Acts of Violence

    Last Saturday December 1, 2012 Kansas City Chief’s linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girl friend, Kasandra Perkins. He then drove to the Chiefs facilities where after talking with coach Romeo Crennel, general manager Scott Pioli, and linebacker’s coach Gary Gibbs Belcher walked away from them, turned the gun on himself and took his own life.

    On December 2, 2012 Bob Costas, during the halftime of the Sunday night football game paraphrased sports columnist Jason Whitlock and said’ “that Belcher and his wife would not have died had he not possessed a gun.”

  Really, Bob? You know that for a fact, do you? You know for a fact that had he not had a gun he would have walked away from that argument without striking out in rage? You know for a fact Bob that he would not have grabbed something and bashed her head in, or maybe beat her to death with his fists? Wow Bob, could you give me the Powerball numbers for next week’s drawing too?

    It was not the fact that Jovan Belcher own a gun that caused him to responded with violence. Just like it wasn’t the ability to own a hand gun that made Charles Whitman climb the bell tower at the University of Texas on August 1, 1966 and kill 21 people. And it wasn’t lax gun control laws that made James Huberty walk in to a McDonalds in San Ysidro, Califonia on July 18, 1984 and open fire and kill 21 people. Nor is that what prompted Eric Harr and Dylan Klebold murdered to open fire at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 and kill 12 of their classmates.

    These acts of violence and destruction, and many others, were committed by people with deep psychological problems. These people were broken, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. How these people got broke we will never know. Were they neglected by their parents, making them feel invisible, ignored or bullied by classmates? Was undue pressure put on them, by their parents, society, themselves, to be successful? Did they feel like failures for not living up to their own expectations causing them to act out in violence? But one thing I am pretty sure of is this; it wasn’t the ability to own fire arms.

    Man has been killing man since the dawn of time. Long before we had guns, long before we had knives, swords or spears. As a matter of fact the first murder weapon in history was a rock. If people feel the need to act out in violence they will find a means.

    And yet every time one of these acts of violence occurs there is a politician somewhere willing to step up to a microphone and point a finger at gun laws. Or video games, movies, TV, or music. Why? Why do we feel the need to find something to blame? Something concrete, something we can see, and maybe think we have a solution? Humans like to feel in control. It makes us feel safe to think we can identify the cause and solve it. So politicians give us these things to blame and tell us they can fix it, with more laws. Actually I think they do it mostly to get their names in the paper and their face on TV, because I think they know what we already know but are afraid to admit to ourselves. We just cannot control these things.

    There are a lot of people in the world with deep psychological problems, and these problems, Bob, cannot be fixed with gun control.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield. It was pretty awesome and very sobering. To stand there and look out over these fields where on July 1 – 3 in 1863, more than 165,000 men took part in battle.  46,268 lost their lives, 27,224 were wounded in battle, many of those eventually dying from their wounds. This was bloodiest battle in American history. More American lost their lives in Gettysburg than in any other single battle in our history, more than D-Day, more than Iwo Jima.

This is often called the turning point of the American Civil War. The war was going in the favor of the Confederate States. After General R. E. Lee had defeated the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville, General Lee decided to push the advantage and invade the norht. After the defeat at Gettysburg Gen. Lee retreated back into Virginia, the momentum swung in the North’s favor, and the rest as that say is history. As I rode through the battlefield looking at the markers showing the positions of the different armies, regiments and division a thought occurred to me.

This wasn’t just a turning point in American History, but a very pivotal point in world history.

Imagine if the Confederate Army had been successful at Gettysburg. They would have been in position to threaten other major northern cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and they would have basically had Washington, D.C. surrounded. With momentum already in the Confederacy’s favor, such a major victory in northern territory, and the Confederate army close enough to threaten other major cities, including the Union capitol, maybe the Union would have been willing to call a truce, sign a  treaty, and recognize the Confederate States right to exist as a separate country.

Would we have continued as two separate countries or could a peaceful solution be reached to reunite us? If not, with a divided America, of the states that joined the Union after 1865 how many would have joined the USA and how many would have joined the CSA? Could either of these countries become a world power?  Now, think about WWI. Without the U.S. joining in would Germany have prevailed? And if Germany had won, would there have been a World War II, or would Germany, after conquering Europe been strong enough to also conquer Russia and eventually invade and conquer North America, The U.S.A, the C.S.A and Canada, Mexico, and on to South America? Eventually China?

A lot was changed on those hills in southern Pennsylvania on those 3 days in July, 1863 at a little town called Gettysburg.

MLB Allstar Game

In the 11th inning of the 1970 Major League Baseball Allstar game Pete Rose ran over catcher Ray Fosse in order to score the winning run. Fosse suffered a separated shoulder that went undiagnosed for the rest of the year and has been blamed for his diminished performance for the remainder of that year and the rest if his carrear. Pete Rose suffered a bruised knee and missed three games. Fans and media vilified Rose for playing to hard and causing needless injury in a meaningless exhibition game.

