Expect Different

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I have documented well my preference for sports teams outside of the state of Ohio over the years but at 63 years of age sports is not that high on my list of priorities. When it comes to baseball I have been a Pittsburgh Pirate fan since puberty, about as long as I have been an Oakland Raider fan, and when it comes to college football I prefer The Michigan Wolverines over all others and have since 1975. I am allowed to like what I like even if I do live in a city (Columbus, Ohio) where I am surrounded by and constantly heckled by rabid fans of the Ohio teams, and the energy it requires for most of them to express their allegiance to their favorites while relentlessly putting down mine is something a guy like me grows used to but will never understand. It really is a priority for the majority of Ohio sports fans to behave this way, they cannot help it and that's okay with me because 40 years of enduring them hasn't changed anything for either of us. I still like what I like.

On Thursday, September 3, The University of Michigan opened their 2015 football season by losing on the road to a pretty good Utah team. That's just college football to me, it happens...more frequently than I would prefer but it happens. I will go about my own life regardless of what college athletes can or cannot accomplish on the field, but as I expected my friends who are Ohio State fans began reveling in the glee that Michigan lost within seconds of the final score (24-17) by flooding my email box with taunts and disparaging remarks about the Michigan football squad and their new coach and even his family! The message box on my facebook page was also inundated with the same senseless frivolity and I expect it will be a long season for me as well as them. They will spend a great deal of their time boasting and carrying on while I will be looking for more prosperous ways to fill my time.

In years past I would have played along if for no other reason than to amuse them but in recent years sports has fallen to somewhere near the middle of the list of what I really care about. I think a lot of that has to do with being 63 and accepting that people my age don't really look that appealing dressed in sports attire such as football jerseys or painting our faces in our favorite team colors. Actually, I stopped doing that when I was in my late 30s and just moved forward, concentrating on things that mattered more to me than whether or not my favorite teams are better than anyone else's; in other words, life got in the way of trying to hold onto my youthful priorities until I die. It is difficult for my friends that are  my age and Ohio sports fanatics to comprehend when I tell them these things because to many of them, it is a way of staying in a place that makes them still feel as if they fit in with a college crowd. This is not a knock on my contemporaries who go about life differently than me, just a quandry that I don't think I will ever understand. I don't see athletes as Gods and I wouldn't trade anything I own for a sports jersey, let alone spend money that I would rather keep on one. For me, money and everything else I do trumps anyone's won-loss rcord.

I see people in their 60s still arguing and fussing over their sports favorites and I smile the same smile that creases my cheeks when I see them still trying to dance the Twist anytime they hear Chubby Checker sing it. I want to change the subject and ask them what they think of the violence exploding in our country and elsewhere in the world, or maybe bring up my thoughts about an impending election but then I remember, this isn't the time nor the place and certainly not the people to engage in matters that mean more to me than last night's loss for the Wolverines. Their loss was a cause for celebration for people that don't like them and who am I to spoil what is so amusing or important to them?

So instead of allowing myself to be their sounding board (as if they will ever have enough of those) I will concentrate on my own endeavors; I am writing an entry in a blog right now and before I finish I will have to feed my dogs and do a few other domestic chores, and then I will spend a little time promoting my books, checking the sales of them and then go about whatever else the day will bring.

Michigan lost last night and so did the Pirates, but had they both won I still wouldn't change anything about how I will spend this day. The winners will move on and so will I. I get another day older today and there is something else about that my friends in the hometown bleachers will have difficulty coming to grips with; I came to grips with it! I am no longer among the young, I am not a college sports Hell Raiser and nothing the Wolverines could have done last night would have made me wake up feeling giddy and eager to act like one. I keep finding ways to embrace being in my 60s and one of them is the peace that comes with knowing I have done enough with my life to set more meaningful goals that have nothing to do with sports frenzy. I guess in that regard I am the luckiest guy I know. I got here by being different. Being old isn't so bad that I need to fly a Michigan flag from my porch to feel better about it. We are all racing toward death at this age even though some don't want to think about that, and for some, never letting go of a particular passion and never throwing away old toys might be an acceptable distraction from facts but not for me.

I hope my favorite sports teams win every game they are capable of winning, but if they don't, there is always next year. I hope I am still here then and if so I will still like them, and if I am still around I will only be another year older and I will have to keep finding ways to sort through my own priorities and accomplish more than just be an aging cheerleader. Those fans that only like Ohio sports teams will spend some time today watching a clock and staring at a calendar to countdown the days, the hours and minutes before the OSU kickoff to a new season. Meanwhile I have no idea who Michigan plays next week and it really doesn't matter that much to me, only a little. Instead what matters most today is keeping my surroundings simple and staying as healthy as I possibly can.

Go Blue!

First the bricks...

The gorilla warfare being waged on America's police officers is only different from the murderous actions of ISIS in that ISIS kills as a group while hiding their faces behind a mask and encourages everyone to watch them carry out their executions. The intent and the reasons are the same, born from hatred that is instilled in them by those that lead them. Our American born killers are being brainwashed by people with talk shows and by a liberal government that hide their fake condolences behind words like "our prayers go out to the families of the fallen" but then go about business as usual. They ONLY blame gun laws and hope the masses will believe that if it weren't for the ease of good people to obtain them then we wouldn't have so many bad people using them to kill other good people. 

