Pray For Our Pastors

WHAT I LEARNED IN LITTLE LEAGUES

I played Little League baseball from age 5 to 12. In addition to giving me a love for baseball and a short-lived nickname – “Flea,” because I was small but could jump really high to catch the ball – the experience taught me that there’s more to baseball, and to life, than winning and losing. It sounded corny even then, and it sounds even cornier now, but good sportsmanship and good times are much more important than winning a stupid game.

Many years later, it is occurring to me that a “win at all costs” mentality is at the root of many of our worst failures. The atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the scandals and Tyco and Enron, and the NYPD’s intimidation of minorities in the 1990’s in the pursuit of lowering crime are three recent examples of what can go wrong when a narrow end is pursued without regard to questionable means.

Do the ends justify the means? Since Machiavelli, people have been asking that question. You might be surprised that I think the ends do justify the means. But my caveat is that you have to make sure you’re considering all the ends. In the war on terror, Abu Ghraib should have been about extracting information from prisoners but also the perception of the US in the Islamic world. CEO’s at Tyco and Enron are held to account for quarterly earnings, but also for the long-term health and reputation of their firms. And NYPD’s job is not only to lower crime but to uphold the integrity of the badge.

I could have told you this in T-ball: you want to win the game, but you also want to have fun and play fair. The problem isn’t that ends don’t justify the means, but that the ends are being defined too narrowly.