The Battle of Heavan and Hell
08/10/07
Today is a day I wish I was somewhere other than in Butte County, specifically at Candlestick Park. From the early 70s I've been a San Francisco 49ers fan, and today is a day of mixed emotions for me.
All the accolades about coach Bill Walsh have been said with much more eloquence than I can opine on today. The first lasting memory I have of his time was in the 1981 season, when the hapless 49ers faced Dallas at Candlestick. They delivered a whooping upon the Cowboys with such spirit that I could call the season, and did.
After they toasted their opposition, I yelled to the television that we would go to the Super Bowl and would win it. That was 16, the first of their five victories, and numerous playoff appearances.
This was a special team, one that I enjoyed watching for all the years it existed. I hope that this year will leave its own suggestion of success, but of that we shall see.
Take two:
Where I have a problem with all this adulation is the underlying message it sends. First of all let me predict this, even though Coach George Seiffert has a Super Bowl ring of his own, when he dies, he will be merely a footnote in Bay Area sports history.
Why? It is simple. The message of today is win or go away. This doesn't just apply to football, but to our society as well. Mayor Gavin Newsom spoke on the radio today not only about Bill Walsh, but about his campaign to drive the homeless out of Golden Gate Park.
The problem here is that the homeless are not just needles or garbage or mental problems, or a situation that can simply be solved with a bus ticket to hell. They are human beings, down in their economic luck, that we want to throw in the garbage because we see them as losers. The San Francisco Bay Area I grew up in has morphed into a uber-rich fortress where real people are not welcome.
The same feelings concerning the homeless exist for those we call illegal immigrants. Two years ago I wrote that if the 12 million people referred to as aliens were rich, we wouldn't have a problem with them coming here. But because they are poor, we want to scoop them up and send them back home where likely they will quickly die.
It is the same gestalt that greets George Seiffert, the homeless, and illegal immigrants. We don't like losers, nor can we stand the poor. Rather than deal with them with respect, we would rather give them a bus ticket to hell, where they can burn up in the flames of infamy.
What does that say about us as a society?