Plaxico Burress - Is Better Than You?

I realize that some of you may not know what or who a Plaxico Burress is, so I will give you a brief update. Plaxico Burress is an NFL star for the New York Giants. Mr. Burress currently makes about $80,000 a week to play for these Giants, and that's every week, not just the weeks in which he plays the game of football, and, barring a trade or re-negotiation of his contract, he will continue on that same financial path until the year of 2011, if I did my homework correctly.

On Friday, the 28th of November, Mr. Burress illegally took a loaded handgun into a nightclub in New York precariously stored in the waistband of his sweatpants. Now, never mind the lack of sound judgment in thinking a pair of sweatpants could hold a handgun sufficiently. Never mind the argument about whether or not a professional athlete or anyone else should even be allowed to carry a handgun, publicly or otherwise. Never mind the fact that the gun eventually freed itself from the unstable waistband and began to slide down the leg of one Plaxico Burress. And never mind the curious decision of the man to disengage the safety of the gun in his pants that night just in case whatever he feared most might have come to pass in such a fashion that he would not have ample time to react appropriately. And forget the questions, "Don't they make people pass a gun safety course before they allow them a handgun? And wouldn't they tell you that a waistband in a pair of sweatpants does not a holster make?" As the gun began to slide down, he reached to catch it, and, alas, his finger found the trigger, the hammer found the firing pin, and the bullet found his thigh.

A rough circumstance to say the least. I do not wish anything but wellness to Mr. Burress. However, his predicament poses a question for this post: What makes a man, any man, or woman, (Martha Stewart?) more deserving than another? Most of us would not have had the $100,00o to pay bail that Plaxico did. Good for him. Money shouldn't be the issue. If someone has money to hire the best attorneys, we should not condemn them for it. We all pay tribute to the great god Money here on this earth. Money is not to be damned. We, the human race, originated the problem of measuring and comparing wealth, Money only came along for the ride. So we have no right or reason to lash out at those that have taken advantage of the system we all help to perpetuate. But we live down here in the land of the mortals, right? So what can we do?

We, as humans, share the full brunt of this burden. We have put this man and many others before him on pedastals galore. Plaxico may or may not believe that he walks on water or that he is entitled to preferential treatment, but that matters not. We have empowered him with the ability to buy into that entitlement and expectation as he chooses because we see him as more than a man. The irony here is that we all have talents. Plaxico's happens to be playing a difficult game at an exceptionally high level, but I believe that Plaxico cannot sing or entertain or play the piano the way a very beautiful friend of mine is able. We are all human beings. We all contribute in different ways to the world, but it is imperative that we recognize that we also collectively contribute to the psyche of the human race.

When anyone comes to a hospital with a gunshot wound, that hospital is obligated, by law, to alert the proper authorities. New York Presbyterian failed to do so. Why? Perhaps they were bigger fans of the Giants and Mr. Burress than they were fans of the laws of the land. The NYPD allegedly found out about the incident from television. If this piano playing friend of mine shot himself in the leg, do you think the hospital would fail to fulfill their legal obligation in his case? Most likely not. Now, listen, I don't agree with every law in existence either, and I have flouted my fair share to be sure, but when anyone's life is at risk, or when a gun is involved, and, more particularly, when you have taken an oath to conduct yourself according to a certain standard, then we should all expect a different result than what took place this last weekend. This is not Plaxico's burden. This is ours. The fans of the NFL, of professional sports in general, and even college for that matter, fans of movies and movies stars, fans of politics and politicians, this is our burden.

It is up to you and me to say that this is no longer an acceptable form of human behavior. We need to fully commit to the idea that no one person is higher up the human food chain than another. We will have peace and understanding in this world when one is no longer a separated one, but when one is all, when one is the whole. We have to die to our individual selves, our egos, and that goes for Mr. Burress as well. He's fortunate to play a game for a living. You and I also have the opportunity to play a game for a living.

For a living. Think about those words for a moment. It may not be football. It may not be politics or movies, or racing or whatever other occupation of which you may dream, but we all have life. This is our illusion. We can play as we choose, not necessarily as they tells us we should. Let us all, together, choose the highest path for this collective game of life. Then we will all make a living in the truest sense of those words.