America cheers for the home team
By Erin Chambers
Sports Is Life was once a popular slogan among athletes. Let us try that on. Let us take sports and make it life.
Sports in America are invigorating, similar to the display of patriotism and pride shown throughout the country these past 10 days. It has been like the energy displayed when it's the bottom of the ninth, two outs, the count is 3-2 and the pitcher is one strike away from throwing a perfect game. It's almost electric. You can feel the anxiety, the fervor, the anticipation. You can hear thousands of voices chanting, yelling, droning into one thunderous roar; you can see heads, all topped with hats of their team's colors, a sea of support and cheer. Strangers high-five each other, The energy surrounds and engulfs you to the point of goosebumps or shivers. The effect is something enticing, something beyond words. That is sports, now let us make it life.
These past 10 days, I have been exposed to this same form of energy in our country. Instead of cheering on the Padres this weekend, I watched the news and listened to rescue workers chant USA! USA! USA! as President Bush visited ground zero in Manhattan. Instead of waiting on the edge of my seat to see if Tiger would birdie the 10th hole, I listened to the mournful cries and pleadings as families of victims frantically thrust pictures of their loved ones in front of a CNN reporter, hoping to get their story on camera. Then I saw that reporter break down and cry on the street with the distraught wives and mothers.
Instead of sporting my Bronco baseball cap, I put a flag on my car window and tied crisp red, white and blue ribbons on my friend's wrist. Everyone has been witness to the proud display of the American flag. The stars and stripes represent our true home team, a team that every single American is rooting for. Flags are on cars, bridges, trees, windows, front porches and street corners. People are buying them, making them, even cutting slits in the edges to make them wave more dramatically. However horrific, cruel, and sick the sentiments of the terrorists, the American response of support, pride and patriotism has been 10 times as passionate. It is an indescribable energy that has taken over the land. Valiant Americans have stayed strong and put aside race, greed, gender, belief, preference, leisure and politics to unite as one force against adversity. Microsoft donated $10 million, ATandT donated hundreds of cell phones to relief workers, McDonalds has given out tons of free food, and even citizens of New York have donated their time as place holders in hospital and registry lines so that families of victims could sit down and rest.
As I tied the flag to my car in the parking lot of K-Mart, a man walking by slowed to utter, "Right on, sister," and I got chills. As I continued to watch CNN, the members of Congress gathered in Washington to address the public and, hand in hand, spontaneously sang God Bless America, and I cried. And finally, during the memorial liturgy on Monday, Father Locatelli spoke of compassion, support, and God's presence on earth. It was crowded but silent, and as we sat on the grass, a soft breeze blew through the gardens. Brushing back my hair and touching everyone present, the soft wind was a common thread woven throughout the crowd, and everyone felt it.
As we cheer on our freedom, our liberty, our country, I applaud my fellow Americans just as I do those rescue workers, just as I do that pitcher in the ninth inning. This absolute unity and connectedness is like a perfect game: it occurs only once in a great while, but when it does, the feeling is one never to be forgotten, one that changes you forever.Email Erin or call (408) 554-4852.