A Great and Sad Day!

Last Friday November 13th was a momentous day for me. My high school football team the Northwest Christian Crusaders made school history as we won our first State playoff game ever. It was the first one we had ever played in, and this just in our third year of football.  In 2013, we played a varsity schedule and took our lumps. With 80% of the team having no football experience at any level we relied on a young skinny sophomore at quarterback named David Olds and a couple of great athletes to win one game in our first season. After improving to three wins last year the team came into this season with a goal to win a State Championship. That skinny quarterback is still leading us but has numerous weapons around him and an offensive line that has gained experience, tenacity and size.

David Olds and Myself

Defensively we went from a team that would rather run out of bounds than get in front of a big running back to a team that physically attacks offenses and has developed a physicality that is needed in this game. But with these changes we have maintained an attitude of playing with sportsmanship and love. We stress that our guys help other players up after they hit them and that we tell the other team when they have made a great play. We want to play this game with honor and respect for the other team as we all have spent numerous hours training and practicing so that we can try to make ourselves better players each day.

The honor, camaraderie, and character development is what makes this game so wonderful.  It teaches so many things and is a living classroom. So when we were able to go to Warden, Washington to play the Cougars it was an exciting night. Our kids played well and were able to come away with a 34-18 victory to move on to the next round of the State tournament. We celebrated and as we left Warden for the two hour journey home it seemed to be a magical evening. As I was calling in our score to the local television stations and newspapers I happened to see notices about attacks in Paris. Immediately, my past was alive in my present. My joy and excitement turned to concern and dismay.

Seeing the photos from familiar sites in Paris which had been turned into killing fields by terrorists was shocking.  It soured the happiness of our victory as I worried about friends and wondered if they were safe. The last couple of days have been strange as I hear from friends who are safe and from those who lost loved ones and friends in the attacks. Reading and listening to the news and opinions concerning the attacks brought back my life in Paris and the wonderful experiences I had there. While the pain and fears of my friends is palatable, I remember the wonderful times I had in the city.

In fact I lived and worked in an area which had the highest Muslim and immigrant population in France. We loved going to the local kebab shop and found the people there so friendly. It was a gathering place for Syrian immigrants and many would frequent it to watch soccer matches or the news from home. And yet they became our friends. The guys who worked there learned our names and what we liked to order and when we would enter the shop they welcomed us warmly. They would usher us to a table and give us a fantastic sweet tea and make sure we were comfortable while we waited for our food~which by the way was wonderful and makes me salivate thinking about it! These immigrants worked hard and battled discrimination and yet were some of the friendliest people I met in France. It saddens me to know that because of the acts of cowardly people perverting Islam they will face more pain and questioning. Many of my former players also are fearful of the future they face there and are hoping that rather than a response of hatred and fear that these attacks will bring people together. They hope for a response which will be based out of a sense of love and compassion for victims, and that governments will honor their memory and not denigrate it with indiscriminate violence.

As I prepare my team for the quarterfinal game this week against Asotin, we will face a similar challenge. To live out our football lives with honor and play for a love of the game and one another. Not taking cheap shots on other players or letting our anger get the best of us but harnessing our feelings and tempering them with love and respect for the game and others. We try to honor Christ in all we do and part of that is to model his compassion. The tragedy of last week and the attacks in Paris will continue to be on my mind and heart as I hate to see that beautiful city and its people under siege, but just as Parisians will move forward and defeat the cowardly Daesh with their joy for life, I will challenge my players to learn through this game how to overcome adversity and unexpected loss and humbly love those around them. Peace! Je Suis Paris!

"Stuff Happens"

What is wrong with us as Americans? Once again we mourn as a gunman kills multiple victims. This time in Roseburg, Oregon just an hour or so from where I grew up in Eugene. So it again hits home but even more so when I read about each individual murdered.  I was struck that these are not just numbers but as Justin Zoradi's non-profit organization's name clearly says "These numbers have faces." (http://thesenumbers.org/mission) 

