Cap In Hand

In this article about high school sports we are told that kids will learn some crucial skills from participating in sports. They list advantages such as positive mentors, leadership skills, a success mindset, and the importance of the "3 P's"--persistence, patience and practice.

Remember these things as you read the following story...

This morning, on the way home from Church, we saw a string of bouncing teens holding up poorly written signs advertising a car wash to raise funds for a sports team. We assumed it was for football since that is the sports-god around here.

Aside from the signs (with their guilt inducing appeal to community loyalties),  and the fact that a combination of our exorbitant property taxes and the parent's pocketbooks can't seem to finance the sports scene around here, our initial reaction was "at least they are working hard" (and at least the girl's were not wearing bathing suits, as far as we could see).

Then we got to the next major intersection.

Standing on the medians were two men (probably fathers) and on the corner one very sober and uncomfortable looking adolescent. They were all holding signs and cups. The signs said "Please Donate to Our Team" or something like that.

There was no name of the team (I presume I was supposed to know it) and the "our" was most likely meant to include you and I. These sports teams belong to the whole community, right?

The irony of the whole situation hit me.

We are told that our kids should play team sports because they will learn how to work hard, push themselves, work in a team situation, they will gain self respect and responsibility, yada, yada, yada.

Irony. Ten miles closer into Houston you will see people standing on the medians with other sorts of signs, cups in hand. Or brandishing spray bottles on towels while they offer to wash your windows for a buck. Or even the grown ups waving large colorful signs, and dancing to unheard music while they advertise for a nearby business. All of these people struggling to make ends meet.

Yet, here on the corners of our relatively affluent neighborhood they stand, signs and cups in hand, imploring help from passing cars. Apparently, the publicly funded school sports teams need extra money* to buy whatever (uniforms, equipment) and rather than have the kids come up with a plan to WORK for that money, we teach them to stand on a corner and BEG for it.

It is all too easy to imagine the sight of that adolescent, cup in hand, as some sort of foreshadowing.

And what about all the benefits of school sports?

Persistence? Well I suppose. Patience? Yes, definitely. Practice? Practicing what?

Success mindset? Don't think so.

Let's try a few other words. How about ENTITLEMENT, HANDOUTS, MISPLACED PRIORITIES.

I have a sinking feeling that my property taxes are being wasted at the local schools.

Can I ask for a refund?

But seriously. I could (or someone could) write a book on all the implications of this scene, and all the causes that lead to it:

• Why do after school sports trump after school jobs? 
• Why can't kid be found to mow lawns, spread mulch, power wash the walls, chop the wood, move the rocks? When and how did these become jobs for adults? 
• *What do kid's learn from having a $58 million football stadium built for them? 
• Where do they go from there? To university life, where things are handed to them again. And then to REAL life where it all has to be paid for, whether in the form of student loans or in taxes. 
• And student loans! Another form of handout, especially since so many can't ever pay them back. 
• Actually, if we are questioning the value of high school sports, we need to question the value of college sports. Often the high school sports are touted as the way to get the kid into college, but what is end point of college sports? To feed into professional sports? Life time fitness? Money? But if college sports bring so much money into the universities, why do tuitions keep increasing at such astronomical rates? 
• What about the FAITH we put in institutions to form youth into mature individuals who are self reliant enough to support themselves and generous enough to share with others? 

What about an antidote? I have two ideas as a start. One serious. One MOSTLY serious.

1. Read this book as a family. His story is inspiring. His mother is remarkable.

2. Learn to sing this song and teach it to your children (said with tongue in cheek...sorta):

Cap In Hand by the Proclaimers

Another irony: this song comes out of the birthplace of Adam Smith, author of The Wealth Of Nations, and lyrics describe Scotland's descent into socialism.  

Seriously! It's Just A Game!

Soccer. Maybe I am naive, but I never thought I would hear such vitriol about a sport from people with whom I generally agree about some of the the big things of life (like politics and religion). 

And the criticisms are pretty lame (in fact much of it boils down to "a lot of liberals like soccer so I must hate it.")

I know, I know. Most of these rants are meant tongue-in-cheek. 

Seriously though, the criticisms are revealing. They reveal people who are  uninterested in liking soccer. Which is fine! There is no reason why they need to. I can rail on and on about basketball being boring because I have no desire to watch it. 

