Sports - A New High In Lows

I've long thought professional athletes get more breaks than they should when it comes to breaking the law.  It pleases me when someone like Aaron Hernandez, a self styled prima donna of professional football, pushes the envelope once too often and has found himself divorced from his team and facing murder charges.  Don't mistake pleased with happy.  It's nothing to be happy about.  But rather I am sad and concerned.

How many others do we read about who are in trouble with the law or their sport for drug abuse, spousal abuse and just plain thuggery.  Their egos tell them they are exempt from rules.  Fortunately the teams and the law in this country are cracking down.  Fortunately for the young men if they're able to mature and get their lives together before it's too late.  In the case of Mr. Hernandez, I'm afraid it is too late.

What happens though, when those they entertain are bigger thugs then they themselves?  You have professional soccer where the fans are worse than the players.  More than worse.  They become savages.  That professional soccer hasn't caught on in this country is probably a blessing.  The hooliganism, property damage and sometimes even death caused by the fans in this country is for the moment confined to, of all things, victory celebrations. It could be worse.

We're all familiar with the picture of a baseball manager jaw to jaw with an umpire.  The manager  often gets expelled.  Or the football player kicked out of the game for unsportsmanlike behavior.  It could be worse.

Soccer has gone about as low as humans can go in the name of sport.  In Brazil a referee expelled a player and a fight ensued.  The referee, the one who is to keep the peace and control of the game, pulled a knife and stabbed the player who later died.

The fans were outraged, stormed the field and stoned the referee to death.  That not satisfying their blood lust, they proceeded to quarter his body, decapitate him, stick his head on a stake and place it in the middle of the field.

Oh, my, the unanswered questions.  Beginning with where were the authorities and ending with what type of people are associated with soccer from the fans to the referees!  The World Cup Soccer Championships are to be played in Brazil in 2014 and of course the Olympics are coming.  I don't completely blame Brazil however, I blame the culture of the sport - whatever it is! Culture seems to be an oxymoron.

This is one more indicator of the creeping violence in sport.  We tend to over look a lot of it when it's just a player, or just one celebration but a pattern is obvious and incidents are becoming more prevalent.

Will this horror be the point when the pendulum begins to swing back to what sports used to be about, is it stuck where it is or is it the beginning of redefining what sports and those involved are becoming?  Violent, cheaters, drug abusers, murderers. And that's just the fans!

Why is it the best examples of sport, like former Saints player Steve Gleason who is suffering from ALS are the ones ridiculed by clueless radio personalities while hooligans like Hernandez get swoons from admiring Facebook fans?

Is Sodom and Gomorrah in rerun?

Perspective

After having read an article by Roger Simon on the pain felt by a group of Miss America contestants, I'm beginning to understand that those we elect to high office are a reflection of what we consider important.

In this day and age when Honey Boo Boo reigns on reality TV,  it is not the most comforting of thoughts.

I first became aware of beauty pageants as a way of life when my Mom required my help in interviewing care givers in North Carolina.  One of the ladies had a grand child that was a perpetual contestant and it had become a family obsession.

My thoughts on seeing pictures of the child were much as I thought of the pictures of JonBenet Ramsey.  She struck me as looking like an underage tart being exploited by a mother who 'never was and never would be' trying to live her life vicariously through her daughter.

Perhaps it does become fun for the young ladies over time.  Heaven knows they work long hard hours to achieve the perfection needed to win.  Some of course are extremely talented and if they win they are rewarded with  mostly fleeting fame and fortune.  How many of the last five Miss Americas can you name?  And what have they done with their lives since their reign ended? For that matter what did they do during their reign? Was it really worth giving up being a normal little girl?

That's why I was concerned about how this particular group of girls reacted to their loss.  Not so much for themselves, which is good, but for how they felt they had let down their communities.  Being young ladies immersed in this lifestyle for years, I can understand their feelings.  I'm more concerned as to whether or not their communities actually felt the way these girls perceived.

I hope not.  I hope it's more like, "We're happy for your success,  good luck in the next round." No more important than the local 4-H kids winning a blue for the best bovine.  If it is as important as the young ladies seem to believe then our sense of  what's really important is certainly out of whack!

Then maybe it is.  When you consider what some of our leaders consider most important - like the amount of vacation they take versus the time they spend in Washington doing the nation's work,  it's apparent they too have a perspective that's out of whack.

Of course there are the media executives who think the likes of Honey Boo Boo is worthy television and the people who seem to agree.  For the moment my perspective seems to be in the minority. Is it temporary or is this what we've become?

A "Prisoner" Of Love

Ah, Michelle, we know you didn't mean it the way it came out, as you stated living in the White House is akin to living in a prison.  You qualified it nicely by saying it was a very nice prison.  And we know you were thinking of it as having lost your autonomy.

Somehow I don't think you garnered much sympathy.  When I think of prison I think of total loss of freedom, isolation, the barest of essentials and in many cases around the world far worse but I guess it means different things to different people.

It could be said you are a prisoner of your love for the good life.  Nearly nightly entertainment with entertainers most of us will never see.  Lavish dinners with the most expensive foodstuffs to be found.  Then there are the designer duds, ski vacations, trips to Paris and London and everywhere else under the sun.  Hotel accommodations costing in the thousands and entourages in the millions and most of it from coffers not your own.  You have live in help for every possible need, chefs, housekeeping, transportation. Kids don't even haunt the great corridors of your house anymore, except your own.  Some prison.

