Sports, What Are They Good For? . . . Or, My Article in the Daily Barometer

You can find my op-ed in the Daily Barometer on their website now.  I look at the definition of sport and how that definition influences funding decisions and ultimately legitimizes or delegitimizes an athletic activity.  Take a look and let me know what you think.

Kelsi Blalock on the beam

Winter Is Coming . . . Or, Game of Thrones Read-Through

It's been a while since my last Game of Thrones update.  I took a break from the book right around the time that it started getting interesting.  Or at least, around the point that it seemed like something was finally happening.  People were dying, coups were being initiated, betrayal was in the air.  But I also had schoolwork with which to contend, and those papers aren't going to write themselves, and jobs won't work themselves.  So I put the book down.

But I picked it up again! 

The first hint that interesting things are afoot came in the very last chapters, as the events in the prologue finally came to have some meaning.  As far as the narrative is concerned, the prologue was unnecessary; events later on didn't require they be foreshadowed in the opening sequence, and I have the sense that the prologue was added for dramatic benefit.  That is, to hook readers for the intensely slow five hundred pages to follow. 

Now everything is coming to a head.  The dead are rising, a king's been killed, Westeros is in open revolt and the Dothraki are on the march.  So maybe the first five hundred pages were worth it to set the pieces on the board.  It's possible, but I have the sense it could have been done otherwise to greater effect.  Such is what it is, however and I'm drawing pretty close to the conclusion.

Which means I can start watching the show pretty soon.  I'm excited for that.  I received the Blu-ray boxed set of season one for Christmas, and I haven't been able to even open it yet.  But with the book finally out of the way I can tear off the plastic wrap and get to watching what seems like a pretty engaging television show.  Perhaps more engaging than the book.

Ultimately, that's what these updates have been about; getting an idea of the book before I watch the show so I can compare the two.  I'll let you know my thoughts as I have them.

The Sport of News . . . Or, My Other New Job

I've recently begun writing for my college newspaper, the Daily Barometer.  We've had our differences in the past, and I've often been critical of them.  Student papers have a tendency toward decadence, and rarely do the business of journalism on college campuses.  For instance, a good college paper should focus on the business of being a student.  The newspaper ought to create and maintain and ongoing conversation of the administration and offer constant criticism of it.  And just as government in general should be the constant topic of journalism in a public newspaper, student government (such as it is) ought to be the constant topic of a college paper.  Tuition, student guidelines, campus policies and the continuing discussion about the proper role of public institutions in the educational system should be the primary focus of student newspapers.

Is Cheerleading a sport?

That being said, I haven't joined them to make news.  I'm writing a column for the forum, an ongoing series of op-eds that I've tentatively themed "The Good, The Just, and the Beautiful."  While also playing off a famous spaghetti western, these have the benefit of being the things over which men and gods have often argued.  Socrates says that people only really argue about what is good, what is just, and what is beautiful, and I want to add to that conversation.  In a practical sense, what that means is that I'll be looking at local issues (mostly University related themes) and molding them into conversations about what it means to live a good life, what it means to be just, or even which things are and aren't beautiful. 

In my first article I've chosen to tackle sports.  It's an issue of increasing controversy, as schools dedicate greater amounts of money to sports, especially football.  But I'm less interested in how schools devote energy away from education toward sports, and more in the very definition of the thing itself.  What is a sport?  I'm sure you'd know it if you saw it, but that's really the point.  What if you didn't see it?  What characteristics define sports, and how can we better determine which activities should be funded with state money (less each year if Oregon State University hits its billion dollar fundraising goal), and which should be left as clubs or something less than a sport.

I'll post links as I get them, but in the meantime, how do you think about sports?  When I say that word, what comes to mind?  Is football a sport?  What about golf, or cheerleading, swim team or track and field?  Let me know in the comments.

The Moral Arc of the Universe

Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK contended that the moral arc of the universe tended toward justice.  But as I've been sitting here thinking, I have to wonder about that.  Hegel, and a lot of other thinkers, considered the moral trajectory of the universe to tend toward freedom.  Indeed, the Founding Fathers expected that the United States would find justice through freedom, but tended to privilege freedom over justice.  Embedded within many of our documents of principle (the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Washington's Farewell Address, the Monroe Doctrine, FDR's Four Freedom) are not articulations of justice, but rather ideas of freedom.  Freedom from foreign intervention, freedom from entangling alliances, freedom from want and fear, freedom of free speech, the freedom of worship.

