Booze and the Alamo

   

Recently there has been a controversy about the General Land Office (GLO) allowing groups that rent Alamo Hall to serve alcohol. The historic keepers of the Alamo, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT), are opposed to this. Sour grapes or a true opposition to alcohol?

The state of Texas has owned the Alamo since the 1880's when they bought it from the Catholic Church.  Since 1905 the DRT have been caretaker of the Alamo and even almost bought it in the early 1900's.  That mostly autonomous caretaker role was modified by the 2011 Texas Legislature.  The General Land Office (GLO) is now in charge of Alamo operations.  The DRT still provide volunteers and maintain the DRT Library on the Alamo grounds but they no longer have final say on policy.

Alamo Hall is a former fire station that was built on Alamo grounds in the 1920's.  It is rented out for meetings and receptions.  The rental proceeds go into the fund to maintain and run the Alamo.  The controversy is that the GLO thinks allowing alcohol will increase the market for the space and therefore increase revenue.  The DRT thinks allowing alcohol will defile the hallowed grounds.

OK, let's look at this.  Alamo Hall was built in the 1920's not the 1830's.  It was not part of the hallowed grounds when they became hallowed.  The original mission and later Mexican and Republic of Texas garrison probably had a drop or two of alcohol spilled in it on occasion.  Conjecture is that Bowie, Crockett and most of their followers consumed adult beverages, often more than one.  The original mission had at minimum of wine consumed on its sacred ground.  Do you think those that died or worshiped at the Alamo would object to a group of folks, perhaps veterans, having a beer or two (maybe Shiners or Lone Star) at their gathering.  I don't think so.  If it were up to me I'd allow alcohol anywhere in the complex.

I think this is either the DRT trying to manufacture an issue since they don't have total control or trying to impose their 1905 morals on 2012 society's honoring of 1830 events and history.  This would not be an issue if the Knights of Columbus had become caretakers in 1905.  Of course in 1905 Texas the Catholics were about as accepted as Hispanics, Jews and Blacks.

Remember the Alamo!  But remember it as ordinary men doing extraordinary acts.  Maybe after a swig of some home brew.

wjh    

Olympic Hypocrisy

by Bill Holmes

The latest blast of hypocrisy blowing in from Washington DC concerns the vital issue of where the USA Olympic Team uniforms are manufactured.  Based on the uproar this is much more important than almost any other issue facing congress and our government.  Deficits and unemployment pale in comparison.

There's a reason this is vitally important to our elected representatives.  It is because it will get great attention on all the news programs, newspapers, magazines and every internet outlet.  It's also easy and at least at first blush seems like an obvious “well duh”.  Our elected officials can get on their soap boxes and profess their indignation and patriotism.

Let's delve a little deeper.  First of all, the US Olympic Team is not the US Government Olympic Team.  It is the corporate and public Olympic Team representing the USA.  All funds for the entire Olympic program come from private sources.  That may be a corporate sponsor, sales and licensing of USA Olympic products or individual donations.  The United States government does not contribute any funds to our Olympic program.  Every other team that participates in the Olympics gets government funding.  Truth be told, I have contributed more to our Olympic effort than Congress since I've bought some licensed/logo stuff and also sent them a few extra dollars.  Most of the merchandise the US Olympic Committee (USOC) sells is made outside this country and I'm fine with that.  If they can buy a hat from China or a shirt from Honduras for $5, sell it for $20 and use the $15 profit to send athletes to London that's better than buying the items in the USA for $10 and only having $10 profit.  Now if the Committee can find the merchandise domestically for $5 or even $5.25 they should buy it.  The USOC is not buying the team uniforms from the Ralph Lauren Company, Ralph is an Olympic sponsor and is providing the uniforms as is Nike.  As such, they get to decide where they are made.  Granted it's probably not a great public relations move but it is also not a national crisis.

The sponsors of USOC is a who's who of international companies.  Coke, GE, McDonalds, Nike, P&G, Ralph Lauren... All fine American companies.  Oh wait, Panasonic, Samsung, BMW, Omega... are also sponsors of the USA team. I don't think they're USA corporations.  So, it appears that in our global economy we may have some cross-pollination among countries and corporations.  Wanna make a bet?  I think Nike, a US company, may be providing uniforms for some foreign teams.  I know McDonalds is providing nutritious burgers and fries washed down by a Coke to all the countries in the Olympic Village.

