https://soundcloud.com/mhsmentoronline/april-21-editorial-curt-schilling

Time and time again, social media has either been a beacon for love and awareness of hot topics or a black hole of hatred and backlash. For ex-Boston Red Sox pitcher and recently fired ESPN baseball analyst Curt Schilling, social media was the latter. After posting a meme in support of the North Carolina law banning transgenders from using the public restrooms of their choice, ESPN let him go on Wednesday making a statement addressing the issue.

“ESPN is an inclusive company,” ESPN said. “Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.”

This wasn’t the first time Schilling had made crude remarks publicly. Not only did he receive lots of backlash but he also spread hate around himself; making posts across social media downgrading women, transgenders and Muslims. Prior to firing Schilling, ESPN had suspended him for making a post comparing Muslims to Nazis. Schilling later apologized but then continued his rampage of controversial comments. Even after ESPN fired him, it only seemed to add more fuel to the fire, as he ruthlessly and callously posted more and more, all while defending his first Amendment rights. His activity on social media has only escalated post-ESPN firing making more outrageous posts and engaging in countless spats with his followers.

Schilling has since spoken out about the matter stating he’s not homophobic or transphobic.

“As long as you’re not sleeping with my wife, I don’t care who you sleep with,” Schilling said on Sirius XM on Friday.

Still, that has not stopped the relentless hate and backlash for the comments he made before.

The Mentor Editorial Board felt that the comments made were not appropriate for anyone to say let alone a major public figure representing a leading sports network. Just because he is such a public figure, does not mean he gets to say whatever he wants. In fact, because he is well-known and has a platform, he shouldn’t misuse it and spread negativity. Even though Schilling had the right to freely speak his thoughts, the Board thought that he should not have said the things he said because he is a big name, especially in baseball, and because he wasn’t just representing himself but also ESPN and what they stand for. With all the hate speech going around in society today, we can’t afford for an individual with a large platform to embrace ideas that are highly insulting.

Since this wasn’t the first time the former Major League Baseball pitcher had said abhorrent statements, the Board felt that ESPN should have taken more action the first time rather than just suspending him. While firing him does improve the image of ESPN, they should’ve have fired Schilling sooner.

In conclusion, social media is extremely powerful and rather than using it to propagate antipathy, we should use it as a forum for supporting people of all backgrounds, appearances, sexual orientations, etc. and creating an atmosphere that brings understanding about these topics to others. Don’t be hesitant to speak up about the topics that matter to you but do be considerate of the thoughts and feelings of others and the potential repercussions that your actions have.