5/07/2004 01:21:00 PM by Rob

Please do NOT shoot the Sux fans

I did intentionally avoid writing about the shooting this morning.

What do I think? As I was saying to BST, I have to preface my comments. I am turning 40 this August, and perhaps I am growing into one of those bitter curmudgeons I resented so much in my day. I remember hearing the grown-ups back in the Vietnam days worry that the world was going to hell thanks to the commie hippie drug taking freaks and ni-g-rs and sp-cks. I also remember how bleak things were in 1979-80, with the hostages and the recession and the pissing match with Russia.

Maybe Russia was trying to make their hands tougher?

Anyway, I simply say that things have never been worse in America. This is particularly true around Wrigley Field, where each game has become Mardi Gras in Naw'lins or Rio, and the area is simply not equipped to handle SRO every day.

With all the cops in the area, how did this escalate? The guy driving the SUV was weaving in and out of the flow of traffic...why wasn't he stopped? The guy swinging the souvenir bat around indiscriminately...why wasn't he told to settle down? And the loser who jumped out of the shotgun seat (pun intended), pulled his gun and shot the bat swinger? When did this country join the Third World, where it's nothing to just jump out of car, fully armed, and start shooting?

Well, you might say, how can anyone control any of that?

I say in return, don't know don't care. I DEMAND that these things GET controlled. That's why I don't go to so many games anymore...I fear for my family's safety! If it isn't gangs, drugs, or brawling drunks, at the very least....we walk slow because we live in the country. Every time we go to the game, we get run over by fast-moving hordes of other fans, going wherever it is they are going. Thank God we're not small people...else we'd get knocked down and trampled.

We're not SUPPOSED to expect everyone to drive safe. We're not SUPPOSED to expect that everyone we walk next to is in reasonable control over themselves. We're not SUPPOSED to turn the other cheek: if someone "disses" us, our "people", our car or our space, we're supposed to "confront". And we're not SUPPOSED to be shocked when some asshole pulls out a semi-automatic weapon and kills someone in broad daylight.

Are the Cubs to blame? No more than society, as a whole. Certainly the Cubs have written a check that their ass can't cash. They've created the "ultimate game experience", that everyone has to have a piece of. But even their marketing geniuses could not have planned for the street festival that breaks out every time they play ball. No, WE created the excess, and WE are paying for it, some more than others.

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