But if you are going to criticize it, at least learn a little about the game. Most have not spent any time understanding the game. They are thinking primarily of the kid’s version of the game. 

Take Ann Coulter for example: 

Baseball and basketball present a constant threat of personal disgrace. In hockey, there are three or four fights a game -- and it's not a stroll on beach to be on ice with a puck flying around at 100 miles per hour. After a football game, ambulances carry off the wounded. After a soccer game, every player gets a ribbon and a juice box.  

She is comparing little kid's soccer games to professional hockey. Really? She has obviously never watched Clint Dempsey break his nose on someone else’s head (or was it a shoulder?). Not to mention that Brazilian player that cracked his vertebrae. 

I am not bragging about the brutality of soccer, I am just pointing out that you can’t make her argument if you have spent any time paying attention to the grown up version of soccer. 

Which leads me to MY criticism of soccer…and all other sports in this country and around the world. And Ann Coulter actually hits on this pervasive and troubling issue. She says: 

Most sports are sublimated warfare. 

So most sports involve men channeling their war-like tendencies into play. Fine. I get that at a certain level. The problem is that we are tempted to then raise the symbolic meaning of those sports to something noble (if we hold the soldier in high esteem) or we are tempted to be fearful of sports and moralize about how inhumane they are (if we hold the soldier in low esteem). 

Either way, we are taking sports too seriously. We are forgetting that sport is play. Watching it is entertainment. Pure entertainment. A distraction. Not a religious event (though some of the ceremonies and celebrations have all the marks of liturgy). Not a clash of civilizations or ideologies (though the intensity with which the fans defend their team and sport would lead you to believe otherwise). 

They are just play. Highly paid play. 

Perhaps Ms. Coulter would have been better off comparing kid’s soccer to kid’s hockey and kid’s football. And remind herself that the professional versions of those sports (all of them) are merely examples of society being willing to pay full grown men and women to play for their own diversion. And American football is no better than soccer at doing that. 

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with diversion or entertainment. Lets just remember that while sports can serve some good purposes, it is really all about fun.  

A Father, A Soccer Match and An Unexpected Free Market

As I am writing this, the Kennedy family is watching Spain play the Netherlands in the World Cup. Amazingly, there are at least five players on the field that we know (as in we can name them and have seen them play). 

But the far more amazing fact in this little vignette is the fact that we are WATCHING SOCCER…or should I say FOOTBALL. (the kids refer to football (soccer) and American Football (that other game that hardly uses feet at all). 

A little more than a decade ago I wrote an article about the evils of soccer and homework. My argument with both institutions was the time taken away from families. As far as I could see kids would spend long days away from home and family while at school, then they would spend a large part of the precious remaining hours doing homework and participating in organized sports. At the time, soccer seemed to be the biggest culprit (remember “Soccer Moms”?), but I was in California at the time (that may also explain my crazy criticisms of soccer as a sport). Here, in Texas, I might complain about American football, gymnastics, or dance taking time away from families. 

As I said, in the article, my crazy criticisms of soccer as a sport, were mostly tongue-in-cheek . However, in spite of having grown up playing soccer, I had long sense lost an great affection for the game and had never really cared for the professional level. Face it, few people do…in this country. Even when we lived in the UK (minutes away from the training grounds for a famous English football club), we sort of yawned in the general direction of the soccer world. 

Then about six months ago all that changed. 

It started with Jim’s intense need for a nap. 

The perfect place to nap, for him, is on the couch in front of the TV with some long sports event playing. However, with kids around, there needs to be a vigilant monitor of the commercials, especially with sports. American football, basketball and even baseball are riddled with questionable ads that our kids don’t need to hear. 

So, one Saturday afternoon the remote control stopped on soccer. And Jim’s head began to nod. Over the next half hour he fitfully napped with one eye open waiting for the commercials. But they never came. Not until half time. A whole 45 minutes of commercial free TV. And a love affair began. 

Needless to say, the napping happened less often, and he and the kids began to know the various teams in the Premier League (highest level of UK club football), have favorite players and debate the calls. We all began to talk about memorable plays and discuss the various rules and workings of the Premier League. 

(By the way, I was just interrupted by yells of “GOOAAALLLLL!” the Netherlands have tied Spain. An amazing header!)

