When I was a kid, we would take road trips at night. My brother and I would eventually fall asleep in the backseat, without car seats, and without seat belts. There was a time in my life that I was small enough to curl up and sleep in the back seat of a car, or on the ledge where the car speakers were. I remember driving across southeastern New Mexico into west Texas seeing lights from all the small towns that dot that part of the map. The lights are deceiving though, they leave you with the thought that you are closer to your destination than you are. That part of the country is dark at night when there is no moon. We don't get that out here because Phoenix takes an hour and fifteen minutes to drive across. It's never dark. But out in west Texas, there are large expanses of darkness in between the lights.
Life is that way too. Large expanses of dark in between the lights. Its daunting and scary when you're out there alone. I remember going fishing on rivers at night without the moon, or a fire, or a lantern, it was scary. There is no sense of direction, no sense of destination. When we would get a good pallet fire going though, it seemingly lit up miles around because the darkness that surrounded was so relentless.
My life has had those dark places as well. Large expanses of darkness in between the lights. I have let myself walk away from the light and into the darkness and gotten lost on several occasions. Before I met Christa, there was a huge expanse of darkness that I had gone into. Bad directions, bad decisions always lead to the darkness. The amount of time you spend in the darkness is often dependent on perspective. If you keep your head down searching for direction, you'll often keep going in a circle.
If you keep your head up though, you can see that you may be in the darkness, but the light is there. The light is hope. The light is an answer. Darkness seems to never end, but all you need is a little light to bring hope. The closer you get to the light, the more you realize that you are surrounded by the light.
It seems pretty dark out there now. It seems that the areas of light are getting farther and farther away. I have really thought about dropping out of society. It just seems that there isn't any place for me to be anymore. Everything is awful. Everything is ok now. The only discrimination that truly exists in our society anymore is against people that want to be the light in the vast expanse of darkness. I'm not going to drop out of society though. I want people to see the light. Your situation may seem hopeless and you need to see the light. If that is you, know that I am rooting for you. You aren't doomed to darkness. It's not your destiny to be lost and alone. Look for the light. Don't stop looking for the light. Be the light. Someone is searching for the light.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Drunk on winning
If you haven't read the story of the Baylor football player that raped another Baylor student, a freshman soccer player, then stop and read it. http://www.texasmonthly.com/article/silence-at-baylor/
Don't read the comments on the article, you will lose hope in all humanity. Up front, I love Texas Longhorns football. While I don't like Baylor, they aren't near as bad as ou or a&m, as far as my hatred goes. I like Art Briles quite a bit. While he was here at the Fiesta Bowl a couple of years ago, he was interviewing to coach in Austin. At the time, I was pumped about the chances of him having UT as a backdrop to bring in the top football talent in the country. All of the good that Art Briles has done in his life, in my opinion, has been erased by looking the other way because he had a guy transfer to his program that would be a bad ass on defense, without regard to the other people on his campus. That player raped a female student. Again, his player raped a female Baylor student.
Let's do a little back story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baylor_Bears_football. The important numbers to the right of the page are these; the year they started playing football, their all time record (barely above .500), the number of national championships (0), and when their new stadium was built. The only success that Baylor has had in their football program is with Art Briles as their head coach. McClane is stadium should have his name on it. It should, I'm not kidding. The problem with that, is when your name should be on the building, I think it's really easy to be short sighted. I think winning becomes the only thing a guy can be concerned with at a certain point. I don't think Briles is a bad person. I think he made a horrible decision. I actually think he's made more horrible decisions that haven't been reported by the Waco media because they feed their families with Baylor football, or they are alumni and wear green and gold glasses. Why didn't Briles dismiss the kid from the program until the case was either over, or he was convicted? Why put all your eggs in this kid's basket? It's really strange to me that Briles would try to cover all of this up.
College football coaches aren't just college football coaches anymore. They're CEO's of massive companies. Baylor football generated nearly $30 million last year. That's a lot of money. Baylor is worth $266 million. Baylor, in Waco, is worth $266 million. Unbelievable. I can't imagine a CEO of a company willfully letting a man, who was indicted and later convicted of rape, just roam free on campus. At best it's irresponsible, at worst, it's a crime. If you're willing to overlook a predator because you think he's going to sack the opposing team's quarterback a lot, you're just as responsible for the crime committed as the person who committed it.
The football season starts Thursday, Baylor plays on friday. The announcers won't mention one word of this because Baylor is a preseason favorite to win it all. I'll remember though. That girl will remember. Her Dad will remember. I'm guessing that Art will too. Your coach can't be bigger than your program. Winning at all costs isn't winning when it's all said and done. I would hope that there are some Baylor higher ups that are losing some sleep because they're overlooking their own Baptist code of ethics on this matter. If this was going on at UT, I would want Charlie fired immediately.
