Saturday, 9-11 and Bulldogs and other things

I just realized that I have not posted anything in a few days. I have been busy and have had some computer troubles. The laptop was sick. Its working now so we shall see.
Today obviously is 9-11. Far as I know there are no local activities to mark the date. Not sure what should be done, maybe nothing is fine.
Arkansas and Winfield football game was stopped by the storm last night, and will be finished this morning. Winfield is ahead, but maybe the Bulldogs will regroup?
Back to 9-11 again. The thing about burning qurans became a complete media circus. More than anything it shows the excess of American media and how ridiculous things can get. On again off again, on again, lets make a deal ,, no deal, deal on a gain ... sheesh.
The florida "pastor" got his 15 minutes of fame, will get a trip to New York and probably made a few thousand bucks on the side. P T Barnum would be proud.  Just saying, this had absolutely nothing to do with defending America, sticking up for our culture or standing up to Islam ... It had everything to do with a huge dog and pony show.
One point a poster made, which I thought was legit .. was that some time back muslims were  burning bibles in a Middle East Country and so forth, and there really was not much of a media storm.. Here it was just a pastor threatening too burn a quran and you saw what happened . BUT realize, it wasn't Muslims that were throwing a fit over it as much as it was our own media creating a crisis..
.
Still, i think the florida pastor is more a charlatan and con man than a man of God. Yes, i guess I am judging him, but ... it is biblical to hold those who call themselves pastors up to a higher standard. It is writ that those who would be teachers are held to a higher standard by God even.  His threatened actions - let alone the dog and pony show - were not becoming of a Pastor - let alone a "regular" christian.

I wanted to also comment on the Mosque planned near Ground Zero in New York. It isn't exactly "next to" ground zero as some would have us believe. From what I have read, you would not be able to see it from ground zero because of other buildings and such.
Even so ... there is the issue of sensitivity. Moving it a few blocks further away would help and that should be a reasonable alternative.
I cannot help but think of the Confederate Flag. I never knew it was offensive to some black people until the late 90s. and thats even with growing up in the south. Dont know if yall remember the flap about it flying over the statehouse in south carolina for years. Actually it was put up there in the mid 60s but it took until the mid 90s for anyone to realize they were offended.
And to be truthful it was hard to see. If you didn't know it was the confederate flag, you probably would not have recognized it if you were casually walking down the street in front of it. I lived in the state capital from 1993 to 2003, and did not realize it was there until it was pointed out in about 1998.
BUT .. people are offended by it. I am not offended by it, but a lot of people apparently are, so I was in favor of taking it down just because of that. They put up a little monument to confederate soldiers on the grounds instead, so I thought that was a good compromise.
I see a strong parallel to the mosque.
I know the majority of Muslims are not terrorists and did not support 9-11, and do not want to make war on us. It is the radical fringe that does.
To compare the Confederate Flag analogy ... Most white people don't hate or even look down on black people, and remember the civil war mostly as just a piece of history. It is the radical fringe that is the problem.

Another fact that seems to be getting lost in all this. The person behind putting up the mosque does not yet have the money to build it. It might never happen at all. Still, I think moving it a bit further away would be a good compromise. 

Bulldogs, Jayhawks and comments

Good Labor Day morning. Hope everyone is having a good holiday. I cant help but remember the days when i lived on the South Carolina coast. We residents always looked forward to Labor Day because that was the weekend all the tourists went away.
We went from a city of 50,000 to a town of 15,000 that weekend. Memorial day was just the opposite.

Anyways, a few comments on the morning.
Bulldogs looked good Friday night. Noticed there is not anything on the local paper's website about it.
But they did look good. They have a good quarterback who should do great things this year. Winfield also won. Should make for a good game this coming Friday, but it is in Winfield.

Not so the Jayhawks. They looked pretty bad in losing to -- oh my goodness -- North Dakota State. Toward the end of the game, needing a last minute scoring drive, they were out of timeouts.
This does not bode well for KU fans. But, good teams make their best improvements between weeks one and two. They better with Georgia Tech coming up, but this week should make a huge difference. A close loss against Ga Tech - a highly ranked team - would be a good sign. A bad blowout ... could make for an ugly season.

