I Disagree, Todd.

First, realize the 1st amendment is not an issue here. I’m sure that you realize that since you didn’t bring it up. But please also realize that like it or not, actions have consequences. Thoughts do not. I would not penalize someone for what they thought. I would penalize them for putting those thoughts into action. There is precedent for such a principle.

Let’s consider a different but similar scenario. Since we’re dealing in stereotypes here, how about a shapely female office worker. Perhaps many co-workers think sexually provocative thoughts about her. No problem. Verbalizing those thoughts? Big problem.

Let’s also not bank too heavily on comparing Rocker to an 8 year old– whether or not he acts like a spoiled kid is irrelevant. He is an adult, and OUGHT TO KNOW BETTER. The 8 year old is still under my guidance, my tutelage, is still learning from me. I remember a lesson from when I was about 5 or 6 and saw a crippled man who, to me at that young age, “walked funny.” When I said so, I was reprimanded, and explained to, and educated, and probably even punished. But I learned a valuable lesson about expressing myself appropriately.

Rather than being grounded or sent to his room without dinner, Mr. Rocker needs to be consequenced in a way that he understands and that matters to him. If we let vigilanteism do the job, as you suggest, we have to remember that pitchers bat in the National league. I would hate to be Rocker facing a pitcher of color, or who was gay, or foreign, or even just a liberal thinker.

The lesson I want an 8 year old to see is that each choice and action comes with a free consequence. I want the 8 year old to see that doing something wrong is more serious than thinking something wrong. And I want him or her to see that it’s possible to take your consequence, learn, and become a better person. Let’s hope that John Rocker has that in him.