Pro Teams On Strike in the USA. Do We Care?

The unfolding saga of the professional basket ball players association (NBA freedom fighters), took a sudden tragic turn yesterday. Team owners (cruel, greedy, private jet owners), announced their final offer at 5 million per average player salary. Of course better players on a team could earn more...much much more.

A tear rolled down my cheek making a faint splat on the sporting page, as the unfairness of it all settled on me. Somebody has to take a stand for these players, they give their all (for 8 months) for what? A measly 5 million per year?

The professional football players association of the NFL are suffering some of the same travails and indignities as their counterparts in the NBA. The scrappy players are fighting like a pack of hyenas over a wildebeest carcass (9 billion in television revenue) for their rights. But their plantation/private jet owners are equally tough and scrappy (aka: greedy).

Many think that today's sports are equivalent to yesterdays version of gladiator games, the drug of the masses. Those games were put on by the government to keep the citizens so busy with blood sport, they wouldn't notice the chicanery and thievery going on with their own government.

Who knows maybe a strike/walkout by the NBA & NFL will bring on great political change in America. The masses will actually find out who their representatives are and vote them all out. Wishful thinking?

Pro sport teams generate tremendous amounts of money, people like the product and voluntarily pay to see them. They will continue to pay the exorbitant ticket/parking prices, 10.00 beers and 10.00 hotdogs, until they decide to stop paying that much. The teams will charge what the traffic will bear, the players will charge what the owners will bear, it is called private enterprise. If you don't like it you don't have to watch it, you have a choice.

In the meantime in Mayberry USA, another kind of drama is being played out between management (cruel unfeeling elected officials) & unionized public employees (patriotic freedom fighters). I know they are patriotic because some have flags stitched to their uniforms and others wave flags at their rallies and protests.

Almost 70 police officers had to be laid off because the city is in dire financial condition. Seems the fans (taxpayers) aren't ponying up the exorbitant ticket prices and fees like they used to and funds are low. Instead of compromising with management & taking a cut like everyone else, the union decided to hold firm. As a result, instead of having a full complement of police (albeit a bit less paid), it was decided to have an understaffed police force that cannot keep the streets safe.

Citizens don't have a choice, there is no other number for them to call if they need assistance, there is no competition. There is no 811, or 711 that may be a bit less expensive but faster perhaps than 911?

Of course in many of these same cities and towns it has been considered fashionable to look upon gun ownership as dangerous/illegal/paranoid, for a law abiding citizen to possess a fire arm for self protection. But seriously, if someone is breaking into your home, what's going to help you faster, 911 or .45?

Broke cities and towns are starting to consider options during these trying financial times. The private sector aka: the Golden Goose, is on strike and not laying eggs.

Look for changes in the way things have been done in the past because those ways don't work anymore.

For other points of view visit Carroll Standard:

http://www.carrollstandard.com/