The 2002 MLB Allstar game was tied after 11 innings. With both teams out of substitute players available pitchers Commissioner Bud Selig called game and it ended in a tie. Fans and media vilified Selig for not making players risk injury in a meaningless exhibition game. So MLB and the players union decided to reward the winning league of the Allstar game home field advantage in the World Series.

The starting lineups for the teams are decided by fan vote so this is really not an
Allstar" game as much as it is an "allfave" game. Which is OK. Probably as it should be. The rest of the rosters are filled out by players voting. There is also a rule that every team has to have a player on the Allstar Team. So if a team does not have a player on the Allstar team by any other means the coach has to chose one of the players from that team. That happens a lot to really bad teams.

So think about this while watching the Allstar game next Tuesday. Home field advantage for the World Series could be decided by the play of a player from a team so bad that none of its players were deemed Allstar worthy by baseball fans.

Makes about as much sense as the BCS.

It is what it is

Life is a string of events needing decisions and resulting in consequences. Most decisions are easy, Coke or Pepsi, tea or coffee. Most consequences are non issues. We go through our mostly mundane day mindlessly making decisions and accepting the results without even thinking about them.

Some times the results aren't so mundane. Sometimes they result in accidents, lost or damaged articles that we value. Sometimes injury and even death.

When this happens we look back over the last few hours at all the decisions and think "if only"? If only I had left the house 10 minutes earlier like I had planned, I wouldn't have been at the intersection at the exact moment the other driver ran the stop sign. If only I had taken the few extra second to put my camera in my purse instead of trying to hold it and several other things in my hand I wouldn't have dropped it off the second floor balcony of the hotel. If only I had not put mu cell phone in my shirt pocket I wouldn't be trying to fish it out of this toilet. If only I had left my wallet in the truck while I was in the canoe checking trot lines it wouldn't be at the bottom of the Flint River. (That one was for my son, Drew. A great teaching moment.)

We can look back over the last few hours or maybe days, trace the events backwards and see at several points where a decision we made created a sequence that lead to the tragedy.and assign ourselves blame.

It kind of funny how, when something good happens we don't track the events of the last few hours to see the decisions that brought about the good events. Wow, If I hadn't taken those few extra minutes to go back and change shoes I would not have been in the right place at the right time to run into that old friend I hadn't seen in years and she wouldn't have told me the wonderful news of her daughter's pregnancy.

Its impossible when we make one of these day to day insignificant decision to foresee the path this sets us on and where it will lead. Life is what it is. Live your life, accept what the day brings and remember that you cannot control the outcome.

One last thought, and maybe this will help. If we could go back and change one simple thing in our day that would set the days events on a different path whose to say that path would not have created and even more tragic results.

Thomaston looses an Icon

Last week Thomaston lost a downtown icon. The Hotel Upson was taken down. To show how small of a town Thomaston is, this grew a crowd, some even took a few bricks as souvenirs. In its day it was a very elegant building. A lot of important people stayed there in its day. It was a big part of the downtown skyline. Downtown will look very different with it gone, a very big hole where it once stood. Once the center of activity, for the last several years it has been empty, almost forgotten about. The deconstruction made it the center of attention for one last time as people came to pay last respects for a building few of us really new. Most people my age and younger had probably never stepped foot inside.

Some remarked what a tragedy it was for it to be torn down. and I agree. But this tragedy didn't start Thursday night. this tragedy started probably over 50 years ago when use of the Hotel started to wane. Travelers started taking other routes, business fell off, the money dried up. Maintenance became less affordable. The longer it went unmaintained the more expensive it would have been to save it. It had finally reach the point of no return. So now we will have a parking lot where a once proud building stood and in a few years we will be hard pressed to remember exactly what it looked like with the building there. Much like when I try to recall the old Silvertown before Piggly Wiggly came to town, or Northside before Grant City was built . (Think K-Mart, Fred's, McDonald's).

Time marches on, and building like people either keep up, stay relevant or get cast to the side.

Good bye Hotel Upson, I never really knew you, but I will miss you just the same.

The Greedy NL

The NFL is a business, I get that. And they are profit motivated, I understand that also. Like any other company they need revenue to pay their employees, expenses and pocket a profit. Makes sense, the team owners did't start these teams just for wins and trophies and to unite the local populace. They are business men, and its a business. Every move they make is designed to create income. Good business practice. In the beginning they played the season and whoever had the best record was the champion. Then they got an idea, divide the teams into two groups, take the team in each group with the best record, play a championship game. An extra game means more money. Good business move. One day someone in the NFL had a light bulb moment and came up with the idea of involved the two best teams in each group, now called divisions. Then, more divisions. The "wild card team" was just another money making move. Then they realized people would watch games on this new fangled contraption call TV and things really took off. Some one figured out that fans would pay money for clothing and other items with their team's colors and logos and merchandising was born.

