Comments can be made on Lance's Forum where this is also posted. Are you going to get mad? From the mouth of Howard Beale....with a Bengals view:
I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.
We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be! And in our one small refuge from it all on Sunday afternoon, it is even worse. Three hours of pure torture.
We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.
It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Let me sit down on Sunday afternoon and just relax have a few hours of the Bengals and escape from it all. Just leave us alone."
Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.
I want you to get mad!
I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to turn in your season tickets. I don't want you to write to your paper or blog, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the Bengals.
All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.
You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value! Give me my one small piece of happiness back on Sunday afternoon!"
So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"
I am tired of 18 years of losing!! I am tired of botched draft picks, and excuses, and no emotion, and coaches and front office people who are trying to tell us they saw something different than what we watch every Sunday. Get up! Get mad!!! Boo these jerks!! Let them know how mad you are!!! Don't sit there on your hands and take it anymore!! Don't hide behind a paper bag and make it a joke!! It isn't funny damnit!! It is an embarrassment!! Tell them all on the streets and on the radio and, most importantly, at PBS...
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"
Tell your kids about Junior. As Junior hits 600 and we reflect on his career, I think there is something much more important that we should reflect on - Junior, The Man. Not in a "You the Man" way that is thrown in the air carelessly like so many other sports euphemisms in this age of excess. We need to reflect on Junior The Man. Junior may have started out as The Kid, but he has evolved into The Man with a career that is the iconic example of what so many of us hope for from our sports heros.
Tell your kids about Junior. As we sports fans look high and low and hear athlete after athlete discard the label of role model, our role model stands before us in Ken Griffey, Jr. Please don't ask Junior if he is a role model. He is much too humble to ever claim that title. But he has earned it. Isn't that just the way you would want your kids' role model to handle that?Humility is another virtue that is so lost in today's lust for fame it is more a memory than a reality, but Junior has it. It is part of Junior's character.
Tell your kids about Junior and character. Character is another word that is much sought and hard to define. As was once said, I may not be able to describe it but I will know it when I see it. The stories that show us Junior's character are out there if you spend some time looking for them. There are far too many to relate here. Character. I see you Junior.
Tell your kids about Junior. Tell them about humility ..... family ..... giving ..... kindness .... respect for others .... and, yes, about doing things the right way off the field, as well as on it. That is who Junior is. Tell them about all the people facing illness, death and challenges that life puts before them and tell them how Junior reaches out to them and gives genuinely and purely.
As I reflect today, I feel some shame. Today's athletes have hardened us and many of us look at athletes as objects rather than people. Junior has felt that from us. I am sorry Junior. You deserve better. I don't care if you get hurt again. I don't care if you don't get to that ball you would have non-chalanted 15 years ago. I don't care if you only hit 20 home runs this year. I care about who you are as The Man. As I reflect on who Junior is, I vow to always speak of Junior with the respect, dignity and caring that he has earned as a man. I hope all sports fans will do the same. Tonight, I will tell my kids about Junior, The Man.
Yes, indeedily-doodily, fans. Ned Flanders here from the Flandersrosa in Springfield. With all the goins ons in Cincinnati and Jay Bruce in the show, my twin Georgie said I had to skidaddly-doo it up here and be a witness to the coming of Bruce Almighty. You all know my twin, Georgie. You watch-a-roony Georgie every night on the boob (wash my mouth with soap) tube. You know show biz. Georgie was told the Flanders name was not good for his career. We thought about Granders, but in the end....Grande it was. Georgie Porgie wasn't all that keen on it but what the gumdrops can you do? This TV gig beats working with me at the Leftotorium.
Well, hot diggity dog, Georgie and I are just as happy as hens with these new Reds. Georgie was talking last night after the game about this new batting order....Little Jerry Jr. leading off, Bruce Almighty hitting second, Jr. the Kid batting 3, Smilin Brandon 4, the big Donkey Kong hitting 5, then Eddie E, my pal Joey.....scrumdiddilyumcious, Georgie says. This team is absitively-posilutely on a roll with honey butter on top.
Ok, better skeedaddle. Keep listening to Georgie. He's a beaut!
