better than advertised

I've spent a good deal of time lately covering a pair of sports for which I have not always hidden my distaste: wrestling and hockey.
Now, I want to preface this. I still greatly prefer in the winter season to cover basketball. And I am not ready to call myself a big fan of either other sport. But, as far as high school sports go, there are worse things than having to watch competition on the mats or the ice.
First, I'll talk about wrestling, and while I could never imagine a situation in which I would want to participate in wrestling, I will say that the unique team/individual format leads to exciting moments. Nothing is more intense than seeing two entire teams screaming from the sidelines as two men battle it out with key team points on the line. The Art Powers Duals a few weeks ago were riveting, as Berlin knocked off three very good teams. The clinching matches are among the best spectator events in high school, and there is an excitement that cannot quite be described when the ref slaps his hand on the mat to signal a pin.
Ironically, for an individual sport it is the team aspect that makes wrestling so interesting.
Now, on to hockey, a sport I think is severely flawed. All sports (soccer, field hockey, lacrosse come to mind) in which a team can regularly outperform another and still lose frustrate me. It happens because there is simply so much luck involved in scoring a goal in those sports. A great play may result in nothing and a fluke play might become a goal. While hockey is not quite as guilty of this as the others, it can still be bad.
But what I do like about hockey at this level, at least when the referees keep the whistles in their pockets as much as possible, is the purity of play. There is less banging and bruising and more stick and skate control. With constant action, the sport is exciting to watch from up close, although I still find it hard to write about descriptively. I saw a perfect example of this in a game between Glastonbury and Southington earlier this week. The first penalty was called late in the second period, and up until that point the pace was good and the game exciting.
So keep it up wrestling and hockey. I won't often be complimenting you.

in honor of a true world hero

from American Heritage Dictionary
lynch, v. : 1. To execute without due process of law, especially to hang, as by a mob.

from the online Etymology Dictionary
lynch (v.): 1835, from earlier Lynch law (1811), likely named after William Lynch (1742-1820) of Pittsylvania, Va., who c.1780 led a vigilance committee to keep order there during the Revolution. Other sources trace the name to Charles Lynch (1736-96) a Virginia magistrate who fined and imprisoned Tories in his district c.1782, but the connection to him is less likely. Originally any sort of summary justice, especially by flogging; narrowing of focus to "extralegal execution by hanging" is 20c. Lynch mob is attested from 1838. The surname is either from O.E. hlinc "hill" or Ir. Loingseach "sailor."

For all of those out there calling for the firing of Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Network, let me explain something. Tilghman did not make a racial statement, you merely misinterpreted it that way.
The word lynch does not, and never has meant, to kill black people, as horrific as that history has been in this nation. It is true that an abhorrent number of African-Americans were put to death by mobs in this nation. It is also true that the lynch mob was an active tool of social intimidation long before that, intimidating political dissidents among others, not exclusively used to intimidate blacks.
When I first heard mention of Tilghman's now infamous comments, joking that the rest of the PGA tour should form a mob and "lynch" Tiger Woods, it did not even occur to me that people might misinterpret it as a racial comment. Tilghman used the word correctly, and simply implied that in order to win tournaments, the PGA tour might have to take matters into its own hands. An unfortunate joke, perhaps, but certainly not racially motivated. The root of the word, as you can see above, came from the public murdering of whites who happened to hold opposing political views during the American Revolution and afterward.
And yet, up to yesterday I continued to hear intelligent people, including the Hartford Courant's Jeff Jacobs, insisting that Tilghman's comments were racially motivated. This simply isn't true.
Yes, the term lynch obviously draws a certain reaction from a majority of people, one which I would never have anticipated. But those reacting are the ones with the nearsighted, narrow view. They are the ones who don't understand that Tilghman probably never even considered the fact that Tiger Woods is part African-American when she made that statement. It was not relevant to the words she chose.
For her part, Tilghman quickly realized that her words might have been misinterpreted, and apologized for the accidental use of a potentially inflamatory word. For his part, Tiger Woods, apparently far more enlightened than most of us, recognized that Tilghman had not intended her comment in a racial manner at all, and said that he was not offended by it.
Now why can't the rest of us accept that, historically, etymologically, and literally, what Kelly Tilghman said had nothing to do with race? We just misinterpreted it that way.
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Nearly forty years to the day of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death (April 4, 1968), the battle still rages in America and the world for racial equality and justice. It is not an easy fight, nor an uncomplicated issue, of course. But it is one that can only be solved through action and discussion.
I'll leave you guys on this day with the words of Dr. King himself. He was a true hero, a flawed man who nonetheless remained constant to his ideals and beliefs. In so doing he put his own safety and comfort, and ultimately his life, on the line for those he knew as well as those he never met. He also had the ability, through the sheer conviction of his words and the purity of his public actions, to passionately unite people on both sides of the same issue.
On April 16, 1963 Dr. King sat in a Birmingham, AL jail, arrested after organizing a non-violent protest in the city. While in jail he received a letter from local priests, pastors, ministers and clergy (his colleagues, remember) denouncing his actions for betraying the status quo.
Having a bit of time on his hands, Dr. King wrote a lengthy response letter to them, explaining his position and imploring them to do their parts in the greater struggle. It is one of the more underrated documents in American history and I urge each of you to take the time today to read it in its entirety.
(Here is a copy filled with typos, but still readable. http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html)
But pay close attention to the following section, as it highlights the crux of the entire struggle. And be sure to think about not only Dr. King today, but all those who put their beliefs on the line in the face of violent opposition, sacrificing their own bodies to preserve the dignity of everybody.

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity."