Head In the Sand

We shove our heads in the sand, again and again, by not understanding that "how the bough is bent so grows the tree". Count how many hours this past week you've watched mayhem and murder on TV and where children also watching these shows ? Maybe, you're addicted to sports on the tele. Sports are portrayed to the World as the harbinger of goodness, a builder of adulthood. Sports are sold to spectators similar to the way over the years religion was pressed upon the masses, something no responsible person should do without.

I'm afraid the idea of sports being indispensable has sunk in too deeply to be unwound from reality. It's not sports, per se, but what sports is becoming that is troubling for me. Once it embraced the epitome of an art form, but now, physical actions seem to emulate the thuggery seen in the involvement of the mob as the events in Baltimore depicts. These are harsh lessons the youth of any nation has to absorb.

Professional football today is at the pinnacle of sports interest but it is incurring enormous introspection not just for on field infractions but for varied domestic disturbances by players off the field. The idea of imposing one's overwhelming strength and speed over another player becomes a weapon for some to flaunt. Dominance spills over from the field to the home and public places and turning it off is sometimes nearly impossible. The young, seeking to be adults, sees what interests the mature and tries to emulate them by adopting their interests. Football will win out.

Many more sports are questionable when they are analyzed as to their affect on the emotional growth of our young ; for instance, cage fighting. Televised incessantly to gain popularity they illustrate to viewers the worst there is man. Everything goes, mayhem on steroids, even to permitted choking which is perfected to a supposed art form. And $300 million to be raised from spectators, live and TV, to watch two old men of lower weights fight each other in Los Vegas becomes an emotional lore for children. Bench clearing professional games now are commonplace in college, high school, even in little league,( T ball ?). Think about it and you'll expand this list.

Man becomes his own worst enemy. The fall out from this is the bending of the bough which forces the tree to be misshapen at maturity. Any wonder, when you couple an enormous disparity in income with a decay in social graces that Baltimore's occur when a trigger fires off. As far back as recorded history exists civilizations have killed and maimed their way into these records. Their children have known nothing but horror and, when adults, horror was all they knew and they dealt it out until horror caught up with them. Are there answers ? Best we get our heads out of the sand, and best we don't let our head slip up our ... .

Ronald C. Downie