Kidssports

About the
time I think the world is beginning to obtain some degree of
sanity and a return to some old fashioned values, the rug
gets pulled out from under me and we plunge once again into
the abyss of stupidity.



Take for example some of the following, which are real
stories and not something someone made up for your enjoyment
and amazement.




The
kids at a school near Sacramento, California (where else?)
have been banned by the school board from playing tag, dodge
ball or red rover. They aren’t allowed to push anyone on a
swing or the merry-go-round. This action was decided by the
local school board based upon the idea that games such as
these tend to lower the self-esteem of some students. Is
this crazy or what?



First off, I always thought a school was designed and
intended to be a place where people were TAUGHT something
that would be of value to them when they got out of school.
Perhaps, I’m mistaken. Anyway, since we live in a
competitive world and economy, does it make any sense to
ignore competition? If this is the case and a growing theme,
then what is the ultimate fate for major league sports? Will
we eventually see a scoreless sports industry since it might
embarrass someone to actually lose a game? How would we have
the World Series or the Super Bowl, if no one kept score
throughout the year? Are we trying to raise our children to
believe that competition doesn’t count? How long do you
think we can survive as a nation if we fail to recognize
that the entire world economy revolves around competition,
self-esteem failures or not?





The next idiotic item of the day is the news flash that Iran
has banned the display of female mannequins in shop windows.
They said that it might incite riots if any noticeable
curves were observed. This leads me to ask what a year book
at one of the Iranian high schools looks like? If all of the
female students are dressed alike in those cover all burkas,
then how is it possible to tell one student from another?
Looks to me as if the only person who could be identified
would be someone with a distinctive eye condition. I won’t
go into that since it might hurt someone’s self esteem. I
might also get sued, which I’d like to avoid as well.



The final dumb thought for the week is about an ad on
television in England. Seems Ford was running an ad showing
a man getting into his Land Rover after a woman fired off a
starting pistol. The reason behind the ban was the thought
that a depiction of someone using a starter pistol would
clearly convey the concept that it somehow ‘normalized’ gun
ownership. I can’t see the logic behind this, since a
starter pistol looks like what? Yes, my friends it looks
like a starter pistol. I submit to you that a person could
make a zillion dollars for himself, if he would design a
starter pistol to look like someone unlike a starter pistol,
like say a brick. Then the folks in charge of starting the
races at the Olympics or wherever could never be accused of
promoting gun ownership, since all of the races would begin
with an official holding a brick in his or her hand and then
it making a noise relating to a gun shot. On second thought,
a brick might be somewhat threatening and you couldn’t use a
carrot, since it is pointed, but a cabbage might be all
right. What do you think? I can see it now, a cabbage gun
starter device thingamajig. No, better leave out the word
gun. It could be called a cabbage-starting device. This
should be fairly easy to sell.





Of course, this idea is completely insane since I imagine
that if the world continues to evolve around the idea I
discussed in my first example, there wouldn’t be any need
for a starter to fire a gun shot in the first place since no
one would be keeping score on how fast anyone ran or
performed any track and field event. I suppose the school
board in Sacramento would just allow any kid or adult for
that matter to just come onto the field and run any race at
his or her own pace without any regard for anyone else.



So, who wins in a situation like this? Well, I guess anyone
who wants to…I’m off to see about where I can claim my gold
medal. Obviously I deserve one.