State of the NationIf only the war attracted as much attention as sports November 19,
2007 5:26:30 PM
While the 2007 baseball season recedes into memory, I remain struck by something heard in a supermarket during the recent World Series between the Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies.
“Did’ja see the game?” the old man bagging groceries asked a cashier.
“Nope,” the kid replied, oblivious to the surrounding “Go Sox!!” mania.
“You didn’t watch the Red Sox?” the elder screamed.
“ ’Fraid not,” answered the indifferent cashier.
“Know the score?” the senior pressed relentlessly.
“No idea,” said the kid, handing me the pen to sign my charge receipt.
“13 to 1,” came the unsolicited reply.
I turned to the bagger, saying, “Excuse me, do you happen to know how many soldiers were killed in Iraq this week?”
Silence. An awesome silence spreading in waves from aisle to aisle with me and this Red Sox fan at its center.
The old man admitted he had no idea how many deaths had occurred in Iraq while Red Sox Nation cheered.
A young father with a non-Sox baseball cap on his head came toward me ominously, and then said to the old man, “And do you know how many kids are going to bed hungry tonight?
As everyone knows, the Sox won the World Series, the Patriots remain undefeated, and even the long-suffering Celtics are rolling.
In my local bank branch, Boston jerseys hang everywhere, and teller desks covered with Sox memorabilia.
I wondered what might happen if the bank, the market, and all the folks who participate in the regional sports mania decided to make a statement about the war with equal gusto?
Polls show a nation that overwhelmingly disapproves of the war in Iraq. Americans are angry about the administration’s lies and profiteering, and a Congress too spineless to stop the idiocy.
Our military is stretched to the limit, our economy deflated. Much of the rest of the world disrespects or hates us, and we are more vulnerable to terrorism now than on 9/10.
The national anger percolates so close to the surface: I wonder when it will finally explode into a deafening roar, like in the movie, Network: “WE’RE MAD AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE.”
Like many, I would welcome such an outcry — demonstrations, marches, walkouts, sit-ins, anything that might energize a lethargic, useless Congress.
The New York Times reports that even right-wing evangelicals are disillusioned about what’s happening in Iraq, with some wondering if they should repent for their initial support of the war.
Can we replace sports billboards with photographs of flag-draped caskets coming home?
On scoreboards, can we run a mounting tally of military losses?
On bank statements and ATM screens, can we flash messages like, “Your dollar is worth $0.60 in Paris and $0.50 in London?
A register receipt could send a message about your taxes. “To date, the war has cost $XX trillion — Have a nice day!”
Can the Red Sox Nation become the Stop the War Nation?
I wonder.
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