WHY TENNIS NEEDS MORAL REBELS, USTA!

By Javier Palenque

The present article is an adaptation to tennis from an article published in 2020 in the Conversation by Catherine Sanderson.

Here’s why some people are willing to challenge bullying, corruption, and bad behavior, even at personal risk. Are you listening USTA leadership?

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a longtime Republican, has spent the last two months standing up to intense and highly public pressure from members of Congress, who urged him to throw out legally cast ballots, and from President Donald Trump, who asked him to “find 11,780 votes” to change the outcome of the election.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois became the first Republican member of Congress to call for Trump’s immediate removal from office by the 25th Amendment, following the mob riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Ben Danielson, a well-regarded medical director of a Seattle medical clinic, resigned in November to protest ongoing racism in the hospital, noting concerns about his “own complicity as a representative of a hospital that does not treat people of color as it should.”

All these people spoke up to call out bad behavior, even in the face of immense pressure to stay silent. Although the specifics of each of these cases are quite different, what…