Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Behavior vs. Fans

Thanks for the picture Scott!


In earlier posts, I've used sports as a comparison to other subjects and not always in the best light. I'm not anti-sports, or think we should pursue more loftier, intellectual goals in life and I'd like to prove it here. Growing up, my immediate family consisted of myself, my sister, and my mom and dad. Typical family, but poor dad usually ended up watching the Sunday football game by himself or with his family who quickly grew bored and heckled the TV with cliches about stupid football players and then left the room before the first quarter was over. Dad tried many times to explain the game to us, and without us having an interest in football, it just wasn't doing any good and he'd usually give up. His favorite teams were the Packers and the Cowboys, and I could never understand how he could have two favorite teams when there was always so much rivalry going on and it was pretty clear that you couldn't have two favorite teams. When the two played each other, we always teased him about which team he was going to cheer for. He never got mad about our teasing him, probably because we'd only be in the room for 10 minutes before leaving to pursue more loftier goals.

As the years passed and when I was a teenager, it just never entered my world. I was busy with school, friends, homework, band, reading, and other teenager stuff that usually didn't include football. I should note, however, that when I was a teenager, there was no cable TV and only one TV in my house. In fact, cable TV was only a few years old and we didn't even have the cable in the ground in our area. So, it was pretty much JUST the Sunday games that were allowed in our area. And, there were no 24 hour channels devoted to football, let alone sports in general. We watched the ABC Wide World of Sports (THE AGONY OF DEFEAT!) and if there wasn't anything good on that, it was usually a Sunday afternoon movie or wrestling on channel 18 (out of Milwaukee).

When I met, and eventually married my husband Scott, I inherited by marriage the subject of football once again. He is a life-long Cowboys fan, and so I too, became a Cowboys fan. It wasn't that hard, really, because I had already been exposed to the team in a favorable light through my dad. But, this was the Cowboys of the 90's, with Troy, Michael, and Emmitt. Not a hard team to dislike, and I quickly became a fan of Emmitt Smith. I also realized that I liked watching football, and as an adult could understand the game and realize what all the fuss was about. Over several years, I've gained a pretty good understanding of the game, can recognize the hand signals the refs use (before they tell us), and have even gone to two Packers games (against the Cowboys, of course). Something, when I was a kid I thought I'd never do as I couldn't stand the amount of time devoted to a football game. I wish I could report that the Packers game going experience was fun, but each time was a complete disillusionment of my interaction with the Packers fans.

The first game was the match-up at Lambeau on 10/24/2004, with a Cowboys loss. This was my first professional game and my first game at the legendary Lambeau. (From my years in high school pep band, I'd been to four years of high school football and basketball games and a few UW-Madison college games.) For years I had been told by local media that the Green Bay fans are the BEST! fans in the world, even if you are cheering for the opposing team. Both my husband and I expected a fair amount of teasing, but nothing like the treatment we actually did get. We didn't realize that everyone is crammed into that stadium like sardines. It looks much bigger on TV. When one person stood up in our row, we all had to stand up because we couldn't move independently. The Packers fans behind us took great delight in ramming their knees into our backs and being so obnoxious to us that I was more than ready to go WAY before the game ended. With it being a Packers win, this game (even though I thought differently at the time) ended up being the "good" experience of the two games I've been to. Our second game was this year, on 9/21/2008 and was a Cowboys win.

It's important to note that the amount of alcohol consumed was a bit shocking to me. I don't know if everyone who was drinking at that game wasn't driving, but if they were, Brown county could easily be so wealthy off of the DUI tickets that they would never need to get Federal money again. I also understand that we are a drinking state, and I don't care if they do drink, but the driving afterwards and the complete lack of common sense and courtesy was appalling. Again, we expected a fair amount of good-natured teasing, but we didn't expect to be assaulted and called derogatory names that I won't print here. It was flag day at Lambeau, so you can guess at what became the instrument of assault. As the Packers began their descent into loss, the mood of the drunken crowd around us also spiraled into loss. I won't go into every detail of what happened to us, but here's a list of the bigger things:

Scott was poked in the head with several flags shoved together
The old guy next to me tried on several occasions to break my ribs by ramming his elbow into my side
Vile and obscene names and language hurled at us and at BOTH teams
Under the pretense of flag waving, hit in the head with flags
Given the "bird" by exiting sore loser fans

I could go on, but I'm not going to. I was most shocked by the parents of a tween girl who were using such language as to make a sailor blush. Words that are not even used in R rated movies. The mother was the person who was using several flags together to poke at Scott. How do you explain to your bully child what they did was wrong when the parents are setting the example? The behavior was appalling especially since their child was with them, and there were other children in attendance too. The vile language of several people around us I consider abusive to use around children but seemed to have no affect on the "adults" who were hurling such words around. I have heard on countless occasions that the Packers are a family organization, and how the fans are part of that family and have been coming to games for generations. Well, I guess I know where the children get that education on being sore losers and bad hosts and grow up to uphold the family tradition.