Franklin Roosevelt

Justice is part of those freedoms.  Freedom of speech and religious expression is a just life insofar as it permits the rigorous conversation about what a good life entails.  Freedom from want and fear are just inasmuch as they permit people to elevate themselves above starvation and expand their intellectual capacities without fear of reprisal.  We operationalize many of those freedoms by means of non-intervention, and declarations that we will not interfere in the affairs of others.  Necessarily, because we are human and fallible, we don't always (or even often) attain those principles.  But we still hold them up as first principles--things for which we strive.  When principle and reality conflict, the trajectory has been toward harmonizing them.

Justice

In contemporary conversations about the good life, we tend to vacillate between justice and freedom.  Arguments revolving around gay marriage include references to freedom, but the overwhelming tendency is to consider the justness of arbitrarily excluding homosexual couples from the institution of marriage.  The gun control debate is an argument about freedom--namely, what right the government and by extension the people have to restrict the ownership of certain types of private property.  So these aren't academic discussions by any means; they touch us all everyday.  At the heart of those conversations is an idea of what it means to live a good life.

I have the sense that no single good life exists.  Good exists along a continuum between justice and freedom.  One of the implications, however, is that conflicting views of goodness have the potential to rise to confrontation.  Proponents of a particular type of goodness will lose sight of the fact that their perspective is just that: a single perspective.  When that happens, beliefs have the tendency to rise to ideology and ideologues will condemn proponents of other views as wrong, corrupt, ultimately immoral.  As reasoned discourse becomes impossible violence is just around the corner.

Freedom

This isn't a particularly difficult situation to imagine and as communities and cultures increasingly come into intimate contact, conflicting views of what constitutes a good life will uneasily meet.  We know from physical geography that borders are areas of conflict, and in the ideological world the same applies.  The interstice between ideas generates conflict in a way that tends to move whole ideologies with it.  The tail, in many cases, wags the dog.  No easy solution exists, but it certainly involves a commitment to reasoned dialogue and a fastidious attention to generosity.  That is, we should never think the worst of our opponents.  We are each engaged in a long struggle toward attaining the best for ourselves. 

Cup In Hand

I've spent the last three years or so raising money for a yearly commemorative event hosted by the History department of Oregon State University called the Holocaust Memorial Week.  Most of the money comes from charitable donations and is administered by the Oregon State University Foundation, through the Holocaust Memorial Fund.  It's a worthy endeavor, and deserves to be supported.  But the times have been changing, and the dollar doesn't quite stretch as far as it used to.  To help offset costs, as part of the Memorial committee, I've been working with student organizations, especially the residents halls and the Residents Hall Association, to raise funds to offset travel expenses for speakers, advertising, and per diem costs.  I think I've done a pretty good job, and along the way I've gathered a little experience asking for money on behalf of others.

But now I need to ask for financial help on behalf of myself.  This is my final year in University.  I have one more term until I graduate; the finish line is literally within sight.  But I owe the University some money, and until I've paid a little over $1200, they're going to put a hold on my account which prevents me from registering for classes next term.  I have every confidence in paying off the amount over the next few months--I'm working two jobs now, and am interviewing this afternoon for a third.  But you know how it is; bureaucracies want their money now, and though I've asked for paying in installments, the University has flatly denied they offer payment plans: According to the unpleasant woman behind the counter, "We don't do that here."

So I need some help.  If you'd like to make a donation, know someone who might like to help a not-quite-starving but certainly very harried college student out, or simply want to post something encouraging, head over to my fundraiser.  It's secure, free, and all of the proceeds go to the beneficiary, not toward supporting the website.  You have my never ending thanks.

Oh, What A Hiatus

Sorry about the unexpected break, everyone.  It's a discouraging thing to get wrapped up in life, the universe and everything else, but sometimes it just happens.  School has been brutal, and I'm working three jobs trying to pay it off.  I've had to start using a day-planner just to keep myself on task, or just to remember where I'm supposed to be at any particular moment.  It's been nose to the grind-stone, but I think I've managed to find a few hours to start eking out posts again.  So keep your eyes open for that, and thanks for sticking with me through all the down-time.  I'll make it worth your while.