Reading Between The Lines

One of the best editorial/op ed writers in this country is Thomas Friedman. One of the things that I like about his writing is the ability to analyze the world with a different perspective. If there was a book that I would require all people to read it would be his current release "The Workd Is Flat". This week everyone was talking about US ports that were being sold to Dubai. Some polls were basically stating that 66% of the people did not think the US should not go through with the deal. Once again the someone is being framed as incompetent or weak on defense.

One of the strengths of the Bush administration has been the ability to identify issues in simplistic terms. Short statements of spin that people can identify with and support with very few facts. In a culture of talk show ratings and infotainment this plays very well. However when the table is turned like it is in the Dubai port story as it is currently reported. The President is basically getting what it did not want. An issue that is more difficult to sell to the American public even though if they did understand the issue it would not create this uproar. Here is how Friedman depicts this administration in its handling of the Dubai fiasco:

Since 9/11, whenever the Bush team has found itself in political trouble, it has played the national security card against Democrats. According to Karl Rove in a famous spech he gave recently stated: "Republicans have a post-9/11 worldview, and many Democrats have a pre-9/11 worldview. That doesn't make them unpatriotic — not at all. But it does make them wrong — deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong."

Thomas Friedman in a op-ed piece in the New York Times also stated: "I particularly like the line "that doesn't make them unpatriotic," when that was exactly the political slur Mr. Rove was trying to implant."

The United States media seems to put "spin"instead of reporting at the sake of ratings. What this means to the American people is a media not focusing on major issues confronting this nation. Who wins the public opinion battles appears to be far more important that having a real dialogue with the American people.

Since the Dubai story here are the major stories stations are not reporting on:
1. The terrorist attempt on a major oil field in Saudi Arabia.
2. The median income of all Americans today has been sharply declining according to a General Accounting Office report.
3. The bird flu is hitting Europe and now that spring is on its way will be coming to America. What is this government doing to prepare for a possible pandemic?
4. Yes.... there is a possible civil war looming in Iraq. What will this mean to the United States and the status of the US forces in the area?

Knight School

I must admit to loving the sport of basketball. My favorite coach is John Wooden primarily because of what he taught his players on and off the basketball court. Probably his greatest work is not the 10 NCAA Championships in basketball but the book he wrote which really sheds light on what it means to live a good life. That book is simply entitled "Wooden". It is a book that I often give to family members and friends as presents. At first everyone look at me with suprise because they tell me " I know nothing about the sport of basketball?". After they read the book it instantly becomes one oftheir favorite books. People actually come back to thank me for the gift.

Probably the biggest suprise of the month has been the ESPN sport reality show "Knight School". The show is about a group pf players trying to make his Texas Tech basketball team as a walk on. The tryout process is captured on film and it produces some very compelling television.

I will admit that Knight is not my favorite coach. His antics and behavior on the court can be embarassing to watch. Yet he is an outstanding teacher of the game of basketball. There was a scene in the reality show in which he gave the players an assignment reading the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling. The next day all of the players were sitting on the sideline having a discussion with the one of the most successful basketball coaches in America. Imagine a coach having a discussion in the gym about a poem? It is one of my favorites and I would like to share it with you:

IF

If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt youBut make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated, don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winningsAnd risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginningsAnd never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds' worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
--Rudyard Kipling