The fact that the jury in this case didn't want to give the guy any jail time, is bewildering. The facts were clear. The judge intervened and did the only thing that Texas state law would allow and at least gave him six months in jail. I hope those are the longest six months of his life. I hope he comes out rehabilitated and understanding his depravity. I'm hopeful for that, but I don't believe it. This will happen again, to another innocent woman. These people can't be fixed. The correct response for a coach in all of these situations should be to not want to touch him with a ten foot pole. Will Muschamp, the former coach at Florida, turned down this transfer. Florida has a long storied history of letting anyone play there. Not this guy though. Strange. It's almost as if there was some information on this kid that made him not want this guy. I refuse to use his name. He doesn't deserve it. Good job Will Muschamp. Way to look out for the ladies in Gainesville. It may have been the best thing you did during your tenure as head coach.
A little disclaimer: these opinions are my own. I don't have any inside info. No one was consulted when I wrote this post. Oh yeah. HOOK EM!
Don't read the comments on the article, you will lose hope in all humanity. Up front, I love Texas Longhorns football. While I don't like Baylor, they aren't near as bad as ou or a&m, as far as my hatred goes. I like Art Briles quite a bit. While he was here at the Fiesta Bowl a couple of years ago, he was interviewing to coach in Austin. At the time, I was pumped about the chances of him having UT as a backdrop to bring in the top football talent in the country. All of the good that Art Briles has done in his life, in my opinion, has been erased by looking the other way because he had a guy transfer to his program that would be a bad ass on defense, without regard to the other people on his campus. That player raped a female student. Again, his player raped a female Baylor student.
Let's do a little back story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baylor_Bears_football. The important numbers to the right of the page are these; the year they started playing football, their all time record (barely above .500), the number of national championships (0), and when their new stadium was built. The only success that Baylor has had in their football program is with Art Briles as their head coach. McClane is stadium should have his name on it. It should, I'm not kidding. The problem with that, is when your name should be on the building, I think it's really easy to be short sighted. I think winning becomes the only thing a guy can be concerned with at a certain point. I don't think Briles is a bad person. I think he made a horrible decision. I actually think he's made more horrible decisions that haven't been reported by the Waco media because they feed their families with Baylor football, or they are alumni and wear green and gold glasses. Why didn't Briles dismiss the kid from the program until the case was either over, or he was convicted? Why put all your eggs in this kid's basket? It's really strange to me that Briles would try to cover all of this up.
College football coaches aren't just college football coaches anymore. They're CEO's of massive companies. Baylor football generated nearly $30 million last year. That's a lot of money. Baylor is worth $266 million. Baylor, in Waco, is worth $266 million. Unbelievable. I can't imagine a CEO of a company willfully letting a man, who was indicted and later convicted of rape, just roam free on campus. At best it's irresponsible, at worst, it's a crime. If you're willing to overlook a predator because you think he's going to sack the opposing team's quarterback a lot, you're just as responsible for the crime committed as the person who committed it.
The football season starts Thursday, Baylor plays on friday. The announcers won't mention one word of this because Baylor is a preseason favorite to win it all. I'll remember though. That girl will remember. Her Dad will remember. I'm guessing that Art will too. Your coach can't be bigger than your program. Winning at all costs isn't winning when it's all said and done. I would hope that there are some Baylor higher ups that are losing some sleep because they're overlooking their own Baptist code of ethics on this matter. If this was going on at UT, I would want Charlie fired immediately.
The fact that the jury in this case didn't want to give the guy any jail time, is bewildering. The facts were clear. The judge intervened and did the only thing that Texas state law would allow and at least gave him six months in jail. I hope those are the longest six months of his life. I hope he comes out rehabilitated and understanding his depravity. I'm hopeful for that, but I don't believe it. This will happen again, to another innocent woman. These people can't be fixed. The correct response for a coach in all of these situations should be to not want to touch him with a ten foot pole. Will Muschamp, the former coach at Florida, turned down this transfer. Florida has a long storied history of letting anyone play there. Not this guy though. Strange. It's almost as if there was some information on this kid that made him not want this guy. I refuse to use his name. He doesn't deserve it. Good job Will Muschamp. Way to look out for the ladies in Gainesville. It may have been the best thing you did during your tenure as head coach.
A little disclaimer: these opinions are my own. I don't have any inside info. No one was consulted when I wrote this post. Oh yeah. HOOK EM!
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