Today, spring football practice winds up for the SU football team, culminating in the annual spring scrimmage. Few people outside of these parts care, of course, but here, we’re all hoping that our new coach can turn things around. He has a pretty tough job ahead of him, but so far, so good. We’ll have to see if that translates into wins.

Just so you don’t think we’re all a bunch of tea-bagging assholes up here, I thought I’d offer up this story. It’s about a woman paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident. While she was in the hospital, her family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and complete strangers decided to surprise her with a wheelchair ramp. One thing led to another, and they wound up tearing the house down to the frame and completely remodeling it, adding two entrances with ramps, new windows, floors and door frames, a new roof, new water and heating systems, and they even re-landscaped her property.

Inspiring story, to be sure. Funny, though, if the government had had a hand in it, it would’ve been condemned as an act of evil socialism.

This woman from the UK with the nice voice – Susan Boyle – has become quite a hit. I heard them discussing her on an NPR news show yesterday while I was on my way to one of those socialist, government-sponsored parks that the tea-baggers want to do away with. They were trying to decide if this was a “big” story because it shows that you shouldn’t judge someone by appearances.

No, that’s not it. The real story is that, taken collectively, human beings are really shallow, nasty scumbags, who laugh at a woman coming out on stage to perform because she doesn’t conform to what society has decided people should look like. We titter and squirm with delighted anticipation at the prospect of them making a fool of themselves right there on the teevee, and can’t wait for Simon Cowlick (or whatever that fuck’s name is) to berate and humiliate them for our own amusement. I personally see no reason to watch people being deliberately mean to other people on the teevee (don’t we have enough of that in the “real” world?), and no reason to make a point of putting “contestants” on TV, just for the purpose of being laughed at.

I admit I don’t get the whole televised Karaoke thing, but surely they could weed out the people with no talent in the auditions. Except, where would the “fun” be in that?

Of course, Susan Boyle does have talent (a nice enough voice, I guess; I’m no expert), so good for her. If she makes us think twice before assuming that somebody who isn’t “beautiful” will suck, then that’s fine. But the “big” story (IMHO), is what a fucked-up value system we humans (at least we “Western” humans) have.

Here’s hoping we get our shit together some day. And win a few football games, too.