Last year the state of Delaware wanted to legalize state run betting parlors for betting on NFL games. The NFL screamed no, took the state to court. They did not want their product associated with gambling. This would create opportunities for, or at least the appearance of corruption.

Ok, first its already associated with gambling, that's what the point spread is all about, gambling. But I get that I guess. Big game, big money on the line, might make some one want to kidnap the star player for the favored team's family and make him throw the game. I know that could happen, I have seen it in the movies so many time. But there already is gambling on football, legal or not and it hasn't happened yet. I think most bookies are satisfied with the couple of million they are already making on an honest Super Bowl without going to that extreme. But hey, it COULD happen. (snicker here)

Then I saw a new scratch off game form the Georgia lottery. The Atlanta Falcon scratch off game. You could win money and tickets to Falcon games. Had the official Atlanta Falcon logo and everything. And you know every state with a team and a lottery had the same game going on. But isn't lottery gambling? I'm confused here. Oh, no I get it. These states were paying the NFL royalties. Hmmmm, get the hint, Deleware?

Who Dat?

Who dat say they gonna beat dem Saints? Who Dat?

Catchy ain't it? So who owns it? In 1983, Steve Monistere produced the song "Who Dat Say They Gonna Beat Dem Saints" with Aaron Neville and several Saints players. Who Dat has been their chant ever since. They put it on signs, they scream it at games, they paint it on their bodies.

The Saints have qualified for the Super Bowl for the first time in their History. There are not any fans anywhere that support their team with anymore pride and enthusiasm than Saints fans. Maybe some fans are as fervent in their support, but considering how bad the Saints have been for as long as they have and still have the fan support, well, these aren't band wagon fans, these are true "die hard fans".

A lot of merchants in New Orleans are having printed, and selling shirts with the phrase "Who Dat". A lot of merchants in New Orleans have gotten cease and desists orders from the NFL. They are claiming sole rights to that phrase made popular by a song written by someone with no ties to the league or team, and adopted and popularized by a fan base that through endless horrible years kept coming to the games, kept supporting their team. WOW.

Look out paper bag manufactures, you're next.

Prayer in school

I recently got another e-mail asking me that if I supported prayer in school I should forward it. I'm sure you have seen them time and again. I didn't forward it. I don't forward e-mails like this and I don't believe in school prayer.

Let me start by saying I am a Christian. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. And I believe in the power of prayer.

Let's face facts. When kids stand up and recite "The Lord's Prayer they are not praying, they are reciting. You can't force anyone to pray. Prayer is a conversation between you and God, its not reciting words at the behest of a school teacher.

I recommend that before we go asking our children's teachers to take over our responsibility of the spiritual training of our children maybe we should get to know the teachers. Make sure they have the same values as we do. I mean no disrespect to teachers, think they are under paid and over worked but do they have the values you want passed on to your kids? I'm sure if you are Baptist you probably don't want the teacher passing on Catholic views, if you are Presbyterian do you want your child being taught Methodist ideology? If you are Jewish do you want a Muslim teacher teaching your children their prayers?

The spiritual training of our children is our job. Its time for us to stop trying to get congress to pass laws to force school teachers to do our jobs. I wonder of all the people that have forwarded those type e-mails have how many of them have ever gotten on their knees with their children and prayed. Really prayed, not the old standard "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep" or the old meal blessing "God is Great, God it good". I mean actually prayed with their children?

If you want your children to start their day off with prayer, get up 10 or 15 minutes earlier, go into their room and pray with them. Don't forward an e-mail saying congress should pass a law to make a teacher so it for you.

We want to blame Madeline O'Hare for removing prayer from the public school. The truth is Ms. O'Hare wasn't the person that removed prayer from school. It was Christian parents, when we failed to help our children to develop a healthy prayer life. We we failed to put prayer in our children's lives we took prayer out of the schools.

We have problems in America and we want to a cause. A simple, easy to identify cause, and an easy solution. A solution that doesn't cost us anything or inconvenience us too much. Well some one gave us an easy target, lack of prayer in school. And they gave us an easy solution. Put prayer back in school.

Our problems aren't caused by lack of prayer in our schools. They are caused by a lack of prayer in our lives, and in our homes. And in a lot of sad cases, a lack of prayer in our churches. You want to put prayer back in our schools? You want to solve America's social problems, then put prayer back in your life. Put prayer back in your home. Put prayer back in your children's lives. Help them learn to pray.

You want a simple easy fool proof plan to put prayer back in the schools? The Pray with your kids. Teach them to pray. Help them develop a good prayer life, put prayer back into their lives and they will take that prayer with them everywhere they go, including school. And there won't be a law congress could pass, a law suit that anyone could file or a ruling that the Supreme Court could hand down that Could stop it.