The SoapBoxers

I need to preface this article with a disclosure. In the 1980s, I was a cooperative engineer with NASA at the Johnson Space center. After graduating with a degree in Aerospace Engineering, I got a job with one of the companies supporting NASA. I supported both the Space Station and Space Shuttle programs for a total of 12 years. I personally know many of the astronauts, some retired, some still flying missions. In 1995, I transferred within my company, both for career opportunity and finding a safer place to raise my children.

With this in mind, my reaction to the plan to ground the Space Shuttle fleet with no replacement is somewhere between saddened and irate. We, the United States of America, the only country to have walked on the moon, are going to be dependent on the former Soviet Union to have a manned presence in space. What is most annoying is the path that we took to get to this state.

I worked directly on the Space Station plan that was presented to Casper Weinberger, the Secretary of Defense under President Reagan. This plan eventually became know as Space Station Freedom. Through a series of congressional mandates, the cost of this plan grew from 8 Billion dollars to 16 Billion dollars. These mandates included; include our NATO partners, increase the content from Canada and Japan, include Russia, reduce the cost to our European allies, spread the construction to more states, increase the scale and finally, explain the cost inflation.

My frustration with this chain of events is that the administrators at NASA could not speak the truth in front of congress. The reason the cost grew as much as they did was because of congress changing the rules on an annual basis. Sure there was some scope creep due to the complexity of the mission, but a majority of the costs came from redirection. If the NASA administrators had challenged congress, they would have lost funding.

As all of this was going on, the idea that the shuttle fleet was aging and need replace was ignored. The shuttles were planned to last 25 years with 100 missions each. The original fleet was planned to be 4 shuttles, this was accomplished by using Challenger which was not the 1970s plan. We have built 5 flying shuttles, which should equate to 500 missions. The fifth shuttle was delivered in 1990 (first flight 1992) which should have equated to an end of service of 2015. Of course by this 25 year standard, only Endeavor should still be flying today.

NASA never achieved the 4 flights per year per vehicle. The cost performance was also never met. They did exceed the 50 flights before an accident predicted in the early 1970. But beyond these measures, NASA also did not succeed in getting approval for planned replacement, and now the fleet is retiring with no follow on in the near future.

We now have a future where our astronauts are lifted to space in 1960 technology from our former opponent in the space race. A future where a NASA administrator has to say that cutting the budget and removing missions helps the agency to grow and achieve their goals.

There was a time when the United States space program was the cutting edge of technology. As the years passed and the building filled with regulations, that cutting edge was left behind. NASA now used developed technology rather than driving technology. This may be lower risk, but with that comes lower achievement and eventually complacency. Where once men were walking on the moon, now we sit and watch launch pads molder. I wasn’t even there during the hay day. My tenure seems to have been the beginning of the end.

Many will say that depleting our manned space effort will save budget. As a fiscal conservative, I should agree. The pay back on this investment has been so great that I must disagree. The NASA budget is less each year than what the Defense Department “looses”. It is appalling to me that as a nation, we can approve of $1 trillion to bail out failed businesses, with no return, but we cannot find $1 billion to fund an agency that develops and proves technologies that employ hundreds of thousands nation wide. I must ask, where are our priorities? How did we get to this place? I certainly hope that my grand children can watch our nation achieve as I did when I was young. I fear that they will not believe me when I tell them I saw men walking on the moon.

There has been a lot of blather on all of the electronic media about the resignation of General McChrystal. Mostly the discussion centers on whether the President should have fired him or not. Although this can be an entertaining pass time, the President did not fire him, he offered his resignation which was accepted. For most people this is a distinction without difference, but it is actually very important. By resigning, the general did not have to accept blame for any failures of his policy or of his judgment and the President can avoid an inquiry by the Senate.

Let’s look at the last activity first. Anyone who has been approved by the Senate for a position, must also be reviewed by the Senate to be removed, except by death or resignation. As a four star general, McChrystal was doubly approved by the senate, first for his stars and second for his command. Even with his party firmly in control of the Senate, the President would have to present evidence (at least some of it publically) as to why he and the Senate had wrong in appointing this man to this task. Remember, for a general, firing is a dishonorable discharge, which mean forfeiting his retirement as well as the disgrace of the action. That is why you can count on one hand the number of general officers discharged from duty (namely McClellan by Lincoln and MacArthur by Truman).