So the build up to this World Cup has been big for the Kennedys. Our DVR is currently filled with games to watch and we carefully avoid sports headlines on TV or the internet, since we are about a day behind. 

But one thing I haven’t avoided is any discussion of the impact of soccer on American’s and American culture. I read one article which claimed that soccer threatens American exceptionalism. Of course the author thinks that is a GOOD thing. His theory is that becoming more global will decrease our love of our own country. Hmmm.

I also saw a segment on FOX NEWS’ The Five in which two of the hosts rail agains the game of soccer itself—it’s boring ("Nil-Nil*???Seriously?!"), it’s British (and therefore unmanly?) and there is no real strategy. 

I can see now how ignorant the rants are. But, I was there once—ranting ignorantly—so I can’t really criticize. 

Rather, at the risk of having to disagree with myself at some later date, I would like to make the case that soccer (as played in the Premier League) is more American than American football. 

Yes, I said FOOTBALL was MORE American than AMERICAN FOOTBALL!!! 

Wait! Don’t go! Hear me out for a minute. 

Okay, first, a little background on the UK’s Premier League. First of all, it is what it sounds like—the PREMIER league in the UK. Which means there are other leagues that are less…well…premier. You have to make into the Premier League. Each year there are 20 teams who play in the Premier League and each year the bottom 3 are relegated back to the lower leagues and 3 new teams are brought up. 

This is big. This means that even the worst teams in the league are motivated to remain competitive throughout the whole season. No one skates. It is not unusual for a top rated team to lose to one of those lowly last five at any time during the season. 

It is a free market. There is nothing fixed. You have a team in your town and you support that team and, if they get to be good enough, they make into the Premier League. That is where they make the big money. But, they have to keep on winning to stay there. Sure, there are some teams that rarely if ever get relegated, but there are a whole bunch for whom relegation is a yearly reality. It is not so much about equality of outcome, as it is about equality of opportunity. Everyone has a chance. Even the lowly small town team. 

This past season we watched one of those lower teams, in danger of being relegated, play a top team that needed to win in order to have a chance to win the league championship. They ended up in a tie. In regular season games that means that each team receives 1 point. (3 points for a win) That one point meant that the lower team remained in the Premier League for another year rather than being relegated. And the missed 2 points for the top team meant they had little chance of winning that year. You should have seen the celebration that the one team had when they won that coveted 16th place, and the glum faces on the team that ended up in 3rd. 

(by the way, the score of the game in front of me is Spain 1, Netherlands 5. Lots of screaming going on here!)

On the other hand, in American Football, there is anything but a free market. In addition to the fact that there is a set group of teams with no chance of some new team breaking in, the team at the bottom of the league has basically the same revenue stream as the team at the top. The income is shared equally among the teams at the top and at the bottom. There is not much incentive to do better. There are also salary caps, so the team at the top or bottom end up spending a similar amount for their players. And, teams are built through the draft which means the worst team gets first draft and the most successful team takes the last pick. Everything is about equality. Not so much about quality. And this “equality” is mainly “equality of outcome”—which is socialism. 

There are lots of other notable differences between soccer and other sports that we have enjoyed discussing and debating. But this approach to competition has been the most striking. Having lived in the UK, where the nanny state is strong and active, and being Americans who value the free market economy that is currently under attack here, we found it an ironic discovery that American football has a socialist bent, and UK Football is a thriving free market. 

(* FYI “Nil" is the British way of saying zero.)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE FATHERS I KNOW, ESPECIALLY THE ONE WATCHING SOCCER WITH MY KIDS RIGHT NOW!

Independence Day Links

Here is a great speech by Rush Limbaugh's father about the fate of the founders who had the courage to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Here is an idea for your Fourth of July Celebration.

Here is another idea for your Fourth of July Celebration, perhaps a little simpler.

The Kids Are Alright?

As we sat down on Saturday morning to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics in London, we were anxious to see the festivities in our temporary homeland. The landscape in the center of the arena was just what we hoped to see: a celebration of all that we loved about England. Kenneth Branaugh was in full costume ready to recite (which he did--from the Tempest). It was beautiful. There were children’s choirs from each of the “Isles” as well as costumed folks enjoying themselves across the countryside. 

Then, things began to change. Men and women rose from the green hills to transform the countryside into a dark industrial landscape. It was eerily Tolkienesque, but instead of monster-like creatures tearing up nature, you saw people working and sweating, dirty faces and clothes. The image painted was Industry with it’s boot on the neck of the people. 

