Apologies for the lack of posts...

Family medical concerns have trumped any posting in the last week or so. I hope to be back to a semi-regular schedule shortly...

Stovall out for the year

A lot of highs and lows on this one. First Peyton looked like he had reinjured the ACL when he collapsed during the Wright State game. Then it was reported that it was instead a sprain and that he was day-to-day. Now:

MEN'S BASKETBALL UPDATE: Guard will miss rest of season
Stovall tears ACL for second time in career


Sean Stevenson Chief Reporter
December 01, 2005

The men’s basketball team’s top guard will miss the remainder of the season after suffering an ACL tear in his left knee. After further evaluation this week, another MRI determined that junior Peyton Stovall had suffered an ACL tear and he's expected to have surgery on his left knee by the end of the month.

Stovall is expected to seek a redshirt this season so he can return for two full season after he's recovered..

Stovall was diagnosed with a left knee sprain in an MRI on Monday and was expected to be day-to-day for Saturday’s game against Butler.

Stovall, however, will now have to go through his second ACL injury in his Ball State career. He suffered the first ACL tear in last year’s Mid-American Conference Tournament game and spent the off-season rehabilitating the knee.

Coach Tim Buckley said on Monday that without Stovall the Cardinals would turn to true freshman Maurice Acker to run the point for the team.

Stovall averaged 15 points per game through the first two contests this season while shooting 34.8 percent from the field and going 4-for-13 from beyond the arc.

(source: Ball State Daily News)

I am very sad for Peyton. I assume he'll be granted his red-shirt, and hopefully he'll have two solid years in a Cardinal uniform to come. I know how hard it is to recover from a surgery of this magnitude, but to have to do it two times...

In looking at Acker's ascension to the starting point guard spot, I am concerned with two things. 1)Obviously, his youth and lack of collegiate experience, and 2)the lack of a backup. I imagine that Buckley will implement a rotation of guards to cover the backup situation with a combination of Mills, Yates, and a few others. And, of course, I remind myself that every point guard we've had in recent memory (Jackson, McCollom, and Stovall), and a few from the past (Spicer and that McCollum guy) either started or played significant minutes their freshman year, so I shouldn't underestimate Maurice's prospect for success only based upon his youth.

Guess we'll see how things go against Butler. I am optimistic, but I also am reminded of a few years back when another star player went down with a knee injury right before the Butler game and what the result was then...

Breastfeeding at the Williamson Rec Center

As a father of breastfed children, I've been somewhat taken aback by the stories about the Williamson Rec Center's issue with the breastfeeding mother (11/29/05 - "Lawyer: Rec center OK to ask mother to move"; 11/27/05 - "Bathroom place for breast-feeding, rec center officials say") and the subsequent discussions related to it. The story states that "Tennessee has no law that would prohibit or permit public breast-feeding," yet the lawyers feel that "officials at the Williamson County Recreation Center in Franklin were within the law"? What law? As pointed out in the article, "federal law states that women may breast-feed at any location in a federally-owned building or on federal property as long as the woman and her child are authorized to be there." The state has no law prohibiting breastfeeding in public places, so it can't be that. As Ms. Lilly points out in the Tennessean article, "if there is not a law that clarifies the issue, it is generally accepted that a woman has a right to breast-feed a child where she is."

Here's the facts as I know them. The AAP says:

• "Human milk is the preferred feeding for all infants"
• "Newborns should be nursed whenever they show signs of hunger, such as increased alertness or activity, mouthing, or rooting. Crying is a late indicator of hunger."
• "Newborns should be nursed approximately 8 to 12 times every 24 hours until satiety"
• "Pacifiers should be avoided whenever possible and, if used at all, only after breastfeeding is well established." (note that artificial nipples on bottles are very similar to pacifiers)
• Pediatricians should "promote breastfeeding as a normal part of daily life, and encourage family and societal support for breastfeeding."
• "Although economic, cultural, and political pressures often confound decisions about infant feeding, the AAP firmly adheres to the position that breastfeeding ensures the best possible health as well as the best developmental and psychosocial outcomes for the infant. Enthusiastic support and involvement of pediatricians in the promotion and practice of breastfeeding is essential to the achievement of optimal infant and child health, growth, and development."

(Source: AAP website)

So, this natural function that the AAP says "ensures the best possible health ... developmental and psychosocial outcomes" for children is still shunned in society (at least by some).

I'm reading on Franklin Circus that this woman was a "spoiled kid" who is rude, inconsiderate, and only thinking about herself. That she should either schedule the baby on a four hour schedule and only go out in those time periods, or she should stay at home all day. That her rights are much less important than everyone else's right to not see her nurse and, in fact, by using the rec facility with her child in tow, she is demanding that "the rest of the world should bow to her." That what she was doing can be equated to smoking, indecent exposure, public sex acts, and "crack" exposure. That she should sit on a toilet or a wooden bench in a locker room to nurse. That she should not nurse her baby in a NURSERY of all places!

I have yet to see anyone dispute this woman's claim that she was nursing the infant "tastefully" or that she was being "modest": i.e., she certainly wasn't running around the rec-center topless screaming "LOOK AT ME!", and likely she never exposed herself at all. I'd venture to guess that this woman was less exposed than a woman in a swimsuit in the pool or in a sports bra on the treadmill. Having been around a great many breast-feeding women, I can tell you that the vast majority of these women are modest and would prefer not to expose themselves, and thus take precautions to avoid that from happening. In fact, I'll bet that the majority of the time, people don't even realize that a woman is breastfeeding. I know that this is the case with my wife.

This reaction is similar to the woman who recently had the same experience at the Huntsville Earlyworks children's museum, and I have to say that it is rather disappointing. Children should have a right to eat. Women should have a right to go out in public, and also have the right nurse the baby on demand when the situation presents itself. People complain when an infant is crying in a public place, yet they don't want the mother to pacify the child's needs.

Astounding...

Update (12/5/05): Letters to the Editor in the Tennessean mostly back up my stance on this, with (of course) the random inconsiderate, "rude", and "offensive" commentaries, along with one that compared breastfeeding to "defecation" (geesh!). People really need to grow up...