After the Tragedy, Sports Will Be There for America

Thank you, Bill Plaschke, for summing up so succinctly the thoughts of the sports fan [“Star-Spangled Ritual Will Herald Return to Normalcy,” Sept. 12]. Sports analogies such as “America has been knocked down, but not out” have been bantered about, not to trivialize the tragedy but to put it in a perspective that we can all understand.

I too long for the sounds of thousands of my countrymen singing our national anthem. The funny thing is, even though individually we all struggle with hitting the right notes on that song, when it’s a choir of thousands in a stadium, it sounds beautiful.

Brian Lochrie

Orange

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No disrespect intended to singers, but at the first game played in each American arena next week, baseball and football, I don’t think we need a designated anthem singer. There’ll be about 50,000 people who will take care of it just fine.

Mel Powell

Sherman Oaks

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To those who are weary with sorrow, angry or even a little frightened, I borrow from an article I read in these sports pages that pertained to sport to offer hope.

“At one point in everyone’s life, he or she has to stare into the abyss and decide within a matter of moments whether to challenge the darkness.”

As a nation, we Americans will challenge the darkness and find retribution, resolve and unity.

My team is the United States of America.

Mark Lopez

Lynwood

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There is no greater sport in our country than the sport of life itself.

Like a prizefighter who has been floored, our great nation must get up off the canvas to fight again. Sporting events can be canceled but our spirit cannot be. Teamwork can be and must be displayed on a national level. And yes, we as Americans are on the same team.

In football, a two-minute drill tests a team’s commitment to winning. We as a nation are being tested for our commitment to winning. And like a game of basketball, where a bounce pass can be an assist to a basket, we must assist each other in our time of need. Like the game of baseball, we cannot stay down after a brush-back pitch, but rather must get back up and brush the dirt off and step up to the plate once again.

And to those terrorists who think they have defeated us: It ain’t over until the fat lady sings!

J. Scott Scheffer

Victorville

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A friend of mine, who was born in another country, once asked me, “Why do you Americans love sports so much?”

At the time, I really didn’t have a good answer for him. But after the events of Tuesday, I think I finally have a good answer.

Sport is our drug. It fills our need for competition, battle--some even call it war. It’s an arena where the rules are set, the competitors are determined, and even the boundaries or playing field become a part of our culture.

We love it because it’s “fair.” The outcome is, in most cases, determined by the team or person who is physically or mentally superior. We understand that in sport, whoever is better prepared for the competition usually comes out on top. And it’s fun to watch a war, when no one gets hurt.

The events of Tuesday scare us because we realize that out in the real world, some people don’t play by the rules, the boundaries aren’t set and the opponents are chosen at random.

There is evil out there and that scares the hell out of us. Evil is hard to beat because it cheats and it doesn’t care who it hurts. I’ve shed my tears and prayed for evil to go away, but evil will never leave.

Americans love sports so much because for that brief moment we cheer our favorite team or player, we forget all about evil.

Alvin M. Okamura

Encino

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While I applaud the NFL for canceling its games this weekend, I am disappointed in Commissioner Paul Tagliabue for taking so long to make this decision. It was a no-brainer.

The players knew enough not to play. Didn’t Tagliabue and the NFL learn anything from Pete Rozelle’s and the league’s decision after President Kennedy’s assassination?

Many fans believe playing football games on Sunday is the macho thing to do; to show the terrorists they didn’t win. This isn’t about winning and losing. This is about pausing and reflecting. We need time to do that. Let’s take some time to grieve with the families of the victims and pay our respects.

Yes, football games will go on. But, please, not this weekend. Where are our priorities?

Len Lipton

Santa Monica

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As a former California recruiter for three residential junior college volleyball teams in Kansas and Iowa, I’m amazed and appalled at the utter lack of concern and care evidenced by the Garey High and San Dimas High administrators and volleyball teams, and the officials who worked the match Tuesday. Yes, life must go on--after we find the bodies and have time to mourn the loss of thousands of innocent Americans.

These athletes are not 6-year-old children who can’t comprehend the enormity of this tragedy, but girls 15-18 who need adults who tell them that there are some things that command our attention, compassion, reverence and respect. Playing a match directly following this unprecedented national tragedy is simply callous, self-centered and self-serving.

Mike Falcon

Los Angeles

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Surely after Tuesday’s terrorist acts, discussions such as the Dodgers possibly making the playoffs and UCLA continuing its dream and resuming its winning ways to a conceivable Rose Bowl berth don’t seem as important in the grand scheme of things.

But it sure would be nice.

Mark J. Featherstone

Windsor Hills