Now on to the blame issue. Many conservative spokesmen have focused blame for this entire episode on the President. As the Commander in Chief, he is ultimately responsible for the actions of his generals. That is why he has authority over them as a civilian. Regardless of whether I like the outcome of this last week, the President is not to blame for what happened. If he had not accepted the resignation, he would have been retaining damaged goods as far as the congress, the media and more importantly the troops were concerned.

The general is responsible for his own actions. I feel that the mistake he made was allowing a reporter from Rolling Stone Magazine into his inner circle for what appeared to be about six months. Over that time period, any number of minor things can add up to become embarrassing. If you have not read the article, you can find it at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236. It is an amazing article for many reasons; it is the longest article that Rolling Stone Magazine has ever published about anyone who was not a rock star, it adds up to very little content compared to the firestorm of commentary that it has generated, and it is self contradictory.

Let’s summarize the content.

1. The general complains about attending an official dinner with a French minister, and un-named advisor calls the minister gay.
2. The general is trying to prepare for questions from Vice President Biden, and un-named top advisor slurs the Vice President’s name to “Bite Me”
3. The general met with the President early in his presidency and a “source” reported that the genera described the President as uncomfortable and intimidated by the uniform officers.
4. Four months later at a one-on-one meeting with the President, the general suggests that the President was unprepared and unengaged. No source is sited for this quote.
5. The general’s staff likes to poke fun at the civilians involved in the war effort, except Hillary Clinton. This is portrayed as a direct attack at the President.
6. The general wanted more troops. When this report was leaked it was the general’s fault. Ambassador Eikenberry sent a report that was critical of the general. When that was leaked it was the general’s fault.

All of this adds up to nothing.

The article is self contradictory because it states that the general was guilty of being a mouthpiece for the Bush administration and equally guilty of not being a mouthpiece for the Obama administration

The article suggests that the general’s career should have ended long ago, specifically as a result of him being the commander during the Pat Tillman friendly fire incident and cover up as well as his part in the command structure during the prison abuse events in Iraq. The direct connection to general McChrystal is established for the Pat Tillman incident, his part in the power structure for the prison abuses is simply darkly insinuated.

The real reason that the general was pushed into offering his resignation was ultimately because of a perceived failure of his strategy. The implementation of a medal for “Restrained Bravery” for not firing upon suspects based on where they are standing caused the loss of confidence of his soldiers. His inability to show progress created doubt in the political forces that exist. And finally, he did not provide the President with what was promised in the campaign, a way out of Afghanistan. Failure of strategy, even with limited loss of life, has always been a career killer in the armed forces. The only quicker way out is to disobey direct orders – but then you get fired.

This is a question that most people have asked themselves after they have reached the age of 40.  Well, I am past that milestone.  I don’t really ask that question, but my wife has the odd desire for me to live a long life, with her.  So I have to address this question just like everyone else.  The answer is simple and I have been told this by many professionals in both the physical fitness arena and the health care arena.  If you really want to lose weight, eat less and exercise more.  It is that simple.  If you just diet, you will lose some weight, but will plateau, and everyone cheats.  If you just increase your exercise, you will increase your calorie intake as well.

My efforts since my 40^th birthday have been to reduce to single helpings, mostly for thing I really like, such as pasta, eliminate empty calories, specifically carbonated beverages (alcohol and non-alcohol) and walking, at least walking to work (I only live 2.2 miles from my work).  Walking does not seem like much, but it does add up.  Except for last fall and winter when I went on several business trips, I had been gradually losing weight (272 pounds down to 249).  I regained all that I had lost in those 5 years plus gained more on those trips.  This gain was due to deviating from the three actions I was taking; I stopped walking to work, the facilities I visited were much smaller than my normal work site, and I ate way too much including the liquid candy.

I took a new job last September which is the reason for the business travel, but it also has resulted in a significant increase of hours at work.  When I get home, I do very little around the house and have found myself on line, playing or reading.  This inactivity coupled with the poor habits I am living have really made it hard to drop significant weight.  I have lost some (5 pounds) but this does not even get me back to my 40^th birthday weight.

