Americans Love Violence

Much has been said and reported recently about how Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice got off with an easy punishment from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.  To merely suspend a player two games for punching and then dragging by the hair his then fiancé, and now wife, through a casino lobby is a joke.  And when you compare it to the three game suspension Goodell handed out to a special teams coach because he used a gay slur that was not aimed at any one individual, it just goes to show, Americans at all levels are far too accepting of violence.

Our love for violence is found across all income levels, age groups, races, religions, and genders and serves to convince our detractors we are nothing more than a violent nation.  While we are far from that, if you take a closer look at our love for violence, it is easy to see why others will see us as something other than a nation of peace.

The United States spends more money on its military than any other nation in the world.  A recent study shows us spending $618.7 billion dollars a year, or 3.8% of our GDP on our military.  China, our nearest competitor, spends $171.4 billion dollars a year on their military and just 2.0% of their GDP.  Our military spending has wrecked our economy and added to an increasing world view that we get involved in too may wars.  However, within our own country, we loudly debate our lack of military involvement in places like Syria, Ukraine, and Central America along with our usual hot spots.

How have we become such a violent nation?  Besides military spending, the United States has far more gun violence than any other nation.  We have a higher murder rate than our economic competitors.  We house more people in prison than any other nation and we love a good execution.  All are violent ways of solving societal problems and yet our violence remains.

Our most popular sport is football, a game centered around violence.  It is not nearly as complex a sport as commentators make it out to be.  More often than not, the team that out blocks and out tackles their opponent, in other words, knocks them silly, wins.

A fast growing sport that yields huge pay per view audiences is MMA, a sport in which the combatants try to force their opponent to submit.  It is to boxing what football is to soccer; not for the squeamish.  It's top draw is a female name Ronda Rousey, who by all accounts could handle herself quite nicely should Ray Rice work up the courage to punch her.

Our most popular video games are centered around violent worlds in which you must make quick and violent decisions to remain alive in the game.  As your skill level improves, the rate of violent situations increase resulting in the player having to make faster and more violent decisions.  Sadly, all too often, these games can be played between father and son and are referred to as bonding but are a far cry more violent that when dad would play catch with us in the backyard.

Even companies resort to violence to solve problems.  Today, it is not that unusual when a company hosts a retreat to build camaraderie that they will play a game like paint ball (kill or be killed) or take turns watching colleagues straddle a log and pummel one another with pillows or padded jousting sticks until one falls off, usually into water.  Somehow we convince ourselves this will make working with someone more tolerable.

What will it take to end our thirst for violence?  9/11 did not do it on a political front.  If anything, it only added to the problem.  We can no longer blame television or the movies for our violent ways.  Lets face it, no one makes us watch films at record rates in which super heroes solve incredible problems through the use of a super power that destroys an enemy.

If remaining the world's super power requires us to lose site of how we have become a nation far more accepting of violence, then we will have failed as a civilization.  Sticks and stones as well as knives, guns, and bombs do irreparable harm, especially when they are overly represented as an acceptable form of problem solving.

Go Ahead and Strike

I see where fast food workers have resumed their quest to be paid $15.00 an hour.  Every time I see this, I laugh.  The mere fact they feel they deserve this much pay shows me just how little they know about the real world.

For starters, unless you are a fast food worker, we all know this is a job you take because it requires the least amount of skill and training.  These are jobs meant to get young people experience in the work world that will hopefully help them on their way toward a life in which they do more important and meaningful work.  They were never meant to be a career or designed to pay all your bills while you raise a family.  Just because the economy went south and resulted in these jobs, like most others, becoming harder to come by does not warrant pay above our minimum wage.  These are jobs that require a minimum of skill and only exist because most Americans are either too busy or too lazy to cook their own meals.

I did a search to see what kinds of jobs out there pay fifteen bucks an hour.  On one list, I found fifteen jobs that pay what disgruntled fast food workers want. One, a rehab counselor, requires a masters degree; three require an AA degree; five require post high school training or apprenticeships; while the remaining six require skills that go far beyond saying, "May I have your order," or "Would you like fries with that?"

