Recently there has been a big story here in Minnesota about the hockey player Jack Jablonski a sixteen year old with an awful story. A little while ago Jack was illegally checked into the boards during a hockey game that severed his spinal column and he is now paralyzed from the neck down despite a recent surgery that took place yesterday. I truly feel so sad for Jack, his family, and all those close to him I can’t think of many things much worse than what Jack is going through. Our school, and many others, wore white today in recognition of him, and a lot of people have changed their profile pictures to a picture of his hockey number and a caption saying that _____ is praying for Jack. Here is an article on his status: JABS. Along with that there have also been several arguments today on and off Facebook regarding this matter.
Before I continue I want this to be loud and clear: I am not down playing the awfulness of Jack’s tragedy, and I don’t mean any insult to him/his supporters.
With that said, this issue has brought up a lot of controversy regarding the coverage of Jack’s accident. The amount of support shown for Jack has never been seen before at this scale. Many people have gone out of their way to show their support for Jack that hasn’t been seen by anyone in our high school, and other high schools. People are continuously posting about it on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Multiple schools have done the white out today. Finally, students have called each other insensitive for not wearing white or changing their profile picture to fit the current situation.
Here is where the argument lies. This week a 3 year old was shot in Minneapolis, no one is changing their profile picture for him. Last year one of our own classmates (a year older and was black) was shot to death, we didn’t do a white out for him. Some of our classmates see that there is a problem that it seems that we are only caring for Jack or we seem to care less about others.
I see some validity in this point. I think that something that these people allude to is that Jack is a kid that many of us high schoolers can relate to, which explains the magnitude of the reaction. I believe that everyone deserves recognition if something so tragic happens to someone.
When things get really political/argumentative I prefer to not take sides, because I don’t see the sense in fighting. I think it is awful that Jack got hurt. I am participating in the white out and am keeping Jack in my prayers. I hope that Jack gets better; his doctor said that depending on how he reacts to his surgery he may gain more of an ability to move.
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the transpiration of andrew 
I was going to post something about this too, but it looks like you beat me to it!
I think it’s pretty natural to relate more to people you have a lot in common with.
Unless they’re three years old as well, people have trouble relating to three year olds. Their personality is more potential than actual, and while tragic, their death is something more abstract. I’m guessing that no one in your school actually knew the toddler, but may have known, or at least met, Jabs.
I think the black teen is more problematic, as are most things regarding race. I think the more of an Other a person is, the easier it is to do things like blame the victom. You mentioned that he was shot — what sort of situation was it? I think a lot of folks would simply assume that he must have put himself in a situation where a shooting was possible, and given the racial association, might also assume it was also drug related. Is any of my speculation true? Anyway, in this country, at least, race has always served as a proxy or cipher for class — unfortunatly, the assumption is black = poor, and “those people” are so different than “us” that whatever happens to them just doesn’t count.
I agree it is easier for most high schoolers (in my area predominately white) to relate to the white hockey player. And race is a huge factor in everything. I didn’t want to really introduce that topic myself but you addressed it well.
To begin with, the hockey community is really special. You do not have to personally know another hockey player to have feelings for that person and express your sympathy towards him in an unfortunate accident. I know plenty of players down here that have no connection to him or anyone of his loved ones but were also distraught like myself when I heard this story days ago. Multiple hockey companies and organizations have also published their sympathies and prayers through their various social media outlets. I personally have much feelings in this incident because I am active and very strong minded in hockey politics, so when I see immature avoidable acts cause harm and change many people’s lives, it strikes a chord with me. The circumstance of a young teenager playing sports, having fun with his friends, engaging in healthy competition, life and everyone around him, is now severely altered from an avoidable incident. This deluge of support is similar to the story of Derek Zike.
As far as the popularity of this story is that this particular story is relate-able and strikes the emotions for many people; a good nature, good athlete, a son, a friend, a good student’s life has been drastically altered in an unfortunate event. So many people can relate to the qualities this young man possesses and can close their eyes and place themselves somewhere in the story and connection therefor striking an emotional chord within. To say that people are not mourning the loss of a 3 year is not correct (I know you didn’t say that exactly), but the groups of people you are dealing with are not instantly connected to the actual subject like they are to Jabs. Now if I show my parents or one of my pregnant friends the story of an unfortunate loss of a child, they will have that emotional outcry. In regards to your fellow classmate who was shot and killed, I think the circumstances change the result of the widespread outcry; there could have been behind the scenes activity that not everyone knows about that lead to the unfortunate shooting, where as with Jabs he is obviously a true victim (for the most part without getting into hockey specifics about hits). It can also be that a particular person has more friends than another or has personally touched the lives of more people in a certain way, which is fine, the importance and legacy of one’s life is not dependent on the amount of people who mourn their grievances but on the quality of their character and affect on a single person.
For the big hockey fans here that watch HNIC and enjoy Don Cherry, you will know how great of a man he is. Don Cherry, in his weekly segments on HNIC, will be sure to showcase incidents and losses like this through the hockey community, but he also highlights and gives his condolences on air to families and victims of police/army authority in Canada. He is truly admirable (I also agree with most of his hockey politics).
Also, please sympathize for the two players who initiated the contact on Jabs; it is very easy and quick to make cruel remarks about someone who plants a terrible hit but no true hockey player wishes to hit someone with this result. I am sure if given the opportunity they would make different decisions leading up until the accident. The guilt of their actions is likely eating away at them and are also struggling to cope with the situation.
On another side note, great championship game at WJC, was really pulling for Russia to win in honor of Lokotiv Yaroslavl !
I agree with a lot of what you said. In high school in a wealthy suburban area in Minnesota a white hockey player is easy to relate with. Like I said I don’t completely agree with the argument people are posing I do believe that Jabs deserves recognition and our prayers because no one deserves something as unfortunate as his situation. One of the first things I spoke about after I learned about this accident was the kids that check Jack, I KNOW no one would purposely do such a thing and I’m sure that this incident is eating at them significantly. Thanks for posting!!
Oh, and on the topic of race..
So Andrew (if you wouldn’t mind answering), do you think the level of support could have been less if the player who was injured was a black kid?
Great post Andrew!
Very well said..and you’ve raised up a good point here..
And Mr.YouKnowIt put it well too..
And I’m starting to feel bad for those kids who checked him as well..
They must feel really guilty..and I am sure they didn’t mean to hurt him like that..
It’s hockey after all, it’s physical and sometimes unfortunate things like these happen
I just wish all the best to Jack
I’ve agreed with your sentiment for a while, but I’ve had some trouble explaining why. Of course it’s better that Jack gets support. Nobody’s being hurt here. If it makes him feel better, and it does some good for the world, I should be all behind it.
Here’s my problem. What happened to Jack was horrible – there’s no question about that – but he’s only one person. Last year, over 10,000 people were killed by drunk drivers. Those are just fatalities. Today alone, about 25,000 people will die of hunger, most of them children under the age of five. Both of those things are massive in scope, both are horrific, and both are completely preventable. But for some reason, Americans chose to get up in arms about a suburban teen who was injured while playing sports.
I’m really upset about what happened to Jack. But I’m just as upset that people don’t seem to notice this.
Wow, sorry about that. This was supposed to be a general comment…