Premier League
One of the things I've been doing lately is watching Premier League Football on weekends. Because of the time difference between Britain and Midwestern USA, the games are featured in the morning. It takes about two hours to play the game. And you really can (excuse the pun) count on that time.
When they play soccer, the clock, ticking off the two forty-five-minute halves, does not stop. It doesn't stop because the ball goes out of bounds. It doesn't stop because a player is hurt. It doesn't even stop when players are substituted. It doesn't stop when players celebrate a goal score. It's true; referees can add time to the ends of halves called stoppage time, but it amounts to a few minutes.
I'm learning to watch the game, as I did when I learned to watch baseball and football. I've learned a lot from the commentators. It's more complicated with what the rest of the world calls football, and we call soccer, because the commentators can be British, Scots, or Irish, and they speak in all of the various accents in their retinue.
The language of football is as it is in all sports, particularly in the sport. A "flic' is a short pass. A "cross" is a pass across the goal face, where the passer is hoping his teammate will deflect the pass into the goal for a score. A "yellow card" is a warning to a player for an intentional foul. A "Red Card" is an expulsion of a player. Oh yes, when they talk about "the pitch," they are referring to the field of play.
The beauty of the "Beautiful Game" is the mastery of its players moving the ball up, down, and across the field of play with only their feet or their head. It is incredible to me the accuracy with which they do this while sometimes running full speed. To see a player receive and control a booming kick that is falling down, and many players are trying to field it by reaching out with a leg or maybe redirecting the ball with his chest is mind-boggling to me.
If the secret to keeping your mind healthy ad active by exploring new things, I'm going to owe my mental health to football. (Soccer)
Speaking of Football
My good friend and lunch companion, Lloyd Dickinson, and I discussed Aaron Rodger's midlife crises. As a veteran of many of these mental fantasies, I pointed out that I understood them better than most. However, one facet that stood out was his engagement to a much younger woman.
Shailene Woodley is an actress and presently the fiance of Aaron Rodgers. Woodley has an impressive resume for a young actress. Lloyd asked me to watch a film called "Descendents." In this film, Woodley plays the teenage daughter of the protagonist father, played by George Clooney. This film was a breakout film for her and led to many other movie roles, which continue to flow her way today.
This film was not widely heralded after its release, and it's not what many would count as Award-worthy. (It did garner an Oscar for best adapted screenplay). The story is about how this father is thrown into the ill-prepare-for-task of parenting his two daughters after their mother is in a coma following a boating accident. A shout out to Lloyd. Thank you, it was well worth watching.
Dangerous Streets
"He lives by the sword shall die by the sword, and a lot of innocent people will die with him."
We invented the automobile. We built the streets and highways to encourage people to buy and use them. The car is many things, but it is first and foremost a symbol to many of us. To young people, it's a symbol of becoming an adult and freedom. To many adults, it's a demarcation of wealth and prestige.
To a great many of us, it's a necessity. We live in an area where we need a car merely to buy groceries, get to work, see a doctor, visit our other family members, or attend classes. To that end, some families own as many cars as they have children, plus one for mom and one for dad.
As in other cities, Milwaukee is experiencing a high rate of reckless driving incidents causing destruction, loss of life, and fear so intense people are afraid of leaving their homes for any reason.
The police have been proactive by assigning more officers to concentrate on the problem, identifying "hot spots," and writing more tickets.
At a Rally sponsored by a grassroots group of citizens in the Sherman Park area, We heard of the toll this careless activity takes on a community. The deaths usually are innocent bystanders. The physical destruction is often on property that is public or privately owned but not by the perpetrator. The fear is often experienced by people who have lost people close to them or have experienced near misses at intersections where they were trying to legally cross the street, almost losing their lives to a lawbreaker.
These stories were heartfelt, compelling, and incentifying. We heard pleas for higher fines, vehicle confiscation, and camera enforcement. All of these suggestions were met with cheers. It's understandable.
Assurances were made to this racially diverse crowd that while Hot Spots and other data-based driven enforcement would be used, it would not discriminate or become a profiling tool.
I would suggest a study of past traffic enforcement in the City of Milwaukee would show a lack of interest by MPD, except in those cases involving serious injury, property damage, or loss of life.
At the court level, I would bet more thought was put into what vehicle confiscation and jail time would do to the offender's family, mainly when they contribute to the family income.
When one police officer testified before the crowd, he was penitent. MPD was doing more and the best job they could with in the law. They were on the citizen's side on this matter. And by the way, we need more cops.
Sidebar:
As we listen to this protest in a park at Sherman Boulevard and Burleigh. Police sirens constantly sounded from the streets as the cops demonstrated their concern.
What we have to do has two war fronts. First, increase the convenience and safety of public transportation. Second, I wish the necessary commercial business location would make more neighborhoods walkable, but that is way down the road.
The solution that was brought up is redesigning existing streets with calming features. However, the truth is we have built freeways and "raceways" to accommodate suburban commuters. To be fair, we have not provided them with public transportation options, but then they have continually blocked efforts to do so. So it's only fitting that they suffer the minor inconvenience of a slightly more time-consuming commute to contribute to highway safety.
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