Ask those who manage a fast food restaurant how they feel about the work ethic of the young people they hire.  Better yet, go into a fast food joint and see how many prefer to employ seniors who just want to pad their retirement but who also have a work ethic.  They arrive on time, they are courteous to the customers, and they don't just stop coming to work because they decided they don't like their job.

Sure, college has gotten expensive and a job at a fast food chain may not be enough to pay tuition.  Here's a news flash, that's always been the case.  I don't know anyone from my high school class of 77' who managed to pay for their college education working at a McDonalds for $2.25 an hour. A job waiting tables in a restaurant comes with tips but those jobs also require far more people skills, patience, and work than a job at Burger King. 

Go pound nails, dig ditches, paint houses, clean toilets, or mow lawns and see how it feels doing those jobs for nine bucks an hour.  Try being a physical therapy assistant, in home care giver, or night janitor and see how little you are paid.  Better yet, go pick lettuce or any other food item grown in this country and see how rich you get.  Our country needs people who do all of these jobs far more than they need fast food workers.  And don't forget, your jobs are easily automated, leaving you unemployed. 

So go ahead, go on strike.  Block entrances to fast food restaurants and compare your movement to the civil rights movement as some are doing.  Whine until your vocal chords quit on you.  However, if you are smart and willing to sit and read, you may want to learn about what happened when air traffic controllers, a job that requires real training and comes with serious stress, went on strike when Ronald Regan was president.  Maybe then you will rethink just how important your job is to the real world.

Post Vacation Thoughts

Just back from our annual trip to South Lake Tahoe.  Eight days away from home and without access to the internet was nice.  However, now that I am back, here are some thoughts on what has gone on while I was away.

AIR TRAGEDY:  Let's assume for a minute pro Russian separatists were behind the downing of Malaysian flight 17.  What do they think they gain from this?  They are not going to receive greater sympathy for their cause and they have only further served to isolate Russian president Vladimir Putin.  As long as he supports the rebels, Putin only serves to show the sane world he is as much a threat to peace in the region as are the rebels. 
ISRAEL/PALESTINE AT WAR:  Is this really a surprise to anyone?  We all know Israel will do whatever it feels it has to in order to protect their sovereignty.  If the Muslim world could have their way, most would prefer to see Israel gone, at least that is what Israel would like everyone to believe.  Based on their history, Israelis are not going to be convinced otherwise.  However, most of the world supports a free Palestinian state just as it once supported a free Israeli state following World War II.  The problem isn't whether or not the Palestinians deserve a free state so much as can they manage one without tolerating the existence of groups like Hamas  and their desire to rid the region of Israel.  My guess is after the dust settles, nothing of significance will have changed and the two sides will be at it again in another year or two.
WORLD CUP:  Both Germany and Argentina showed the world they were the two most deserving teams to meet in the final.  Five time winner, and cup host, Brazil showed how far they have fallen and can no longer be considered among the world's elite.  Meanwhile, the USA continued to show it is unable to make a deep run into the tournament but may be ready to in another four years with a new generation of players.  Now, will FIFA decide to move the next cup from host Russia or will any nations refuse to participate in it in order to make a statement that they will not be a part of Vladimir Putin hosting a month long PR campaign.  While hosting the winter Olympics, Putin managed to create havoc in the Ukraine.  What will he do in another four year's time?  The last thing the sporting world needs to do is give this guy another chance to host a major athletic event.  Why not move the 2018 World Cup now to another site all together?
ON THE BORDER:  At what point is a central American not a refugee?  It is easy to argue on behalf of an eight year old who must leave home or face certain death.  However, when male teens arrive and admit to having murdered people back home and belonging to American gangs, they should not be afforded refugee status.  They need to be placed on a plane and sent right back home.  Unfortunately, this is not the case.  Our border and immigration policies are a mess and deserve better than a one size fits all solution.  There is no sound reason not to deploy our military to the border and take control of it rather than merely trying to patrol it with a few thousand border patrol agents.  We need a more secure and flexible process for those seeking refuge in our country so we can deny and return those who do not belong here.  Not doing so only continues to tells our citizens and the rest of the world we do not take protecting our border seriously.

