — for probably another 5 years at least.

The membership had their chance for significant improvement and a new direction. Right now, it looks like “more of the same” for the foreseeable future.