Celebration, Protests or Destruction

I know this is a sports column but sometimes it is important to combine a few things to put the real world into perspective.

How many times have you witnessed a championship game or series and after the final horn is sounded or the last out is recorded that an unruly crowd forms to celebrate victory?

People file out of downtown bars in Anywhere, USA and start screaming and running then someone jumps on a car dancing on it and the damage begins.

Then they start climbing street light poles and shaking signs then a few people get a great idea that rolling a dumpster full of garbage down the street and setting it on fire would be a great spectacle.

Then the cops show up and more people come out to support the first wave of crazies and all hell breaks loose. Usually, though the winning fans can be coerced into settling down and going home to celebrate in their own living rooms.

I’ve seen the losing teams’ fans; especially those that believed no one could beat their team go completely bonkers.

A full-fledged riot has broken out and vehicles get torched and the more the cops try to enforce the peace the more idiotic the fans become. Total destruction of anything that gets in their way often is the result.

It’s not until the cops don riot gear and start arresting people that the crowd becomes controlled. What price has to be paid by the city, business owners and private citizens that lost vehicles or had severe damage done to them?

Soccer has problems as fans around the world have been known to get into melees in the stands. These horrific fights have very often led to the deaths of fans.

Will rioting lead to the results of the game being changed?

Of course not! The final outcome is final.

I must admit that after waiting so long to earn a world championship in the Major Leagues, the Chicago Cubs’ relished in victory but not in destruction. The Cleveland Indians fans too were gracious in defeat.

People can be upset but they need to realize that it is just a game and sometimes you need to tip your cap to the victors.

Recently the presidential elections have brought out another element of protesting. Most of the people that are protesting haven’t been voting very long.

The very first time I voted was 1972 and I haven’t missed an election to date. That means off year elections and special levy elections.

I haven’t been very happy over more than one election. But quite frankly it is the statewide and local votes that have the greatest importance to me because I live that every day.

Getting upset with someone you think is going to ruin your life is very foolish. And if you are covering your face while you are protesting means only one thing you aren’t planning to do good works only destruction or harm to businesses or others.

If there is anything that I am angry with it is that we start this presidential election business way too soon. No one should be allowed to declare for a run for office until Jan. 1 of the election year. There should be no caucuses because no one knows how those work anyway.

The candidates can campaign for a couple of months then have a debate in March, one in April and one in May. There should be a national primary in June with the candidates chosen on the same day.

The conventions will be held in late August setting up their party’s platform and then the final leg of the campaigning should begin.

The media is getting rich off of these campaigns and more often than not they are getting it wrong anyway. Besides we have all been worked up by things that were said.

We are all led to believe that the guy that has been elected will drop an atomic bomb somewhere in the world but nobody knows exactly where or why they think that.

Are people really that misinformed. Do they think the secret codes and big red button are in the White House bedroom in case the president wakes up from a nightmare and decides to blow up a city halfway around the world?

I say mellow out a little.

This is a great country and the people that are hell bent for protesting and destruction make this country a far worse place to live than any of the presidential candidates.

So celebrate that the sun comes up in the morning because we are living in the greatest country known to man.

If you don’t think so you can always move to a country where you only have one person to choose from and there aren’t any places on the ballot to write someone else’s name in.