Next, let's look at those making the public statements about this situation.  Harry Reid, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi have led the pack as they usually do when hypocrisy and indignation are called for.  Those three are the poster children for what is wrong with Congress.  How many of Nancy's designer shoes are made in the USA?  Does Harry have any suits or ties in his closet made in the USA?  Does John only use USA made golf equipment when he plays with Obama and Biden?  It's possible that the botox Nancy likes so much may be manufactured in China.  This is an issue that gets tremendous knee jerk response.  It is the bread and butter fodder for politicians, talk radio, cable news and comedians.  This kind of story makes Rush Limbaugh's job easy.  He can rant for a few days.  Letterman and Leno have a few easy jokes for the monologue.  For the politicians it diverts attention from the terrible job they're doing on the real issues.

Letterman and Leno certainly have the right to make jokes about this.  Rush can rant all he wants.  That's freedom of speech.  The real news outlets (are there any left?) should be delving a little deeper to provide the full story.  Unless and until Congress and the US government provide funding for the USOC they don't get to have a say about the uniforms or anything else.  The Olympics have been used as a pawn for politicians for years.  They stick their noses into USOC business, criticize when they make a mistake yet wave the flags and brag when the US team wins medals.  They use the athletes they don't fund for political purposes.  Remember when Jimmy Carter boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow because of the Russian invasion of --- wait for it --- Afghanistan.  He deprived our athletes the chance to compete, for probably their only time, in the Olympics.  Four or more years of preparation down the drain for the athletes because Russia invaded a country we would invade 20 years later.  I don't know of any of those US athletes who contributed to the Russian invasion.  The US government didn't fund that 1980 team either.

When I started this blog I intended to write about congressional hypocrisy and false indignation in general.  The USOC uniform dustup was only suppose to be one example.  I got a little sidetracked as often happens.  I've been pissed at our government's involvement, but lack of funding, in our Olympic teams for years.  The Olympics should be for the athletes and free of politics.  I know that's idealistic but I will never forgive Jimmy Carter for that 1980 boycott.  Now that we've been in Afghanistan for a decade it only reinforces my feelings even more.

I'll write about the other hypocrisy soon either here or at The Viewpoint.

Comments and discussion always welcomed and encouraged.

wjh

Absolute Power

by Bill Holmes

The tragic circumstances that have occurred over the past year at Penn State point out once again what happens when a government, company, institution or individual becomes too powerful. Things eventually run amok.  

Penn State was by far the most powerful university in Pennsylvania, maybe the northeast.  Penn State football was probably more powerful than the university.  Joe Paterno was absolutely more powerful than Penn State football.  JoePa was an institution.  He had been the head coach of the Nittany Lions for over 45 years and he has the most wins of any Division I football coach.  

Any time Penn State football was on TV, the announcers gushed about how wonderful JoePa was and how he did things the right way and his integrity and his Christian ideals and blah, blah, blah.  Well apparently child molestation by the coaching staff was not something that was against his impeccable morals.  It wasn't just the TV idiots who gushed about JoePa.  Other coaches, sports writers, ex-players and opponents thought he was wonderful.  I wonder how many of those people actually knew him?  After 45 years it became a cliche to praise him for his dedication and accomplishments.  As it turns out his greatest accomplishment was just longevity.

This is not meant as an "I told you so" article.  But...  A few years ago I began thinking that Paterno was staying around past his expiration date.  Bobby Bowden was approaching the same category.  I think both hung on too long.  I don't know if it was to set the win record, ego, hang on to power or just stubbornness.  These once great coaches began to field mediocre teams.  FSU did replace Bowden.  Not gracefully and not without controversy.  Penn State tried too, but JoePa and his legions resisted and won out.  I thought it was arrogant and selfish for Paterno to continue at age 85 despite injuries and sicknesses that prevented him from being a full time head coach.

Paterno was probably already the most powerful man in Pennsylvania before the coup and was definitely top dog afterwards.  Let no university president, board, athletic director or anyone else question anything about the Penn State football program.

According to the Freeh Report, the Jerry Sandusky "problem" was ignored or covered up for 14 years within the university and particularly the football program.  The reason - they feared the bad publicity that might occur if Sandusky's behavior was revealed.  Translate that as fear that they may miss out on a five star football recruit or a huge donation to build another weight room or maybe fund a 15 foot statue of JoePa.  

