Winning doesn't equal justice

It's been a month since my last post, and a crazy month at that.  Travel, classes, and the myriad number of hats I wear all seem to conspire to make life challenging in April and May every year.  But I still love what I do, even if it means 16 hour days (like the one I'm about to have).

I do have two sports related thoughts to share, however, so without further ado:

1)  I slipped a little last week.  On a three hour drive home from the airport, having dropped Allyson off on Easter Sunday to visit family for a week, I was tired and decided to bite the bullet and turn on my satellite radio to listen a little to my Pirates playing the Nationals.  As usual, the Pirates lost, and in their usual boring fashion – so boring that the announcers were discussing their rally "bunny ears" and singing the bunny hop in the booth while flirting with an intern.  I give them credit, they've had 18 years in which to hone their comedy routines during losing baseball seasons and yet they still suck at it.  But, the thing that really struck me is that, for the first time in a long time, I wasn't really pulling for one team over the other - I was just enjoying the game.  Maybe 18 years of losing means I don't care about the Pirates as much any more, so I'm not about the claim victory over my sports addiction, but it was nice to turn off the game and not feel disgusted with them or myself. 

2) Last night, as you are no doubt aware, President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by US forces.  While waiting for the press conference to start, the announcer people were talking about how the chants of U-S-A were going strong at Ground Zero and near the White House.  It recalled for me the story that the chant of U-S-A originated at the 1980 Winter Olympics with the USA Hockey team.  Then, we were channeling our hatred of the CCCP into our passion for sport, but now, it almost feels like we were channeling our love of sport into the death of this decidedly evil man.   America loves winning - just ask Charlie Sheen - but it feels awkward to me to now be celebrating the death of Bin Laden.  I don't feel like we've won anything - thousands of American men, women and soldiers have died in the pursuit, and all of that is vindicated by the killing of one man.  I slept on it before I wrote this post, and I still don't feel as though we've been made whole.  I'll leave you with this final thought: 

From the Oxford English Dictionary:

winning |ˈwini ng |
adjective
1 [ attrib. ] gaining, resulting in, or relating to victory in a contest or competition : a winning streak.

justice |ˈjəstis|
noun
1 just behavior or treatment : a concern for justice, peace, and genuine respect for people.
• the quality of being fair and reasonable : the justice of his case.
• the administration of the law or authority in maintaining this : a tragic miscarriage of justice.
PHRASES
bring someone to justice:  arrest someone for a crime and ensure that they are tried in court.

vengeance |ˈvenjəns|
noun
punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for an injury or wrong.

The definition of justice doesn't feel like it applies to this situation, but winning and vengeance sure do.

Shalom,
Todd