Democrat Hypocrisy Shows In Their Letter To The NFL

     There are countless reasons to blame either political party when it comes to poor use of their elected powers.  We have many problems that face our country in which one side refuses to work with the other in the spirit of compromise.  However, with the exception of five democrat senators, the 50 who recently signed a letter demanding NFL commissioner Roger Goodell ban the use of the name Redskins demonstrates the hypocrisy that comes when elected leaders try to cash in on a popular movement.  Especially when republican senators were not asked to sign the letter.
     Most groups who are trying to get Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to drop the team's name come from a legitimate perspective.  They truly believe the Redskin name is offensive and want to see it dropped.  However, Snyder does not care about their opinion and claims he will die before changing the long standing team name.  The team was named the Redskins long before he was born and it is the team he purchased and now owns.  No one has the right to make him change the team's name.
     But lets look at the democrat senators and their reasons behind signing the letter.  Simply put, they want votes and money.  The votes come from those who  admire them for taking a stand on the name issue during a time in which we have far more serious issues to solve.  I doubt few, if any of these senators will win their next election because voters used this issue the way some use abortion, the death penalty, or taxes to decide who to vote for.
    However, by taking the popular stand, they do stand to gain by receiving nice campaign contributions from the many tribal groups in our nation who want to see the name dropped.  The funny thing is, many of these senators represent states named after native American groups.  Where is their opposition to states with names like Illinois, Alaska, Missouri, Oklahoma, or Utah?  Has it occurred to anyone that the name Indiana translates to "Land of the Indians" but that they only represent 0.3% of the state's population?  Where did they all go?  They didn't move away by choice and I am sure they did not appreciate their land being taken from them.
     More than half our states are named after native American groups that for the most part, make up the smallest population group in their state and whose treatment by our government has been far more offensive than the name Redskins.  Have we forgotten about the Trail of Tears and the countless massacres of tribal groups all done in the name of Manifest Destiny? 
     The name Redskins may well be considered as offensive to native Americans as the "N" word is to blacks.  However, they should be just as offended by the naming of states after tribal groups that were slaughtered by the very people who coined the states names.
     Now I am not suggesting our elected leaders start renaming the 27states with names associated with native Americans.  That would be ludicrous.  We have real issues to solve that require their willingness to roll up their sleeves and work in cooperation with members of the opposition party behind closed doors.  Meaningless letters aimed at making an owner of an NFL a sacrificial lamb all in the name of gaining political donations is a poor, if not misuse, of power. 

Untied States Soccer Lacks Hunger

Many positive things have been written recently about the performance of the United States Soccer team at the current World Cup. While placed in a group of death and given little chance to move on to the round of sixteen, our men surpassed our expectations before being eliminated by Belgium. Still we exited the tournament with only one win along with two losses and a tie which is about par when compared to our recent World Cup efforts. Still, this is nothing to be excited about when you compare what our country has to the other 31 nations in the tournament. In fact, it raises a number of questions as to why a nation as large and diverse as ours is unable to become a soccer power after what is now decades growth in the participation of the sport in our nation.

For starters, how is it a nation of 316 million citizens is unable to beat national teams whose total populations often represent what would be large metropolitan areas in our country? It's too easy to say, “Well those countries love to play soccer while we play lots of other sports.” With the exception of Germany and its population of just over 80 million, or about one fourth that of ours, no other nation in the world has as many youth participating in organized soccer as we do. And many of ours are playing on travel teams that play pretty much year round so it is not as if our kids are distracted with other sports.

Uruguay, a nation of 3.4 million, was picked by many to go as far as the semi finals and are considered a disappointment for failing to advance that far. Portugal, a country of about 10.5 million was suppose to beat the U.S. with ease when we were unlucky enough to give up a last second goal for a tie, failed to advance past the opening round. Then there is the European power The Netherlands, with a population about half of California's making another world cup semifinal. Both Chile, population 17.7 million, and Colombia, population 48.3 million, gave host and favorite Brazil, population 201 million, a run for their money while we were eliminated by Belgium, population 11.2 million. California, New York, and Texas alone should be able to find enough soccer talent to challenge most of the world's top soccer countries and yet in a nation as large as ours, we are considered underdogs to tiny nations.

