The following transcript was written by International Boxing Hall of Famer Teddy Atlas. Atlas is the chairman of the Dr. Theodore A. Atlas Foundation, a Staten Island based non-profit organization. The foundation was recently forced to shutter its youth basketball program following an incident between an adult and a referee..
“An open letter to all the great people of S.I.
I don’t care which side of the Political aisle you may sit on, if we are honest and caring people it would be hard not to see that together as a country we are deteriorating in the most basic ways. The state of this great land and its cities are always a reflection of the condition of its people, more directly put it is attached to the behavior of us all. Our Character. A great book says and even demands that, ‘we should love thy neighbor as we ourselves would want to be loved,’ what it does not include is that despite what our neighbor may do or not do, we as children of God are responsible, for our own actions. No one else is in control of the choices we make. And it is now time to make better ones.
The Dr. Atlas Foundation was started 28 yrs. ago in memory of my father who built 2 hospitals on this island so that all people, no matter their position in life, could get proper hospital care. He made free house calls until he was 80 driving to the sick, because they were unable to get to a place of help.
The Foundation serves a myriad o purposes from paying for the medical care of a sick child when the insurance does not cover what is needed, to building a handicapped bathroom when needed or finding an apartment for a family about to be placed into a shelter. The Foundation looks to help those who may have fallen between the cracks of our society. A food Pantry and a number of community social programs are also part of its mission statement.
One of those programs for more than 15 yrs. has been the forming and running of a basketball league in our public intermediate grade schools and Title…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply