Fri Thoughts

Despite what many folks may think, I'm not a Republican.  But I will admit that some of them have impressed me recently.  I am speaking of those Republicans who will not support Don Trump.  I was reminded of that in the newspaper this AM.  Four, at least, Rep Congressmen from Michigan have said they will not back Trump.  Good for them, but that's not my point.  Why aren't more Democrats doing the same?  That is, where are the Democrats who won't support Clinton?  Are there none?  You must be kidding me.  Trump is a terrible candidate for President; but so is Clinton.  Are all those Democrats lockstep in their support for her?  If so, it speaks volumes of the Democrats--none of which are at all complimentary, at least not to me.

I've been wonder for a couple weeks about the local high school football coach who is apparently in hot water for out-of-season practices and recruiting.  Wait a minute!  Why is this guy being singled out?  Don't try to tell me other coaches don't also hold illegal practices, in football or even other sports.  Are the practice rules for football different from those for other sports?  If so, why?  Why, for instance, can high school basketball teams hold basketball practices, clinics, and even scrimmages in the summer?  Or is summer really winter, you know, when the basketball season is?  Why, if legal, are basketball coaches/teams permitted to do this, but not football coaches/teams?  And, how about high school baseball coaches who coach the local summer league teams?  Hmmm......  Maybe they bring in a couple of kids who aren't on their school teams?  Still, the inconsistency of the rules and/or their enforcement/application is not good.

For that matter, a local high school won its first district baseball championship, its first ever!  Hooray for it.  But its regional semifinal game was scheduled for the same time as the school's graduation ceremony, a Sat AM.  No problem, right?  Just reschedule the ball game for Fri afternoon or later Sat afternoon or even Sun or Mon.  The state semis weren't until Thur or Fri of the next week.  There was plenty of time, right?  Wrong!  Common sense is thrown out the window by the state hs athletic association.  The team was told to forfeit its game, its first ever regional ball game.  No change could be made to the schedule.  Remember that the next time you hear such associations talk about "student-athletes," how they are "here for the kids," etc.  More telling to me was the silence about this.  Where were the school's administrators?  They should have been jumping up and down all over the place, newspapers, television, radio?  What about the players' parents?  Where were they?  Or, how's this?  Why didn't the other schools in the regional refuse to play in protest--or all of the schools in the state tournament refuse to play?  Well, I know why and so do you.  Just remember, "We're here for the kids, until something else comes up."  I recall, 45 or more years ago, at Amherst we (the baseball team) was invited to the Div 3 playoffs, somewhere in VA or WV.  Our faculty voted not to let us go, since the games came during our final exam period.  Were we disappointed?  I don't remember being so; we knew, as good as our team was, why we were at Amherst.  "Student-athletes" my eye......

BTW,  a teammate sent me a well-researched article detailing the lack of evidence that Lord Jeffery Amherst was one to give smallpox-infected blankest to the Indians.  There is no direct evidence to
"convict" him.  Yet, let's not let facts get in the way of how we are supposed to feel.  It, the article, is a further indictment of the lack of rigor/quality of the education at Amherst today, relative to what it once was.  And, although the authors think the mascot, "Lord Jeff," was rightly eliminated because it was divisive, I disagree.  Students and faculty put heavy pressure on the college trustees to get right of "Lord Jeff."  And the trustees caved in.  I'm not losing sleep over the issue, but I remember when my professors wrote "no sloppy thinking allowed" or things to that effect on my papers.  Not only have students there now (not to mention their professors!) been able to get away with "sloppy thinking," they have been rewarded for it.  Boy, don't I sound like, as Karen occasionally calls me, "an old coot?"