My wife has proposed a solution (okay, she has proposed a lot of solutions, but this is one I think I can act upon).  This solution does not include me accompanying her to the gym every day, and one that will not prohibit my wind down activities when I finally get home.  The solution is a treadmill desk (http://www.treadmill-desk.com/).  The idea is to use that treadmill that has been sitting in the corner or basement while doing quiet activities.  We have a slightly used treadmill.  I have actually used it during football season while I am watching the games on TV, especially when the weather prohibits walking to work.  The idea is to set up a desk at the treadmill, put your computer on the desk, and walk at a slow pace as you surf or play.

As an engineer, I cannot see spending the money the equipment advertised on the page noted above.  I also have to invent my own solution to the desk compared to the $39 solution linked to that site as well.  I plan on constructing a desk out of inexpensive material (assuming that I have the computer and treadmill).  I will post those plans (I assume no liability if you copy me and something bad happens).  And I plan on attempting the walk across America documented on the site.

Again, as an engineer, I will track different things.  I will track an actual road path (starting at the customs loop outside on Houlton International Airport in Maine on I95, switching to I80 just outside of New York City, and travelling all the way to San Francisco California, maybe taking side trips to visit points of interest along the way which could give me extra fodder for writing) with specific stopping points annotated (we will have to see if it will be weekly or monthly).  I will track miles covered, calories burned, and current weight.  Although this will be embarrassing (at least the weight portion will be), I will release this information periodically.  There will have to be lots of graphs, tables and maps (and maybe some pictures).  I will only count time and distance on the actual treadmill desk, so walking to work and treadmill work at the gym or on travel will not count.

I don’t want this project to supplant my weekly submissions to the Casual Observer, rather I want it to be a supplement.  I fully intend to use some of my treadmill time to write this column and work on my next book.  I might even try the short stories that Kosmo has suggested.  By setting aside time every night, I have no excuse to avoid writing.  On line games will be rather difficult since they require a lot of mouse work.  Typing is much easier than controlling a mouse while walking.

Wish me luck, or better yet, join me on this trip.  Based on the pictures I have seen, there are other columnists at the Casual Observer who could benefit from this activity (not Kosmo).

Just over a week ago, the Israeli armed forces boarded several ships trying to run the blockage of the Gaza Strip.  During that operation, several people on board the ships were killed.  The media has gone to great lengths to describe these people as activists and humanitarians.  I will not put any designation on them at all.  It is unfortunate that they died.  It is especially unfortunate if they were truly trying to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.  The result of this activity has been outrage at Israel.  My question is why?

The Gaza Strip is home to Hamas, a group that has declared war on Israel.  Israel has imposed a blockage in response to that war declaration, and announced this to the world.  The people on board the ships announced that it was there intention to run that blockage, and that they were willing to take the risk, even hoping that there would be a conflict, to harm Israel.  They chose not to allow a peaceful search of the ship to determine if there were any weapons or military supplies on board.  They chose to ‘interfere’ with the Israeli military.  They lost.

The Gaza Strip has a functioning government that receives funding from the United Nations as well as charities from around the world.  Why then the need to run the blockade?  This aid is allowed into Gaza, the only items restricted are weapons.  Why can’t the Palestinian government care for its own people?  They certainly have enough funding for weapons.

There are people who claim that the blockage is illegal.  Who is the arbiter of legality when a nation is at war?  During WWI, the allies imposed a blockage on the Central powers.  Prior to 1918 the United States was a neutral and provided aid to both sides.  Herbert Hoover (prior to becoming President) organized humanitarian aid missions to the people of Europe behind the front (most notably Belgium).  This aid was searched twice, once by the British to make sure there were no military supplies going to the Germans and once by the Germans to make sure no military supplies were going to the partisans behind the lines.  Were the allies engaged in an ‘illegal’ blockade?  They were at war, therefore they did what was necessary to win, but still allowed humanitarian relief.  The Israelis are doing the same thing.

