Hitting the Sperm Lottery

In response to Sunday's print column, I received this nice, sharp e-mail from Richard Westervelt:

I find it interesting that you use the phrase "hitting the sperm lottery" to denote a person that has a position that they would otherwise never have been able to attain.

If ever a person was worthy of that designation it would have been former president George W. Bush who would never have gotten in to Yale were it not for his legacy - would in all likelihood never have graduated and certainly like Bob Irsay been head of a professional sports franchise let alone become the president given his academic record and elocution skills.

I would never demean the service record of Senator McCain but do you really believe he would have received admission to and graduated (next to last I believe) from the Naval Academy were it not for the "sperm lottery" of having a father and grandfather being four-star admirals.

At no time during the George W. Bush term or Senator McCain's candidacy did your column ever question their legitimacy. If Rush Limbaugh is to be admired and others excoriated for how they achieved their position(s) then perhaps our current president should be placed on a pedestal by you. To borrow a phrase "how small, petty, hypocritical and cowardly" to do otherwise.

This is clever but it misses a couple of points.

George W. Bush hit the sperm lottery but he also ran for governor of Texas and President of the United States and won. Jim Irsay didn't have to stand for election. His gig, like his team, was literally handed to him by his father.

John McCain hit the same lottery and proved his worth by fighting bravely for his country, enduring unspeakable pain and incarceration, and then returning to run for office on his own merits. As far as I have read, Jim Irsay has learned to play the guitar, follows rock bands around and produced a smoking-hot daughter.

Barack Obama deserves the respect and admiration of every American for his work-ethic, diligence and meteoric rise to the highest and most powerful office in the world. That office wasn't handed to him, he ran for it on his own merits and won it. But a pedestal? Nah. Not yet. Maybe someday, for some people. But I think he's taking the country in the wrong direction. Count me among the loyal opposition.

All that said, just to be born in America is to be something of a lottery winner. When you look around the world at the billions of people who are born into real hardship and poverty, how can you not think "I'm among the luckiest people in the world."

Jim Irsay may know how lucky he is. But his statements about Limbaugh were those of a silver-plattered snob. And his assertion that people need to "watch" their "thoughts," is not only offensive, it's bizarre.