Sports: Thanks much, we need you now more than ever
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
What a haggard world we live in, what a wonderful time for sports.
We are at war. Two wars, actually.
Our uncommonly important race for the White House has become an endless loop of poison-tongued posturing.
Our economy is strapped to an emergency room gurney -- and there’s a priest in the lobby ready to give last rights.
Yes, what a wonderful time for an infusion of balls and strikes, touchdowns and fumbles, dribbles and double-pump fade-aways.
My take: Not since the turbulent late 1960s, or perhaps the final throes of Vietnam and Richard Nixon, have we needed sports like we need them now.
Thankfully, in Los Angeles we have the playoff games coming from the Dodgers, the Angels and the WNBA Sparks. We have Mark Sanchez and the Trojans and even the football Bruins, important because they show us what it is to struggle.
We also have Nick Scandone, courage incarnate, a man who just returned to his Orange County home from the Beijing Paralympics with a sailing gold medal. Scandone has Lou Gehrig’s disease. He may not live much longer. He helps us realize that our problems
are not so big after all.
Americans ‘tend to think of sport as somehow not real, somehow separate form ordinary life ... creating space for diversion,’ University of Minnesota sociology professor Douglas Hartmann told me recently. ‘It’s a cultural space we have created for a reason: sport allows you to get away for a little bit.’
So a toast: To the beloved world of sports ... thanks much. Life would feel a lot heavier without you, never more so than now.
And a note of caution: During troubling times like this don’t get too sucked in by sports. I know, it’s just a little more fun watching Manny Ramirez stride to the plate and poleax a curveball than it is watching Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson hold a somber news conference. But watch Paulson you must.
Balance is key. This weekend, and for a good time to come, pay real attention to Ramirez, Pete Carroll or Candace Parker. Enjoy every minute of what they bring. Lord knows, you need the break.
But at the same time, pay serious attention to the Wall Street bailout and its effects. To who says what in the White House. To the struggles along the border of Pakistan. To John McCain and Barack Obama and whether Sarah Palin will ever step to the plate and face fastball questions from the press.
And don’t just listen or sit and watch from the edge of your seat. Be prepared to take a stand. Most importantly, vote.
‘In a democracy people have to participate,’ Hartmann said in a fine summation. ‘They have to have knowledge and think about issues in a real way and if it is all about distraction, if we let sport become too much of a distraction, we have real problems.’
Agreed.
-- Kurt Streeter
