Wide world of sports

Published 2:50 am Saturday, September 19, 2009

Sports make sense to me. By and large, they are black and white with little gray area. And with the possible exception of the BCS, they are consistent.

I think that is my favorite part of covering sports. Even when things go poorly, there is always another game and another season.

Most other things in life aren’t that way. Take politics for instance. They make very little sense. The older I get, the more I come to understand that inconsistency is the consistency of our society.

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We are built on both states’ rights and federal ordinances. All of that is fine to a point. But what about when it comes to certain issues we currently face, such as same sex marriage.

Under our current system, same sex partners cannot be legally married or granted civil union in the State of Alabama. But those same two people can go to, say, Vermont and be recognized in a legally binding partnership. So, those two people are joined together in the State of Vermont but are not joined together in most other states?

That seems odd to me. But, whatever, I do sports.

Another issue that has always plagued me relates to abortion. One of the key underlying principles of the abortion issue is the definition of when life begins. Clearly, the fact that abortion is legalized would seem to indicate that our society defines life as beginning at birth. Fair enough. Why then does a man who kills a pregnant woman get charged with two counts of homicide? That seems quite inconsistent. It makes very little sense to me.

But a touchdown is always a touchdown. So, I do sports.

I guess the biggest issue relates to how we go about removing such inconsistencies. Do they go to the Supreme Court?

There, a panel of nine people all appointed out of the same office can determine what is best for the whole of the nation. That seems a little less than ideal.

Maybe we could put it to popular vote. But it seems the only thing that is ever up for vote on a national scale is the office of the president. And we cloud that with an outdated system like the electoral college.

But still, it is good to know that everyone’s vote counts; unless, that is, you live in California, Texas or New York. Then your vote counts just a little bit more.

Again, that doesn’t make much sense to me. But I do sports, where a ball was either caught or it wasn’t and a player either scored or he didn’t and a team won or it lost and everybody can always look forward to next year.