The reason is not about numbers but rather, hunger. American soccer is a middle class sport in which parents will pour in a lot of their time and money into developing the skills of boys in part, as a way to keep them off the street and out of trouble. It has become a largely white sport on the organized level and is often looked at as safer than football, more action packed than baseball, and not as “ghetto” as basketball. If a kid has talent at the club level, he will get noticed and perhaps land a college scholarship which will make a college education far more affordable. Rare is the case in which an American family is willing to pack up and send their kid to another country at the age of 15 or 16 to be developed by one of the top European club systems who are always on the look for up coming talent.

While there is a growing central American population in our country, many of these kids come from families that lack the means to place their kids on club teams that travel the country and play in tournaments. They will play in local recreation leagues and in pick up games and all too often they lack the academic grades to be eligible to play at the high school level. Worse, they often identify more with the national team of the country of their origin than they do with ours. In countries like Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Ecuador, and many more, they lack the youth programs we have here so they find their talent on dirt fields, neighborhood streets, and pick up games. For these kids, a chance to be placed in a soccer academy, be fed regularly, and play a game as a way to a life off the streets means more than it does to the average middle class American kid. In that manner, soccer is to them what basketball has become for our inner city blacks.

When you are hungry, you work harder to develop what you have when the opportunity strikes if it offers you a better life. In the United States, a professional soccer player just does not make that much money. If you look at an MLS roster, you will see a large foreign contingent of players who are happy to make 70 or 80 grand a year playing a game. While that is a huge salary in most nations, it is barely enough to live a comfortable life here. It 's less than what LeBron James makes per game.

You can talk about soccer being religion in other countries and in many ways it is. Life comes to a complete halt like it does here for the Super Bowl when European and South American powers kick off. Officials and players are killed over results. Stadium violence erupts because the passions run so deep. Meanwhile, in the United States, our national team plays in stadiums that are often filled with immigrants from our opponents countries more than those rooting on the good old USA. We have to go to great lengths and schedule important matches with local rivals like Mexico and Costa Rica in more predominantly white areas just to have an advantage in the fan base.

I remember one World Cup when Italy failed to advance to the elimination round. Their fans back home were tossing televisions out their windows and were outraged over the team's poor performance. They traveled to their airports to confront them when they flew home in large enough numbers that the team had to be flown into another country and bused in during the middle of the night. We, on the other hand, win one of four matches and our team receives a congratulatory call from the President Obama. That's the equivalent of giving everyone a trophy so they feel good about themselves.

But why are our women far more successful than our men, especially against many of the same traditional powers? Understand, woman's soccer has not been religion in most other nations like it has for men. In countries like Croatia, Ghana, Cameroon, Algeria, Iran, Ecuador, or Nigeria, all participants in this year's World Cup, women do not have the same status or opportunities as ours have. They are not encouraged to develop their soccer skills and in many cases are not even allowed to. Our women simply do not have to overcome centuries of soccer bred into their opponent as our men must.

However, in a nation of over 300 million people, we should expect more from our national soccer team than what we get from our men. We should have hundreds more Landon Donovans, Curt Dempseys, and Tim Howards fighting and clawing for a spot on the national team rather than assuming they have one locked up due to the lack of talent.. The sad fact is, until the sport becomes far more lucrative inside our country than it is outside it, we can not expect to see our youth pursue it with the same passion it is pursued in much smaller, and far more successful countries. Soccer will be something our guys play until they are ready to move on to “adulthood” or to “settle down” and not something pursued by those looking for a better way of life. Simply put, we, as a nation, lack the hunger for success in a sport where others see it as a way to end hunger.

Misplaced Anger Over Immigration

Recently, just fifteen miles from my home, the city of Murrieta received the first of what is to be thousands more people trying to immigrate to the United States from Central America. Their arrival has resulted in numerous protests, angry meetings, and plenty of name calling back and forth, none of which has done any good.