The message portrayed was that factories controlled the means of production. But, in reality individuals controlled the means of production. In fact, the rise of industry marked the transformation of the economy, fueled by free market capitalism and providing  a rich soil for the growth of entrepreneurship. By the end of the Industrial Revolution, quality of life made a huge jump for most people. 

The rewriting of history didn’t stop there, though.   

First, the show skipped over World War II completely. Never mind Winston Churchill's words:  'This was their finest hour.’ Nope. Sorry Mr. Churchill. Apparently it wasn’t your finest hour. That was yet to come.

The scene then turns to a celebration of what 21st Century Britain apparently sees as their true crowning achievement: the National Healthcare System (NHS). A perfect example of government owning the means of production.

We saw nurses and doctors wheeling in old fashioned hospital beds (which, by the way, looked just like the ones we encountered when we lived there 6 years ago---minus the lights and the trampolines). On each bed was a child in pajamas. As the lights dimmed each child had a “nurse” to read to him, with JKRowling reading a few lines from JM Barrie’s Peter Pan (whose main character is an unintentional foreshadowing of things to come for Great Britain--the boy (the country) who didn’t want to grow up.) The story ends and the children reluctantly go to sleep, the nurses watching over. 

The image: the children of the nation left to the care of the government nurses.

Then comes the nightmare, or more exactly the beginning of the nightmare. Storybook villains seem to rise out of the beds, accompanied by some really freaky creatures that look like beefed up versions of the Flying Monkees from the Wizard of Oz. Just as the nightmare becomes overwhelming, the most famous Nanny of all time floats in on her umbrella. Mary Poppins to the rescue. 

Ahhh...Mary Poppins! Wise, sweet, fun, Mary Poppins. Remember that movie? We recently watched it with the kids and I was struck by something that I found quite sad. The parents. They were mostly absent from the day to day lives of the their children. True, Mary Poppins brings them back in and they end up flying kites with their kids....but  who do we remember? Who do the children in this celebration of Great Britain look to in the midst of their nightmare? The Nanny.  Is it Mary Poppins? Or is it really the government, symbolized by the all encompassing NHS, that takes over the parenting of a nation of children?

In fact, this scene ends with a giant baby in a giant bed surrounded by the NHS nurses and doctors. A symbol of a nation cared for by Nanny Government.

But, keep watching. Because, as I said, the nightmare is not over. The next scene shows us the age of mobile phones, texting, the internet and a generation of young people with a life driven by finding the next party. The commentators repeatedly mention the partying, and the unhappy parents who find the kids flash mobbing their homes. Youth are pitted against an adult world that tries in vain to get them to take life seriously. The nightmare. 

But, in Great Britain at least, it is a reality. 

Youth unemployment is up to 21% since 2007. What are those young people doing? How do they live? For many of them, they have been under the care of THE NANNY from age three. If they go on to university they still have no financial obligation until they are making at least 21,000 pounds a year, and then the price per month is 7.50. 

So, for you folks in Rio Linda, if you are one of the 21% that are unemployed or are in the half of the population that makes less than 30,000 a year (median gross income in the UK in 2011 was under 30K) then you have no school debt, no responsibility for those years. University was free for you...as long as you aren’t too successful. 

What then? Life is a party. Gone is the hardworking world of young adults who built the London of the modern era. 

When we lived in London, and later in Scotland, we were struck by the party culture that seemed commonplace among the 40 and under set. You sit in an NHS waiting room surrounded by posters exhorting you to “stop drinking too much,” “check your ‘partner’ for STD’s,” and  “beware if you dare to cheat on your benefits--we will catch you.” If the warnings are any evidence of the perceived problems of the adult population, there are far too many people with nothing better to do than binge drink, sleep around and cheat on their Income Support benefits. 

THE NANNY is still in charge, but the kids aren’t behaving. 

The Opening Ceremonies went on to get darker and more confusing, we ended up fast-forwarding through most of it (the kids were watching, after all), but the lasting image was of a country who has completely embraced their dependence on a nanny government. 

The NOW that the UK celebrated that night is our FUTURE if we don’t stop the drift towards THE NANNY: Obamacare, rising unemployment, unprecedented numbers on welfare....need I say more?