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Fred's Corner August 10, 2009 By Fred Cicco
I’m
writing this late at night after attending the Valparaiso University
basketball game. I’m almost too tired to do this after such an exciting
game. V.U. won the game in the last three minutes after being down by
fourteen points. They went on a 22 to 4 run in the last few minutes to
pull out the victory.
I must admit that at the four minute mark, I turned to my wife
and I said, “We’re in big trouble.” I did not have much faith that they
could pull it out. But they did. They made the 5,000 people there very
happy. Of course, the small contingent of Oakland University fans went
home unhappy. Good for us, bad for them. If we had lost the game the
world would not have come to an end. This is a popular contention in
Chicago, for Bulls and Bears fans. I don’t know who the messiah will be
that will show up to help these people, but I really think they should
get a life.
A lot of people are more worried about their multi-million dollar
athletes than whether or not the children in the neighborhood are
receiving quality education. They don’t worry about a elementary teacher
who spends 80 to 90 hours a week on school related work, homework,
lesson planning, and tons of reports so that administrators have
something to read while teachers cope with fitting in the whole agenda
given to them. When the NBA got close to settling their lockout, one of
the big things was that these poor athletes would have to play four
games a week to get a fifty game schedule in. It’s too bad that the same
people don’t wonder how hard it is to execute the school curriculum the
way it is now.
There has been quite a few things written about the situation at
V.U. about Zoran already. I’m not going to say that much. But what I
want to say is shame on the NCAA. What a disservice they did to this
young man. He was basically suspended because he went to school. Why
didn’t the committee from the NCAA use fax machines and conference calls
to rectify the situation? Would the outcome of the game that was lost
been different if he had played? Would a future professional career be
affected? They let a guy who admitted to taking money have a whole year
of eligibility reinstated while they punish our guy for going to school
and doing well. It doesn’t make much sense to me.
You know what else makes no sense is the ongoing impeachment
trial. I don’t understand why people don’t care about the behavior of
the President. He’s probably a nice guy, but he really makes bad
judgements. There is no doubt also that he is prone to lying and trying
to influence the way that people are supposed to answer questions about
the things he involved with. Why have people forgotten the Jennifer
Flowers tape where he says if they both stick to the same story, it will
pass. He also advised Monica on what to say and his secretary, Betty
Currie. I just don’t understand why a military person, male or female,
can be severely punished and the commander in chief gets off Scot free.
His dealings with campaign contributions from the Chinese and
selling of missile technology to China worry me a lot. Everything points
to a pattern of deceit and chicanery, why don’t people care about the
stain this man has put on the presidency of the U.S.. It really boggles
my mind.
I think that people should really start to pay attention to the
things that really count. There was a line in the movie, “A Bronx Tale”
where a young man was extolling the virtues of Joe DiMaggio. The older
man looked at him and said, “What has DiMaggio ever done for you. He
didn’t pay your rent or buy you a meal”. If you think about it the
idolization of movie stars and athletes has gotten a little out of hand.
I believe that there is nothing wrong with enjoying their entertainment
value but I think we should keep it in perspective.
Fred Cicco
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