You know, I don't begrudge you your life.  I do begrudge your thinking of it as burdensome.  You see, the rest of the country is still struggling to make ends meet.  The military is closing some of it's swimming pools and axing fire works displays for the troops. Of all people to be made to sacrifice the smallest of pleasures.  Oil has gone over $100 a barrel again so already punitive gas prices will be going back up.  Parts of our National Parks aren't open or being maintained for the lucky few who would like to vacation in them.

And the trip to Africa you and family just returned from cost how much?  $100 million?  I know we see things differently.  I know the President likes to and does spend freely and many times indiscriminately. It brings to mind the French Revolution where the aristocracy lived the high life while the serfs suffered.  That's the image. Just once I'd like to see the Obama family make some sort of meaningful sacrifice to show that they are one with the people.

The President being one with the people seems to be a forgotten concept.  That's the way it is and we'll manage.  But please, at least have the good graces to think before you speak. There are specific connotations to certain words and prison is certainly one of them.  May those around the world who are rotting in the worst of them for no reason other than not agreeing with their governments be spared from hearing your comment.  We don't need another layer of contempt on top of that which we already have.

If Obamacare Is So Great Where's The Bandwagon?

By a fluke Obamacare became the law of the land.  Thank you Justice Roberts.  Ever since then, however, it has been battling strong headwinds when it comes to implementation.

Nobody seems to want to be forced to buy something they know little about and keeps changing to boot.  That creates a problem with funding.  If people don't buy in the government can't afford it and let's face it, they can only tax us so much.

First HHS tried to get corporations to contribute but ran into trouble when it was questioned whether or not these were companies that they regulated.  Oops.

Okay, lets look at recruiting role models to promote it.  Professional sports.  Are you kidding me?  At least the NFL has had the good graces to say no.  They have enough image problems without having their 'role models' promoting unpopular legislation.

Okay, bad idea.  Let's look at someone who has a squeaky clean image.  Librarians!  There are two main problems with this idea.  One, librarians can and are likely to read what it is they are to promote and probably have the good sense to say no.  Secondly, in this day of  e-books, could they reach enough people to make the effort worthwhile?  I doubt it.

These are pretty bad ideas from the get go but I save the worst for last.  They want to get the kids to encourage their parents to enroll.  This is akin to having truckers keep an eye on the motoring public.

 Well, maybe not quite.  I don't think the truckers receive any government paid training. In California they are actually going to use tax payer money to teach children how to promote Obamacare to their families.   Los Angeles alone, a cash strapped school district to begin with, is going to dedicate $1 million of a Federal grant to this purpose. I won't even begin to tell you where the remainder of the grant money will go, but it won't be to the three "r"s.

Is it just me or does this smack of Hitler Youth programs where children were trained to do the governments bidding against their own families.

When the government has to stoop to indoctrinating our children to do their bidding we have a problem. Do children have the ability to sort out the appropriateness of such actions?  Will they bow silently to authority figures?  I'd usually advise respect for authority figures, but in this case perhaps a rebellious nature would serve them well.

Today it's Obamacare.  If this succeeds, what might be next?  I envision a rather lengthy list.  If we're lucky and history repeats itself, however, such methods to further the ambitions of a wanna be dictator will fail.  One can only hope.

We Live In Two Different Worlds...Or Three Or Four

Rachel Jeantel is not on trial.  Neither is Treyvon Martin but you'd never know it from the media coverage it's getting.  It's the Treyvon Martin trial.  Does anyone know the name of the actual defendant?

Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but the attention being focused on a 19 year old under educated girl who was Treyvon's friend is criminal in itself.

We can't all be perfect by even our own standards but is it necessary to pick apart this girl?  She is what she is.  She was the last person to talk to Treyvon before he died.  Therefore she is a witness.

It is said she'd rather not be there.  I can't blame her.  I've never been a witness at a jury trial but it seems to me it would be somewhat intimidating under the best of circumstances. She's nineteen years old.  She's surrounded by white authority figures.  She has lied.  Was it with malicious intent or a misguided attempt to escape further involvement?  Is she racist because she used the "cracker" word?  How do you want to define racist?  My guess is that nearly everyone living in her socioeconomic range  and educational level is racist.  Just like the Paula Deens of the world who grew up in the deep south where contempt for blacks and divisive language was commonplace.  You are the product of your environment and your upbringing.

Should she have polished her act for court?  Well, it's obvious she's been coached but you can't change who she is.  Take her testimony, be done with it and let the girl go back to her nail salon or where ever she hangs out.  Where she has her friends, is comfortable and happy.  Don't try to make her into a You Tube sensation or the subject of a made for TV movie. Both would be nothing more than exploitation.

Then get back to the trial.  Is George Zimmerman, the man actually on trial here, guilty of second degree murder or was the killing of Trevon Martin self defense?

The jury is a strange one to begin with.  All women.  That's hardly a jury of Mr. Zimmerman's peers, but then I'm not the one to question how the system works. I hope they can block out the theatrics and come to a reasonable conclusion as to what happened.

The death penalty isn't involved but lives are.  George Zimmerman's and in a great many respects, so is Rachel Jeantel's.  The question is can people from very diverse worlds really judge one another fairly?  In this country it's vital that they do.  It's part of living in a country that's a melting pot.  The problem is  there's not enough melting going on. Just stirring.  Mostly by the media. The result is a trial where a witness gets more attention than the defendant.