While I don't think I'll be going to another Lambeau game again, I still enjoy watching football at home. I set out at the beginning of this blog to prove that I'm not "anti-sports" and I think that if I can still enjoy the Sunday game even after the bad Lambeau experiences that's a pretty good indication. I know there were many reasons why we received the treatment we did, and none of them are good reasons. But it wasn't the players fault. It had nothing to do with the actual game of football. As with anything else in life, it breaks down to individuals behaving in either a good way or a bad way. And that is my point. It doesn't matter what activity you might engage in. If you are the type of person prone to closed-mindedness and bad manners, the addition of alcohol will accentuate those traits. And that, is what I guess I really don't like about sports. Healthy competition and team pride taken to such levels that like anything else once taken too far and in such extremes becomes distasteful. I guess I would say that I'm not anti-sports, but anti badly-behaved fan.

Snow day

I object to the term white trash. I have heard this term used often, usually describing a part of society that is Caucasian, not necessarily poor, but usually is, and having clothing, decorating, cars, and housing choices that for some reason people not "in" this category find the need to separate themselves from. Like the distant cousin no one in the family wants to talk about in public, but gossips greatly in private. Yet, when I was home on a snow day this last Tuesday (December 9th, 2008), and as I was scanning the satellite viewing choices, I found a plethora of shows devoted to the subject. I didn't actually find any titled White Trash, but Mobile Home Disasters and Pimp My Trailer were two I did run across. I'm not going into detail about either show, but I fail to understand why these shows hold anyone's attention.

One of my main problems with the term white trash is the fact that you cannot apply any other ethnicity in place of white and get away with it. You will instantly be labeled bigot or its kinder sounding term of prejudiced. Can you just imagine the uproar over the term black trash? Or red trash? Or yellow trash? Somehow, those terms are wrong, yet white trash is accepted in society without a blink about the inappropriateness of using skin color to describe a segment of society. Or is it the term trash? Why do we accept trash as a way and a word to label people? My husband challenged me to think of a different term, and without using established prejudiced words; I can't. Has the term white, in reference to people, become the general kick-around, you-can-make-fun-of-without-repercussion term? Is it because of history? That somehow the current Caucasian group has to pay for the sins of their fathers? But then why aren't ALL Caucasian people referred to as white trash? And, it doesn't explain why some other Caucasian people use the term. Usually quite frequently, with laughter, sarcasm, and sometimes general embarrassment.

In the last decade or so, the message has been loud and clear that we should not judge people for their lifestyle choices. Whether it's significant others, or where we live, the cars we drive, the money we spend and what we spend it on; it doesn't matter. We are being taught not to judge lest we be judged. Yet something that is not a choice (skin color) is being used as a way to dismiss and ridicule large numbers of people. Enough so that various television stations create and maintain shows devoted to the term and its trappings. Is an entire mobile home park any different that an entire apartment complex? Or a gated subdivision? Or your local village, city, or country road? All have large numbers of people living there, all have financial differences running to gambit from poor to rich, all have people who have different views of life and how you should live it, all have different tastes in lawn decorations, and all have to get along to have peace. Yet all have people who could be considered "trash" using today's definitions. Why is the cash poor family living in a McMansion they can't afford and have to file bankruptcy different from the cash poor family living in a mobile home they can't afford and have to file for bankruptcy? Why is the mobile home family considered "trash" and the McMansion family just down on their luck and need a handout from the taxpayers to stay in their McMansion instead of suffering the horror of living in a mobile home and becoming "trash"?

This isn't a new term. My other problem with the term is that it has been applied to me while I was growing up. I grew up living in various mobile homes and with the exception of 9 months at an apartment complex when I was 4, lived in one until the age of 22. I was called white trash and trailer trash for most of my grade, middle, and high school years. I'll be the first to admit that living in a mobile home is a little different than living in a "traditional" home, especially from the 70's and 80's. Construction usually wasn't as top quality as today's standards and not having a basement or attic has some unique issues with appliances. As a side note, however, I have noticed in recent years that many new "traditional" homes now have utility rooms on the main living floors. Mobile homes have had these since their creation. Coincidence? I used to think I objected to the term white trash because it was hurled at me so many times that I was just sensitive to it. But that's not completely it. After thinking about this for years, I just don't understand the disparity between skin color and living arrangements. And then, why the term trash? In it's strictest sense, the term trash is something that you throw away, discard, and have no use for. Why do we accept that a whole segment of society is throw away, discardable, and are useless? If that was applied to any other ethnicity, the outrage would inspire riots.

Is it human nature to find someone one considers less than oneself and belittle it? And, if that is human nature, how can we ever expect to find some measure of peace between us?