# Tar Heel coach Ol' Roy Williams puts it all in perspective. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 11, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-heel-coach-ol-roy-williams-puts-it-all-in-perspective/528589 "2010-02-11T20:22:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-heel-coach-ol-roy-williams-puts-it-all-in-perspective/528589/21 "2010-02-12T18:29:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Look, in your own life, you’ve undoubtedly experienced misery of one kind or another. But if you’d just lost your job or had just gotten divorced, would “perspective” REALLY make you feel any better? Has any unemployed person EVER felt better after being reminded, “Some people have terminal cancer, so what you’re going through is really nothing”? Has any depressed, heartbroken divorcee ever cheered up after hearing “Some people are starving in Africa, so really, what are YOU complaining about”? I think those Haitians need to let it go. The earthquake only killed a couple of hundred thousand people. The 1931 flood in central China killed ten times that many. Where’s their sense of perspective? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-heel-coach-ol-roy-williams-puts-it-all-in-perspective/528589/22 "2010-02-12T18:42:14Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Interesting. You now have the power to define the meaning of words? That must be very convenient in debates. > > :rolleyes: I can define words to be they way I mean them when I say them. You can’t? Pity. If there are, say, five definitions for “perspective” and I posit an assertion that depends upon definition #3, do you really think that I have to defend my position against all the other definitions? Really? It must be hard as hell to talk to you. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-heel-coach-ol-roy-williams-puts-it-all-in-perspective/528589/23 "2010-02-12T18:45:42Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > And of course, if Roy Williams HAD told the press, “Sure, we’ll probably miss the NCAA tournament this year, but compared to the agony suffered by people in Haiti, our problems are really pretty insignificant,” NOBODY would have said, “That’s a good point.” Williams would have been ridiculed by fans and the media for making lame excuses. Where is the excuse in that remark, exactly? Also, do you understand what a false dichotomy is? Here’s a clue :[Ol’ Roy](http://www.viewpoints.com/images/review/2008/357/21/1230003553-626_full.jpg) didn’t have to say Jack Shit about Haiti, one way or another. He brought it up, when he should have just shut up. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-heel-coach-ol-roy-williams-puts-it-all-in-perspective/528589/24 "2010-02-12T21:03:12Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > I can define words to be they way I mean them when I say them. You can’t? Pity. > > If there are, say, five definitions for “perspective” and I posit an assertion that depends upon definition #3, do you really think that I have to defend my position against all the other definitions? Really? It must be hard as hell to talk to you. When you make an asinine assertion you’d better be prepared to defend it from all angles. Claiming that your interpretation is the only possible one makes you look like a fool or a liar. I pointed out the irony of you using a word who’s alternate definition highlights the crux of the argument against you, not that I expect you to understand such a concept. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-heel-coach-ol-roy-williams-puts-it-all-in-perspective/528589/25 "2010-02-12T21:54:46Z")
I was looking forward to this weekend. I was going to meet up with a few mates, and bitch a bit about how crappy work has been this week. But hey, Haiti and all that. I had better get a smile on instead. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tar-heel-coach-ol-roy-williams-puts-it-all-in-perspective/528589.md?page=1)