There are various videos running around purporting to show what really happened.  Each side is only showing what makes them look like the victim.  I personally will wait for the final report – possibly next month on PBS in a Frontline report.  Until then, I lean towards feeling sorry for the loss of life, but little else.  When you go out looking for a fight, lose, then whine about it, I have very little sympathy.  I certainly hope that this incident does not result in Israel dropping the blockade.  That should remain in place until the government of Palestine renounces attacks on Israel and starts behaving like a nation, not a terrorist organization.

By the way, did any one else notice the attack by armed Palestinians into Israel on the same day?  I heard it once on Fox News and once on NPR.  No report on the number of dead civilians or the outrage in the United Nations over this attack.  Of course, they are at war.

Last week Armando Galarraga, pitcher Detroit Tigers, almost threw a perfect game against the Cleveland Indians.  Perfect; no walks, no errors, no man on base for the entire game.  Almost; there was a bad call at first base on the supposed 27^th out.  Now Kosmo is officially the baseball analyst on The Soap Boxers, but there has been so much discussion on this topic that I want to get my two cents in.

On most of the radio talk shows and sports programs, there is an overwhelming push to have the commissioner of baseball overturn that final call and put the game down as perfect in the record books (even the President of the United States has supported such an action).  I strongly disagree.  The umpires’ calls are part of the game.  If we look at just that one call, sure we can say it was wrong, but that was not the only play of the game.  Up until that point, there had been 82 pitches, 22 were called strike, how many of those were bad calls?  Armando only had 1 called strike out, the other two recorded were at least on swings.  Also up to that point, there had been 13 ground outs, how many of those were close calls?  I did not actually watch the game so I cannot answer these questions.

The game is at it was called at the time.  Are we going to go back and review any other “almost perfect” games to see if another pitcher was wronged?  Are we going to give equal study to every other play in the game in question?  For that matter are we going to review the other perfect games on record to make sure they really were perfect?  In this day of instant and repetitive media, it is hard not to form an opinion and feel that you have to defend it till death.  We have to remember that this is just a game.  Sure it is a profession for Armando, and he is very good at it, but this perfect (or not) game will not make or break his career, will not hurt anyone, and in the long run will probably be more memorable for those who played in and saw it than any other game.

This hullabaloo reminds me of a single play in Super Bowl XIII.  Jackie Smith, tight end Dallas Cowboys, dropped a sure touchdown pass in the end zone.  Dallas had to settle for a field goal and went on to lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers by 4 points.  Most of pundits, even today, blame the loss on Jackie.  I disagree.  There was a lot more that happened in that game.  The drop occurred in the 3^rd quarter.  A lot of football had been played up to that point, and a lot more followed.

Although in the current discussion, not much happened after the blown call.  Armando kept his cool and finished off the last (unfortunately the 28^th) batter.  I think that Armando should be praised and held up as a true sportsman to our country and especially our children.  When the call did not go his way, he played on.  He did not whine and complain.  The umpire’s apology was fine, but we must move on.  If this drives instant replay for Base Ball, so be it, at least any overturned calls will be while the game is played, not by talking heads in the days following the event.

What is Memorial Day?  Is it a day of sales events?  Is it the official start of summer?  Is it time for the annual family bar-b-q?  Well it is all of those things and more.  In days gone by, Memorial Day was called Decoration Day.  It was a day to take fresh flowers and decorate the graves of loved ones, family and fallen service men.  It was a day to remember and a day to teach.  Seniors and veterans explained the history of family and country to the younger generations and provided role models for young people.

The name Memorial Day was established after WWII when it became a federal holiday.  The focus on those who lost their lives defending our nation was extremely important to the nation, and takes on added significance today.  During times of peace, such as the twenty years prior to 9/11, we generally forget the sacrifice that so many men and women have made for our freedoms.  Those who serve remember in silence and let the rest of us go about our daily lives; that is what they fought for after all.  But in times of conflict, when each of us has some direct contact with the pain and loss of friends and family, this focus returns.

I have never been a member of the military, although through out my professional career, I have had the opportunity to help our armed forces by making sure they have the best possible equipment to perform their duty.  I have had the privilege and honor to know many service men and women.  I have found that they are all heroes in some way.  My biggest hero served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during the Korean Conflict.  He was stationed in Okinawa and participated in several missions on board a B-28 bomber.  That man is my father.