There are plenty of people to point the finger of blame at but the people coming here from Central America, many of whom are kids traveling alone, are not to blame. After all, they are just seeking what our government claims is every human's right, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Most Americans, myself included, are unable to imagine the lives these people are leaving behind. They seek the American dream just as countless others who boarded ships from Europe and Asia have done in the past. We are a nation of immigrants and to forget that is to turn our back on our own history.

Still, I understand the anger and frustration of people who want to know why their city is being used as a processing site for people who do not speak our language and who in many cases will receive assistance paid by American taxpayers. Still, calling these new arrivals ugly names, blocking their buses, and carrying signs with derogatory statements is not a solution. Those who are angered over this should aim their anger at others.

Lets start the blame by looking at one of our nation's finer moments, the Mexican/American War, a war our government went to great lengths to force so we could grab what we felt at that time was the prime parts of Mexico. While most Americans have forgotten about this war, Mexico never has and never will. Why should they when they were forced to surrender half their country to a U.S. Government who believed it was their God given duty to conquer and develop the land (manifest destiny)? However, the mistake we made after sending troops as far south as Mexico City, was not that we retreated to the Rio Grande. The thinking then was the river made a great natural border that would separate the two nations. No, the mistake was we did not take all of Mexico leaving us with a tiny border to guard today. I mean, if you are going to fight an unjust war, at least have the intelligence to think long term and protect the best interest of the United States. Our government has failed to realize the determination of an oppressed people. We never thought they would risk drowning in a river or dying in a desert to enter a country for a better way of life. They also never fathomed the cost of protecting a southern border as long as ours is today. If they had, today, the United States would end at the Panama Canal.

Today, our government also spends billions of dollars to send soldiers half way around the world claiming they are bringing freedom to oppressed people but will do nothing for those closer to home. If we do not want people from Central America and Mexico entering our country illegally, then wouldn't it make more sense to spend what we do on our wars abroad on rebuilding nations next to us? Our government has a history of taking for granted our southern neighbors and ignoring what goes on inside their borders and then act as if we are under attack when they want to come grab a slice of the American dream.

Another government to blame is Mexico. After all, it is not in their interest to keep these Central Americans from entering the United States. What do they care if Guatemalans, Hondurans, and others flood our country by the thousands every day? It costs Mexico less money to let these people cross into the U.S.A. than it does to round them up and send them back home. For this to happen would require a solid working relationship to exist between our two governments and again, all you need to know as to why this does not happen is a little war that took place between us in the mid 19^th century.

We should also be angry at Texas for crying to the feds about not being able to handle the numbers flooding their border with Mexico. Just exactly who said it was a good idea to fly plane loads of Central Americans to California to be processed so they can go elsewhere will probably never be fully known. However, no one in Texas has a problem passing their problem on to another state. So much for our states being united.

We should also blame ourselves. There was a time when many white Americans were willing to do the work that is now done by migrant workers from Mexico and Central America. In the 1970's, while a teenager from an affluent home in an affluent community in the San Francisco Bay Area, I used to do jobs that are now done by Hispanics. I mowed yards, painted houses, installed sprinklers, and cut trees as a way to earn as much as twenty bucks a day (minimum wage was $2.25). I then landed a great job sweeping out a ware house and moving merchandise for a local drug store before heading off to college where I cleaned bath rooms, hauled trash, and trimmed hedges at Chico State. My wife worked harvesting grapes in a vineyard as well as cleaning up after patients in a nursing home. Most of the people we know today talk about experiences doing similar work, work that today is done by our southern neighbors looking to have a better life than they have back home.

I get the frustration over our newest batch of arrivals. However, rather than cursing at them we should be demanding our leaders find a way to make them want to remain in their country. We should be spending more money protecting and guarding our borders than we do the borders in nations half a world away. We should have courts that support laws that do not allow illegals from taking our kids places in college, getting drivers licenses, or receive benefits that the working tax payer can not afford. We should be questioning those in our nation who are here legally and who do nothing but drain our social services because they refuse to contribute to our country. However, to gather in large crowds and chant phrases of hate toward people willing to die for a better way of life only shows a lack of compassion and ignorance on the part of Americans.