In my opinion, I feel you're overreacting a bit. Obviously it's something you feel strongly about, but for right or wrong, we just have to accept that some people are raised differently than us. If A-Ram grew up thinking that it's okay, then we can't just expect him to conform to our morals when the issue arises. I hope Aramis is educated about it, and informed as to why it's wrong, but is he a piece of trash who should be traded because he supports cock fighting?

Using your other example, it certainly upsets and offends me that women are stoned to death, and raped, and abused in the Middle East. Unfortunately, it's a norm of their society, but fortunately, it's changing, if only slowly. I can only hope that it continues to change in the future, but it would be unrealistic to expect it to change overnight. To paraphrase Carrie Fischer, change only happens overnight in movies and television.

Besides, if anything, we should trade him because he's thugly and looks like Charles Barkley, not because he has different morals from us.

Realistically, A-Ram could be caught with a truck full of HGH and it wouldn't effect the value of the Cubs. He certainly hasn't effected the team's value by being raised in a country with different cultural standards than our own.

Obviously animal cruelty is an important issue to you, Mark, but I would think that the fact that more than one person thinks you might be working our readers into a shoot right now might be a pretty solid indication that not everybody - and probably not even the majority of people - share your point of view. (Which is fine ... the majority is very often wrong in life.)

If I were a betting man, I would be willing to put serious money on my belief that this will be all but forgotten before the season has started. I'd even go as far as to say that the majority of fans will have forgotten it come the start of spring play.

Anyway, Mark, did you know that there's a culture in the world right now in which 70% of its male adult population has committed murder? This culture, which lives in New Zealand, if I recall correctly, has the belief that people get sick and die only because other people have placed curses on them. When somebody in that culture dies, if the ghost implicates somebody who is living (usually through a dream or vision of some kind), then the accused must perform a culinary act which is the equivalent of cooking a souffle the size of a bathtub. They go into it knowing that it's an impossible task, and they believe that the success or failure of the accused is dependent on help from the spirit of the recently departed. And if they fail, they are executed. (See "Culture of Make Believe" by Derrick Jensen for the full story.)

The point is, there are cultures out there that are just plain whack when compared with our own ... and, you know what? Our own culture is just as ridiculous if you view it without bias. I mean seriously, we do some insane things on a daily basis. For just one example, people here have already cited inhumane stories of how we raise and slaughter our livestock.

Now, if we can forgive ourselves for the craziness of our own culture, and if we can resist raising an army to pacify that bizarre Culture of Murderers, then I think we have to be fair and accepting of the fact that there are players on our favorite baseball team who come from countries that do things like:

*Promote that women should commit suicide if raped in order to restore honor to their family
*Hack off pieces of their genitalia in order to display their faith in God
*Raise roosters to fight each other, often to the death
*Spend incredible amounts of money on purchasing sex from beautiful-but-exploited women
*and so very much more.

If we can't be tolerant of our inherent differences, then we will never be able to accept our common ground. Honestly. I will film me eating my own poo if Aramis is in the doghouse come April over this. Nobody will remember. The Cubs will not be protested by PETA - I mean, his comments aren't even being picked up nationally. The value of the team will not decrease because they have players from different countries with different cultural mores and folkways. So, although it's made for some good debate, I encourage that we let it go. This team is going to go far this year ... and a lot of that distance will be on the back of one Aramis Ramirez. I for one will cheer him on ... even if I wouldn't trust him with my pet rooster.

Is everything in life this rigid or black and white for you? The way I see it is the best we can do is what seems right at the time basd upon what we know at the time. What he is doing is what seems right to him based upon his culture and values. I can't fault that. I can hope that his views can be changed. So given all that, I can't pass such harsh judgement. This should be a learning moment, not a run-him-out-of-town moment.
Oh, and don't call this guy a punk without taking the time to teach your ficticious child a lesson rather than just call someone names.
I'm left with the imprssion you've never learned anything, changed an opinion, or simply just grown and become a better person. Maybe you've always been a superior human being with impeccable judgement. Good for you.
By the way, I wish I could have been a ballplayer too, but I'm not bitter about it or about the state of the game.

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