Today, he is participating in several Memorial Day events.  Most of these events will be sparsely attended.  He will speak at the grave yard in his home town of Liberty Hill, Texas.  Over the weekend, he oversaw a group of Boy Scouts who put new flags at the graves of every veteran buried there.  Later at the VFW, he will address the veterans of his community.

When he asked me what I was doing for the holiday, I admitted that I would be spending the day with my wife and kids at home.  We have nothing special planned to honor anyone, to recognize anyone, or to celebrate anything other than a day off work.  I could hear his disappointment as he commented “just like everyone else.”

I have been thinking about this article for several days, trying to think of how to honor the heroes I know.  I asked the questions; who are my heroes?  Why are they heroes?  Is there anyone specific to me?  I had answers for all of those.  My heroes ranged from my old high school teachers, to police and firemen, soldiers, sailors, marines and guardsmen.  I remember mentors from every period of my life; people who touched me directly or helped people I know.

My father’s question made me realize that the remembering is what is important.  Even if we do not participate in any official activities, even if we are caught up in the sales and picnics, as long as we remember, we are fulfilling the intent of Memorial Day.  All I can ask each reader to do is remember.  Think of all of the people, alive and dead, who deserve your respect, have earned a place of honor, became a part of your life.

It is that time of year, when high school and college students leave the perceived safety of the status quo to move on to new adventures and challenges.  For some reason, people across America (students and parents) feel the need to celebrate this transition with a party.  We have just experienced such an event as our second child (a daughter) graduates from high school.

There is always a great deal of preparation.  What do we cook?  What do buy?  What do we serve?  How many people do we invite?  How much seating should we provide?  Will there be any decorations?  As the dad, I do not have to be part of the discussion, I just have to perform the assigned tasks.

What is difficult to understand about these events is how truly eclectic they are.  They cannot be on the day of graduation, or there would be too many at once.  They cannot last too long, because people have to go to many parties on the same day.  Gifts are usually only given by people who cannot attend the event.  The students cycle through during the allotted time; eating, talking, then moving on to the next party.  The honored student disappears with special friends for a while, or shows up late from a preceding party, then leaves early to catch the next one.  Parents invite their own friends and sometimes old neighbors.  This group rarely intermingles with the younger crowd and seldom even discusses the future plans of the student, although there is always the obligatory “I remember when she was only this tall” comment.

We had a relatively easy time of it.  I had to grill hamburgers and hotdogs.  We made some pasta salad, cookies and brownies the night before.  Everything else was prepackaged; from carbonated beverages to the cutlery.  Even though over 200 people were invited, we only cooked for 50 so the costs were not that bad.  Clean up was easy, what wasn’t eaten was tossed, and the kids who came were very helpful before they left.  Much more mature than I was at that age.

The older crowd stayed well beyond the published end time for the party.  It was nice to reminisce with old neighbors and friends.  You can find out so much about other peoples plans, dreams, troubles and histories by just sitting and talking on a warm May evening.

So why have a graduation party?  I say for the parents to enjoy themselves.  My daughters say it is for the students.  My son, who had six pizzas and six friends in the basement for video games, claims it is all for the stores to make money.  In the end, a party is for everyone who plans, throws or attends it.

I have always been afraid of being in a hospital.  I cannot explain why, but my wife has a theory.  I was born two months premature.  I had to stay in the hospital for three months to get back to my birth weight just so that I would be strong enough for the surgeries that I needed.  I was born with a half clef palate.  My wife believes that my fears are based on those earliest memories.  I can see no reason that she is wrong.

I don’t even like visiting hospitals.  It took all of my courage to stay with my wife when my children were born.  I had not been over night in the hospital except to visit others until last fall.  Sure, I had had several medical procedures including wisdom teeth removal, vasectomy and radial keratotomy, but all of these were out patient procedures performed at a doctor’s office.  This last September I had to go.

I woke up around midnight with heart burn, or so I thought.  By two in the morning, I could no longer lay down.  When my wife woke up at three and saw me sitting in a chair in pain she asked what was wrong.  When I told her that I did not know, she asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital and I said yes.  She moved very quickly, since she knew my fears.