One hundred gang bangers can kill each other today and none of the politicians will even cock an eyebrow, let alone call it what it is and very few liberals in the media will even report it before a lengthy weather report or in depth sports story, if at all. And then when they do some knucklehead that has trouble with basic English language will be found in the crowd of bystanders to be interviewed and most of them are only there wanting to be seen on TV; (the dumber they sound, the more the media likes it) because it makes for more dramatic ambience to suround the story and they will be heard blaming everyone but the people that caused it. But let even one peace keeper take one of those thugs down in the name of safety to us all and peace for everyone else and it is called racism and probably poor training. But that's okay because Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are now running neck and neck for the democratic presidential nomination. One of those liberals could certainly make our society safer because even though they have no clue whatsoever about what life is really like in the mean streets they are very good at making faces that at least seem like they are full of wisdom and concern. But if not, there is always Joe Biden if he decides to run. (I like it when they raise their voices and point with fingers at imaginary targets and say how tired THEY are of what's happening in our country.) Of course they are all full of shit but their rhetoric gives people that can't think for themselves hope.

Regardless of which one of these concerned people gets the nod there is always Al Sharpton to explain how we can fix things to them and to the gallery of misinformed misfits that follow him. By the way, President Obama clearly listens to him because he has taken to echoing him a lot lately; blaming the people and symbols that represent American history for all the things they believe have made us such a crummy country for more than 200 years. To them it is my fault and the fault of all of us that were born before 1960 that hasn't yet signed up for marches and parades that they support. Most of them are attempts to shame everyone, whether we had anything to do with their problems or not and to remind us that we have been going about things all wrong before they took over the podiums. He is in Alaska to rename a mountain that for decades was a monument to another American president, but to his credit he did finally pause for a minute or so to call the wife of a murdered police officer to tell her that she has his and Michelle's prayers. Maybe his next act will be to travel to Queens and rename JFK International Airport. We can only hope or pray that another police officer, or two or more isn't executed before then. 

As a retired cop who has several children now serving the thin blue line I am sickened by the lack of response and support for law and order by those with important titles, big salaries and familiar faces that keep telling us they know what is best for America but do very little more than make speeches that amount to nothing. Their words and their actions have cultivated and nourished this warfare being waged against the very people they rely on to keep them safe. Nearly a million now serving and millions more like me that did can change this by calling them out and then throwing them out. I was a lifelong democrat and I only apologize for being one for the past eight years. America has not grown better under liberal ideology, it has become more like a dangerous freak show in some ways, with ringmasters encouraging the audience to participate in things that could harm everyone and kill many.

From here on out I will only support the people that believe all of our lives matter and admit that some matter more than those that can only bitch, complain and destroy and never do anything that is for the good of everyone. As someone whose patience has run out and whose compassion and generosity has been grossly taken advantage of I encourage everyone to rethink their priorities even if it means switching political loyalty. For what it is worth, I will not be supporting a democrat for president this time because this one has let us all down way too many times. 

Strictly from a sense of decency and what I believe is best for everyone I have turned a deaf ear to anyone that is blinded by liberal viewpoints that coddle the bad while crippling and destroying what is really good. The lberals will scream in unison that it is me that is blind, that I am the problem because I speak my mind instead of echoing theirs, but that's okay because I am counting on the silent majority to keep letting them whine the loudest, chant their chants and hold up their signs to show us all further why they cannot be trusted to lead. I truly believe that there is a silent majority of Americans that are fed up but won't let their voices be heard until they step into voting booths.

For now, Donald Trump looks like the last real American in the group that wants to lead from the top. Had someone told me before 2015 that I would ever support him for president I would have laughed and called THEM crazy, but then 2014 ended with one police officer after another being executed and now here we are. More cops being killed for only doing a tough job in a country that has sacrificed its morals and decency for coddling people with niether. Say what anyone might about his arrogance, but I believe our only option now is to elect an arrogant man that I think means it when he says he can afford to be one if that's what it takes to reel in the people causing the most damage to our country, both economically and with needless bloodshed, usually killing the innocent and then crying when criminals fall. 

By the way, I also believe it is my own arrogance and wilingness to leave behind what others call politically correct ways or thinking that keeps me safe; it is my willingness to do and say whatever I think is neccessary to stay that way. We all follow our own roads and if we hold onto the compass and trust our instincts instead of our career politicians and the media we can move past this lunacy that has been tearing down our country in recent years. Even if it means listening to old white men like me and Mr. Trump that remembers when we were better than we have allowed ourselves to become. I also believe that more people agree with Donald Trump than are wiling to admit. Some cannot afford to admit it but I think there really is a silent majority that might. Some despise him for his wealth and question how he came about having it, but if he is willing to use it for the good of the country then I hope he gets the opportuity to spend it for that. Follow your heart, but use your brain too, and bless the peace keepers and keep them all safe. We all have a stake in this, not just the Hell raisers and their supporters.