Bits and Pieces 41 

 September 17, 2001

Quite frankly, I am still in a bit of shock about the events of last week. The New York City area is where I grew up and my day job takes me up to Manhattan and Washington D.C. once a week.

The NYC skyline is something that I have seen thousands of times. I remember, from my childhood, the celebrations when the World Trade Center surpassed the height of the Empire State Building and when it was completed. Now it’s the 1971 skyline all over again.

The architectural and engineering marvels that high-rise buildings are is a symbol the American way of life. They represent dreams and aspirations coming true and prove that together as a society we can achieve great and wonderful things. This building and the people that were in it that day, and every other day prior to that, were not evil as those demons who attacked us believe. They had the same dreams and aspirations that many Americans have and hopefully still have. Now over 5000 of them are dead for NO SANE REASON.

Unfortunately now, some of our dreams and plans need to be placed on the back burner and possibly rethought completely because we are now at the beginning of what is being called World War III.

This isn’t the type of war that I was told was going to be WW3. As kids we were led to believe that WW3 would be over in three minutes as nuclear powered countries from all over the world launched tactical nuclear weapons. These would wipe out the majority of the populated cities in the first blast and take out the rest during the following nuclear winter.

Indeed, this is a war that may take years to fight and to win and there very well could be lasting implications even after we declare victory.

What exactly will this mean for us on a day to day basis? It’s far too early to predict of course, but to me, there are some things that are crystal clear. For me this means that my personal priorities have changed. I am a patriot at heart and the freedom that this country has given to me is more cherished than anything that I own. Without that freedom, I would not be able to speak as I am doing, or create some of things that I have. The freedom was first and then all of the other things fell in line behind it. Now those freedoms and the way of life that I prefer are being attacked, and I will do my part to defend them.

Here are some things that regular Americans can do who cannot serve in the military for whatever reason:

You get the idea.

I am one who completely disagreed with the decision to play high school sports during this past week. I’m not sure what lessons were learned by playing as if nothing happened. Sure, everyone grieves in a different way, but based on a few conversations that I’ve had with some younger people about this, I’m not sure the true reality of what this means has sunk in yet. Children in the countries that we are now at war with are learning how to fight and to wage war against us in their "spare time", but we somehow found more time to play. It was almost revolting to me.

While reading Karyn’s new article I noticed that the Ursuline cross-country team decided not to compete in the Lake Forest Invitational this past Saturday. That was refreshing to hear and those young women have earned my respect for taking such a stand. Any other team that did that same also can play on my team.

I realize that this is a sports site that is dedicated to high school sports primarily and that some people don’t appreciate that I have spoken out rather bluntly about my feelings on this subject. To those who object, feel free never to visit this site again. It won’t bother me.

I will try to return to preparing some sort of "normal" column again soon even if I’m not sure what normal is now after September 11. Just please keep in mind that covering local sports in the simple way that I have is a hobby and something that I do for fun. There are more important things on my agenda right now that must be taken care of before I indulge myself anymore.

Marshal Manlove