The drive was only twenty minutes, but I begged her to go to the closest hospital.  This is rather funny as in my home town there are only two hospitals and they are on five blocks apart.  You can literally see each one from the other.  Since I am a 45 year old man, the emergency room nurse immediately hooked me up to see if I was having a heart attack.  As I sat there, the pain began to subside.  I notice this as my feet slowly settled down to the floor.  I had been sitting hunched over so tense that my heals were off of the floor.

After verifying that it was not my heart, they wheeled me back to hook up even more machines.  The attending doctor instructed the intern and left.  The intern probed, pushed, and questioned.  He got an ultra-sound set up to look at my internal organs.  By now, I was feeling much better, but I could still tell that something was wrong.  The attending doctor picked on the intern when he couldn’t find all of my organs.  I was sent off to a specialist.  That specialist found that my liver and my pancreas were enlarged.  So, I was spending the night.  They had no specific cause for this inflammation, so we wait and monitor.  I was officially checked in at 8:00 a.m.

I spent a very nice day talking with nurses, having my kids and wife visit, and eating Jello.  They wanted me for a full twenty four hours, so the next night I was still in the hospital.  I wanted to go home in the worst way.  I listened to the people in the nearby rooms.  I was allowed to wander around, so I got to see other families.  There was one older man whose only movement was to be moved into an almost sitting position in the morning, then back down at night.  There was an older lady whose cough sounded like she was choking.  Other than them, the rooms were closed, most empty, but some with people who really had problems.

I watched as much TV as I could stand, and finally tried to sleep.  If you have ever been in a hospital, there is one thing you never get; privacy.  I was awakened every couple of hours as the nurse checked on all of the patients.  She checked all of the instruments and was nice each time.  At about three in the morning, it started again.  I am an engineer, so I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started detailing my sensations with time tags.  I held off pushing the button to get the nurse for as long as possible.  I was afraid that they would keep me another night.  I stood up and walked around to ease the pain, but finally, I had to call for help. 

The nurse took about ten minutes to get to me, she had much sicker patients to care for.  By the time she got to my room, the pain had begun to subside, just like the previous morning.  The nurse laughed when she saw my notes.  When the doctor arrived at five, he actually liked the write up.  He looked it over along with all of the test results from my twenty four hours.

The conclusion was that I had pancreatitis from passing a single gall stone.  The second flair was an aftershock, my body reacting to the major event similar to an aftershock from an earthquake.  I went home with no ill effects. 

So, I survived a whole day in the hospital.  I was so relieved to be leaving that I almost sang on the way out.  I never want to go back.  Am I still afraid?  Yes.  Why?  I still don’t know.

I am a grown man, educated and some what experienced.  I have unreasonable fears, just like everyone else in the world.  I have no basis to fear the hospital and I really appreciate all of the people who cared for me, so I do not want to get any health care people mad at me.  Over the years I have found it hard to criticize people with phobias, I have my own after all.  I can only hope for the same treatment from others as I deal with my fears.

Decisions come in many shapes and sizes.  There are young people deciding what college to go to; a huge decision for them affecting the rest of their lives.  Middle aged couples deciding on the color to paint a room; maybe not so important.  There is a desperate man searching for answers that could lead him to crime; a culmination of choices or consequences of uncontrollable events.  Someone has decided to give blood just because the secretary suggested it; a flippant decision with huge effect on the community.

As we each approach decisions, we evaluate the importance and effects on ourselves, and sometime the importance and effect on those around us.  We sometime consciously decide to help after a catastrophe, be it a flood, a tornado, or the untimely death.  At other times we are consumed with everyday questions from taking the risk of accelerating through a yellow light to the choice between Coke and Pepsi.

Each decision is a balance of risk and reward.  All of us are at sometime overcome by the rewards of the equation and this sometimes results in bad decisions and sometime in dramatic accomplishments.  Sometime we just completely underestimate the risk we take because we think the situation is something we have dealt with before.  Sometimes the risks are so minimal that we do not even notice when we make a bad choice.

