September Scare

Sometimes I read things that frighten me. 

I’m not talking about fiction—I avoid horror fiction, just as I avoid horror movies.  Why frighten myself over something that doesn’t even exist?  No, what sends a shiver down my spine are things that happen in the real world, things that people say or do that reveal to me a cold truth to which I have tried to stay blind.

In this case, it was just a short quote, not two lines long, and innocent enough out of context.  

“The work that I’ve done…has been just as fulfilling as if I had played center field at Yankee Stadium.”  

When I read that, it took me a moment to realize why my gut twisted at the words.  Then I saw who had said it.  It’s a quote from one of our senators, Harry Reid of the Democratic party, who is from Nevada and has served since 1987.  Get it yet?  That’s almost thirty years of service to our nation, thirty years in a position of leadership.  And yet he compares his work to a man who stands in the back of a baseball field.

I’m not trying to put down baseball.  Well, I am, a little, but only because our nation has elevated sports to a terrifying height.  How many people, if asked, could name their state senator?  Yet I would wager that three times as many has a favorite baseball player, or basketball team, or football mascot.  We have whole channels that devote twenty-four hour coverage to sports alone, businesses who make a booming living selling nothing but sports merchandise, and movies that are devoted to the movement of a ball across a field or a court.  And that would all be very well, but when one of the people responsible for the wellbeing of the American people can compare his work to catching and throwing a ball, what does that say about culture and our government?

Now I know that there are so many factors of politics and government that I don’t understand and that every possible complaint about the government—valid or not—has already been said.  Even so, this hit me hard.  Why is there more honor in playing at Yankee Stadium than in helping to run our country?  Is it a sign that we take sports too seriously, or that we take politics not seriously enough?  Probably a bit of both, I’d guess.  If this scared you, maybe look up who your senator is, and wonder how fulfilling they find their work, or if they would rather be somewhere else entirely, playing a different game.