Don't confuse your OPPONENT with your ENEMY

Since the last time I checked in, a news story broke at least around New York City and Philadelphia, when some thugs wearing one team's hockey jersey severely beat two men wearing an opposing team's jersey outside of Geno's Steakhouse (ground I have trod upon many times). Further details aren't important, because the crux of the matter is what I want to focus on: the animus that seems to hang heavy in the air these days around both sports and politics, which is most certainly crossing over from violent rhetoric to actual violence far more often than I can remember in my lifetime.

It was only a few weeks ago that I read the story of an Iraq vet gravely wounded at his own homecoming party because some idiot held on to some sort of beef over a long irrelevant sports outcome. It's hard not to see similarities between the toxic bile being spewed by people about those with whom they disagree politically (not necessarily politicians--though they can be quite rancid--but rather the shouting, polarized sign-waving hoi polloi). When we do nothing but lob verbal bombs (or worse) at one another, it reinforces the damaging conflation of an opponent with that of an enemy. For a country whose majority professes a vehement devotion to the parables of Jesus of Nazareth, it seems unfathomable that so many would so often sink to such flagrant disregard for kindness, understanding, and caring...not to mention sportsmanship or civic goodwill. Cut it out!

Anyway, here's the latest round of little things:

- On Thursday, I composed and sent our Friends of Carroll Park e-blast through Constant Contact, and posted the info to the group's Facebook and Twitter.

- On Saturday and Sunday, I volunteered at the Carroll Park food drive from 10:00 am to 4:00 p.m. I can't say I was disappointed, since I didn't set my expectations very high (folks are in a much more generous spirit in the lead-up to Thanksgiving and Christmas than they are at the beginning of the new year), but there was a pretty underwhelming response this weekend (125 items) compared to previous ones (519 in November and 216 in December). But hey, it's still putting food in the mouths of hungry New Yorkers!

- Sunday night I packaged and shipped nine items on Amazon and half.com for the Sean McGrath Fund, which sold over the previous few days. I also repriced all of our inventory on both sites, so hopefully we'll move a few more items these next few days!