When is it OK to Break the Rules

I’m sure everyone has heard of the latest scandal in professional sports. Cheating to win is an abomination in the eyes of most Americans and we especially dislike it when it directly effects our favorite team. But, is there ever a time when it’s ok to break the rules? Certainly, the civil rights movement, a time when people said laws that discriminate against people because of the color of their skin needed to be violated, that was the right thing to do. How do we know if breaking the rules is the right thing to do?

This latest Major League Baseball scandal gives us a hint. When a team breaks a rule to give itself an unfair advantage over the other teams, that is truly wrong. Breaking the rules in this case was not done to right a wrong or to level the playing field. Breaking these rules was done to give one class of people, the Houston Astros, an unfair advanatge over another class of people; every other team. The immorality of the decisions made is easy to understand. Our decisions should hold a few fundamental truths to be sacrosanct. Among these are first do no harm, second no one person is more important than any other person, and third every person should have access to the same opportunities. When we create systems, rules, and processes that prevent anyone from having the same access to opportunity as any other person, that is when it is ok to break the rules. The founders of the USA had these principles in mind when the Nation was created. Our Declaration of Independence very specifically declares: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

How does a simple violation of MLB rules really violate the spirit of the Founding of Our Nation? Some might say, in the course of life on this planet, it really doesn’t matter. I say, it does! When the leadership of the Houston Astros decided it was alright to cheat, what they said was we are above all the other teams. The most important thing is winning and whatever we can do to give us an advantage, well that’s the right thing to do. Early in our Nation’s history, some of the most wealthy of our Founders decided that there were exceptions to the quote I provided from the Declaration of Independence. Tradition, at the time, said the exceptions were people of African decent, Native Americans, people who had religious leanings different from them, and women and children. Laws were made that marginalized each of those classes of people. Today, some of those categories are still marginalized. Just like the Houston Astros, who said it’s ok to give ourselves an advantage over the others, some of our Founders said, it’s ok to give ourselves an advantage over these others. In fact, it’s the right thing to do.

If, as a free society, we are going to ever truly behave as a free society, we must understand the implications of leadership. Leaders must be above the pettiness that allows us to unballance any playing field. Equality of opportunity must exist in every situation. Whether one group succeeds over another group must always be determined by its preparation, determination, persistence, energy investment and execution. Success should never be allowed as a result of creating an inequality in opportunity. We have a reat deal of work to do in this world. In too many instances, the cards are stacked. The lesson from the Houston Astros cannot be it’s wrong to get caught. The take away needs to be it’s wrong to take unfair advantage of anyone. It’s wrong to stack the deck. Winning must only be a product of how willing we are to work harder, prepare more, learn more, and invest more of ourselves than others are willing to. It is also important to note that in every field, there is plenty of room for many winners and that the outcome of a few events does not define winners or losers. Knowing how the Houston Astros won their World Series Titles tells me they didn’t deserve it. Looking at the application of that statement outside of baseball, how many apparently successful people and organizations don’t deserve where they are and what they have today?