I can easily overlook a coach's or university's error when it comes to many NCAA violations. Those rules are mostly more evidence of an organization that has too much power and no oversight.  An unsanctioned t-shirt or extra phone call pale in the face of child molestation.

As a society we must protect those who can not protect themselves. That includes the physically and mentally challenged, the poor, the sick and absolutely the children.  

Joe Paterno, the football department, the athletic department and Penn State University failed to protect the children so they could continue to enjoy their all-powerful empire.  Shame on all of them.  I hope we go beyond disgrace and punish those involved (and still alive) with prison and/or fines.  Sue Paterno's estate for most of the millions that he earned as Penn State's head coach.  I would also remove him from any Hall of Fame he's in, any honors he earned and remove any statues on campus.  All Pete Rose did was bet on baseball games and he's not allowed into the Hall of Fame or to participate in MLB activities.  No children were harmed by Pete's bets.  Maybe JoePa was an exemplary coach for 30 years, but he was a cover up coach for 14 years. 

No one will ever coach Division I football for 45 years again.  That doesn't mean the same power trip won't occur.  I suspect that Nick Saban has near absolute power at Alabama and Urban Meyer had that power at Florida and now at Ohio State.  Sure there are contract clauses that punish illegal or immoral activities but the head guy has to really step into the very stinky stuff to get called out.

I love college sports, especially football, but the football coach should not be the highest paid or worse, most powerful guy on campus.  It's BS that  the university presidents will decide on the changes to the BCS &/or playoff.  The coaches, athletic directors and TV networks decided that way before they sent it to the presidents.

So, once again we prove that absolute power corrupts even good people.  Unfortunately we continue to bestow near absolute power on some.  This blog is about an athletic department that went wrong but the same applies to many other areas of our life.  Will we ever learn?  Probably not - success feels good and short or long term memory is not our strong suite.

wjh

Video Only News

by Bill Holmes

Is it just me that is concerned and maybe bothered by this?  More and more news and information stories on the Internet are only in the form of video clips.  Don't get me wrong, video certainly has it's place.  Some stories can only be accurately told via pictures and video.  Those very important cute baby, adorable kitten or jackass clips are a perfect example.  There are also many stories however that can accurately and adequately be told with words and should be.

I grew up as a reader.  I've read since before I went to school, so I'm probably prejudiced.  Mom and Dad both encouraged me and led by example.  We always had the morning and afternoon papers delivered.  Yes folks many towns and all cities had different newspapers published in the morning and afternoon, often more than one of each.  I still read the local paper every day and subscribe to a few magazines.  Being an only child I also read books maybe because there weren't siblings to play with or bother me.  I  lived in a very quiet house growing up.  I have also been a multitasker for most of my life.  Maybe it's just ADD or ADHD.  I've almost always read something while watching TV or listening to music.  I'm sure it slows down the reading a little and I probably miss something here and there on TV.  I've also been know to add another TV, radio or computer into the mix.  On balance I think it's more efficient.  Even if it's not it's what I've always done and I'm too old to change now.  Of course I'm writing this while watching the Tour de France recap on TV.

The reason I'm bothered by video only news and information is that you can usually only do one at a time.  How the hell can I watch something on TV that needs audio (sports often don't) or listen to music and watch a video only news/information clip?  I gotta turn the sound off on something.  In a perfect world I could consume a sporting event (or two) on TV, some music on the radio, internet or MP3 player and read something.

Even more devious are the internet articles that appear to be something that can be read but morph into a video clip.  They have a paragraph or two of introduction with teases and no information but the real meat of the story is in a video.

Here's my plan, put an icon on the article that indicates video/audio, video/audio & text or text only.  Some sites do a fairly good job of this but many do not.  Then I can choose if and when I want to read or watch.  More importantly, if the video is just a talking head reading or reporting the news how about transcribing it so I don't have to watch an often incompetent reporter babble.

Not an earth shattering problem, just a wish for a slight improvement.  I don't hold out any hope that this idea will take hold.  I'm sure that in the next few years very few people will actually be able to read and everything will be communicated by visual/audio means and not by text.

Better be careful, Google Voice and Siri are probably listening.

wjh