While Zoradi's wonderful mission has other goals not dealing with gun violence the truth is that even these numbers do have faces. And the faces have stories behind them and people who loved them whose own lives are devastated by this senseless violence. As President Obama noted we have seemingly become numb to this type of tragedy and almost accept it as collateral damage. In fact, Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush even responded to the tragedy by simply stating that"stuff happens." Really? Really? Stuff happens? Peoples lives are destroyed and all we can say is stuff happens? 
Some of my friends on facebook are once again going to the defense of guns noting that "guns don't kill, people do."  Some even claim that if we took away guns then people would commit these atrocities with whatever is available including pencils, forks and other nonsensical implements. If this is true then I have to ask a deeper question. What is wrong with us as Americans. If guns don't kill people, but people do then what does that say about us as a people? 
The statistics are staggering. Since 1997 the United States has experienced 51 mass shooting involving events that kill 4 or more people. In that same time two other countries have had multiple events. Germany and Switzerland each with 3. The United Kingdom had one while Australia and Japan have not experienced one. (http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/03/us/gun-deaths-united-states/) Australia is interesting as they had experienced many prior to 1997 but changed gun laws and since then have seen an incredible decrease in gun deaths. Australia now has 30 deaths by homicide annually. (http://mic.com/articles/123049/19-years-after-passing-strict-gun-control-laws-here-s-what-happened-in-australia) Compared to the U.S. which has 11, 208 in 2013 that is a drop in the bucket. 
So that begs the question. What is wrong with us? If it is not the guns but the people that must make us one of histories most disturbed, bloodthirsty, and violent cultures ever, which in many ways is more frightening. What is it that makes us as a people kill people at such a high rate compared to countries around the world that are similar to us? And yet we claim to be the greatest nation on earth fighting for life, liberty. and the pursuit of happiness. Well maybe we should get rid of the life part since we obviously do not truly value life, other than our own. And while we are at it we may want to rethink the liberty part as well since our incarceration rates dwarf those of other civilized countries. While we make up 5% of the worlds population we have 25% of the worlds prisoners. Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative noted that 

"The U.S. prison population rate is highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies. Russia’s is 475 prisoners per 100,000 of the national population, and China’s is 121 per 100,000 population, which is below the world’s median rate, More than half of countries and territories have rates below 150 per 100,000 population." (http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/dec/16/matthew-cooke/us-prison-population-big-russia-china-and-north-ko/)"

So again what makes us as a people so in need of imprisoning our fellow citizens? Are we that much more prone to evil than other nations?  I know that there is a sense of always looking to gain the system in us. That was proven clearly to me when I moved to Finland. One of the Finnish players took us Americans, who were new, to the grocery store to show us how to shop. Believe me it is different in every country, to the point that one of our players was so frustrated with the process in one country that he decided to just eat out and not deal with the frustration. While at the store we were in the produce section where you select your fruits and vegetable and then weigh them, enter a code and a printer spits out a label that you put on the bag to tell the cashier how much is in the bag. No, they do not weigh them at the checkout counter they trust that you have put in the correct product number and that the scale is accurate. To my disgrace I have to admit that all sorts of things were going through my mind and I finally asked, "what would stop you from weighing it, getting the tag and then adding more fruit to the bag?" My host looked at me completely puzzled and responded, "why would you do that?" 

I instantly realized that my moral compass was much more deviant than my European counterparts. There is a trust in basic human goodness there. Interestingly every American in every country I have coached who we initially take to the grocery store and showed the system asked the exact same question, so I didn't feel so bad. There were others who had the same distorted view of life. But it was not a proud moment to realize that my culture has taught me to see opportunities to take advantage of situations and let the buyer, or seller, beware. Maybe it is that way of thinking that has led to our need for huge prisons, I suspect it is more, but nevertheless it brings into question whether we are really all that interested in liberty especially when we look deeper and see the disparity of minorities and the poor imprisoned in our systems.  
At least we do unquestionably value the pursuit of happiness. There is no doubt that we have become the most narcissistic people on the face of the earth. We do not act with a sense of justice, or right versus wrong, but only with regard to what is right for me.  It is not the pursuit of happiness for the community or the good of the people of our country,  it is the pure pursuit of personal happiness no matter how much despair and destruction that causes others. So it is much more important that we retain the rights of gun owners for the happiness that shooting their guns gives them than it is to protect and stop the slaughter of students and staff at Sandy Hook, Columbine, Thurston, and now Umpqua Community College. The pursuit of happiness trumps life and liberty once again. And that is all ok- because "Stuff Happens,"

For a look at how others around the world view us on this subject check this out! 

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/10/06/heres-what-the-world-thinks-about-the-american-response-to-the-oregon-massacre/

Peace!