I also wanted to comment about comments. I did delete some over the weekend while the blog was being spammed.
It is not a matter of censorship. Or freedom of speech.
If you want to start your own blog and anonymously spew out hate, violence, obscenity and slander, no one is going to stop you.
Im just tired of some of the anonymous bs though. The only reason I dont require names is that you could put any name on a post and there's no way to check.
But I think I might start being a bit more heavy handed with deleting posts.

The purpose of comments is to allow for community discussion and hopefully the exchange of ideas. It's purpose is not to allow mean people an anonymous venue to beat up on people.

Arkansas City football time

The Arkansas City Bulldogs start their season Friday at Valley Center. It is going to be a few weeks before the new stadium hosts a game.
It is a bit odd, but the Bulldogs will play Winfield (at Winfield) in the second game of the season on Sept. 10. Gonna be strange not having that game during Arkalalah week.
The first varsity game at the new stadium will be Sept. 17 when the Bulldogs host Goddard.
I have found a couple of good links for following the Bulldogs. Catch it Kansas has a good preview of the upcoming season, and scores and stats will be updated there regularly. Here is the link.

The other place is Hovpen Sports, which is a really good high school sports website

So there is time for the loose ends to be tied up at the new stadium. I noticed there is no press box, but that is probably one of the loose ends that will be fixed.
Now, before the naysayers get rolling, there are just five varsity games scheduled at the new stadium, but there will be a lot more than that going on there. There is JV football, and whatever other football teams the Bulldogs have.
Soccer will likely be played there as well. Then there will be track and field. Im sure the field will get a lot more use than just five games.
Im not sure what the policy will be on allowing other public events .. outdoor concerts or whatever, but hopefully there will be some of that.
A few commented about the cost and such when I posted the snake dance photos.
Yea it cost a lot. But how long has it been since they got a new stadium. Ive no idea the history of Curry Field, but it has been many years.
There were major parking problems at Curry Field, not so at the new stadium. Plenty of parking available, modern restrooms.
I think it is good for the town to have a new stadium. It can be a point of civic pride. There are some good things happening in Ark City whether the naysayers admit it or not. And during a recession or depression IS a good time to build because costs go down. It is tax money well spent.
I have visited many high school football stadiums in my years of covering high school sports for newspapers.
Often that has been what shaped my opinion of a town and was the only real information I had about the town. People who come to games from out of town do that as well. Issues like parking matter. Also just the general aesthetics and intuitive nature of the facility matters. Is the stadium easy to find? You may not find it just by driving into Ark City, but at least having it at the high school is more user friendly from that viewpoint. Is it obvious where to park once you find it, or is it obvious where to go to enter once you find it?
Just how a stadium feels is important too. A new stadium has a nice feel.
It also has a tremendous impact on the athletes. Would not surprise me to see more kids come out for football and for the team to improve a bit just because of their surroundings.

Having said that. I have always enjoyed Southwestern College's football stadium in Winfield. It violates everything I just wrote, but it just has that really nice feel to it that makes up for it being hard to find and not having real good parking. The Aesthetics and design are great.  I also like the stadium at Wellington for the same reasons. I dont dislike Curry Field but it is time to move on.

New Bulldog Stadium

Here are a couple pictures from the Snake Dance Friday evening at the Arkansas City High School. This is the preseason ritual held each year as school starts. They had food and then the football team had a scrimmage. After the scrimmage people were able to walk out on the new field.
This was all held at the new stadium.
It does look very nice. They dont have the pressbox up yet and there are a few things here and there to be finished, but it still looks good.
One big difference you will see at football games this year is the parking. The new stadium has a big parking lot, so that will make it a lot easier.
Lighting will be better. Modern bathrooms and a nice entry way. The field itself looked sharp with lines painted and theres a bulldog logo at midfield.
Your tax dollars at work.