Jacklyn Lucas

Eric McErlain has a post up today about the double standard that exists between how young potential NBA players (mostly black) and how other young athletes are treated (Sidney Crosby in hockey and Michele Wie in golf for examples). I agree that there is a double standard but I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Yes the basketball players are unfairly treated differently but the people who threw them under the bus were the NBA owners with the consent of the NBA players association. Where was Kevin Garnett, Lebron James and Kobe Bryant on this issue? Even though they won't get to play until they are 19 - I get the feeling that if the next Lebron James decided not to go to college that Nike or Reebok would make him very comfortable until he turned 19. I guess what I'm saying is that the plight of the potential millionaire 18-year old basketball player doesn't rate very high on my sympathy meter. I'm sorry but they are right up there with the plight of popular girls who get asked to all the proms and therefore have to spend more money on dresses in my book.

I think one reason why I don't get worked up over the double-standard (yes I completely agree that a double-standard is at work here) is because for some reason the name my mind associates with this issue (by now you've probably figured out that there is no telling what tangent my mind will take on any issue) - anyway - the name my mind associates with this issue is Jacklyn Lucas. Lucas was a Medal of Honor winner. Here is a brief description about his heroic actions:

D-plus-1 Day [on Iwo Jima], Private First Class Lucas and three other men were suddenly ambushed by a hostile patrol which savagely attacked with rifle fire and grenades. Quick to act when the lives of the small group were endangered by two grenades which landed directly in front of them, Private First Class Lucas unhesitatingly hurled himself over his comrades upon one grenade and pulled the other one under him, absorbing the whole blasting force of the explosions in his own body in order to shield his companions from the concussion and murderous flying fragments. By his inspiring action and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice, he not only protected his comrades from certain injury or possible death, but also enabled them to rout the Japanese patrol and continue the advance.

What the official citation does not tell you is that Jacklyn Lucas snuck into the Marines when he was just 14 and that his actions on Iwo Jima came when he was still just 17. It should also be noted that Lucas smothered two hand grenades with his body and amazingly lived to tell the tale.

It has been often pointed out that at 18 a person is old enough to join the military but not old enough to buy beer (in most states). This is the sort of double-standard that gets me worked up. What I'd like to see is a law passed in all 50-states that lowers the drinking age to 18 for members of the military. A military ID is now probably among the harder things to forge and a valid military ID should be good enough for an 18-year old to get into any bar in any state.

Sorry for the tangent rant but hey - that's one of the charms of the site - right?