Over time I think we have faced all of the scenarios that I have listed.  The affects have been large and small.  There are always consequences.  We can all look back on our lives and remember the bad decisions we have made, and the spectacularly good ones, but most of the mundane ones have been forgotten or become habit.

I have recently taken an account of my past decisions.  In ways this is for self improvement in the future, and in others it is to assist my children as they mature to adulthood.  My oldest son is already in college and my daughter is heading out this fall.  They will be attending the same college, which is a good decision financially.  I just hope that it is a good choice for each of their chosen fields.

I am also considering other peoples decisions.  This weekend, I helped in what could have been described as a good old fashioned barn raising.  Upwards of fifty people showed up over an eight hour period to completely landscape and clean up a house for a graduation party.  The reason was not just a response to a request for help.  The man of the house had fallen off a ladder several weeks ago while taking down Christmas lights.  He broke his neck in the fall and died twelve hours later.  His oldest daughter is graduating from high school in less than a month.  The crowd of people represented everyone who had worked with the man and his wife, friends and relatives.

Just looking at that series of decisions is spectacular.  The man decided to risk reaching too far with disastrous results.  The family decided to continue on with a graduation party to heal and live.  The community decided to help and each of us feels great for just helping.  And all of this is somehow humbling in a way that I can not describe.

Let’s talk about the NFL Draft

It is the beginning of the Baseball season, the first round of both the Basketball and Hockey Playoffs, the sun is shining and yet the headlines are about the NFL. The NFL holds the draft in April each year. Why? Well there are lots of contractual reasons, and some logistical reasons, but mainly it is to keep so that the teams can get the newest players signed to contracts and into summer training. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban thinks that it is a strategic ploy to take viewing audience away from the NBA, I think not. People who actually watch the NFL draft are not interested in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The NFL has been holding the draft in April since long before anyone thought of broadcasting it, live or tape delayed. It has move to prime time because there is an audience, not the other way around.

I will admit that I did not watch the entire draft. I checked in from time to time, but like most sports enthusiast, I could get everything I wanted to know from the newspaper or the web the next morning. Oh, I had interests; like who was my team going to draft? What about the other teams in my division? How did the players from my college fare? What about the nationally known players?

Now there are plenty of people in broadcast, and many more on various blogs who will discuss how the draft went. They will pontificate on what team did well, why some player was not drafted as they predicted, what the affects will be on each team. Since we cannot know how well any individual will perform at the professional level based on potential, I will leave that analysis for those people who get a great deal of enjoyment and possibly some pay for doing so. Instead, I intend on commenting on the coverage of the NFL draft in general.

First, I want to applaud the staff at ESPN. There were experts on who talked literally for three days straight. The support staff found video of every player and had statistics ready almost instantly. Now the talking heads did ramble from time to time, and contradict themselves, but that is part of the process when broadcasting live. If the who thing were predictable, there would be no point in having it. Like the old sports adage, if we knew who would win the game, why bother playing it.

I do have a complaint. As I watched, I could see what each team was doing by following the ticker tape along the bottom of the screen. At times, I even put the TV on mute, or listened to music when I was at the gym and could have tuned in the audio but chose not to. The announcers discussed picks from several minutes (up to an half an hour) earlier. This was mainly to give the support staff time to dig up video clips and stats, but it also revealed a bias in the reporting. Not only did they spend an inordinate amount of time analyzing and discussing the picks of the two teams from New York City, they would break away for the live announcements for those two teams, and those two teams alone.

This falls into the “it is the largest market” argument, but we must realize that these are the home teams for most of the media outlets, ESPN included. To do this consistently may be good business for that 10% of the national market, but it does not seen very smart for the rest of the country, especially if you are catering to the nation. If you want to be a regional broadcaster, than do so and let other regions do their own thing. ESPN seems to be moving to that regional model for the big markets like Dallas, Los Angeles and Chicago. This is actually sad to me. I live in the middle of the country, equidistant from Chicago, Minneapolis, Green Bay, St. Louis and Kansas City. Unfortunately, the team I follow is not from any of those cities, so if ESPN does go regional, I will miss out completely.

So the summary of my rambling today is – although the NFL draft is not riveting TV, and it is New York City centric, I like how ESPN has covered it and I hope there are no major changes in the near future.