Fear & Loathing In Philadelphia

CNN: Hockey Mom Experience on Executive Side of the Sport

(Sarah Palin drops the puck to start the hockey game)

Over the weekend, two things happened. One was, Sarah Palin came here to Philly and got booed at a Flyers game (the Flyers were playing the New York Rangers). Normally, this would garner yawns and responses of "so what" but, what was particularly interesting about this is why she was there in the first place. I wondered aloud myself.

It was more than just plain old stumping. The booing was so loud that they had to play music on the loud speakers to drown the booing out. The newspapers tried to play it down by saying that the boos and the "polite" cheers (there were none) were about 50-50 but, that is just not true. The boos drowned out everything. Hey, the people in this town booed Santa Claus and Destiny's Child. Why should Sarah Palin get a pass?

Let me take this time to say, for those of you who might not know... Hockey is patronized by a predominately white crowd in my city. I went to a Flyers game once in my life and there were two other blacks there... one was working at one of the concession stands and the other was there on the wrong night. (He thought the "Soul on Ice" circus was in town that night and it turned out that it was to be held on another night). I say this because those boos were coming from mostly whites and not a group of predominately black people, who are usually presumed to be Obama supporters (James T. Harris, not withstanding).

I should tell you that Sarah Palin was here in the first place because Ed Snider, who owns both the Flyers and the Sixers, is a John McCain supporter. I think it was a dumb idea to bring her to the game period. If he was an Obama supporter, I would still feel the same way if (let's say) he brought Biden to one of the games. I just don't feel as though you should ram your political choice down someone's throat. Snider owns two teams and he ought to be ashamed of himself. The sporting arena should be kept neutral... with all of this bad news floating around, I think people need some sort of escape... something to take their minds off of how seriously bad things have gotten and are going to get. Can't I watch a hockey game or a basketball game without some politician coming and killing my joy? I mean, really.

The other thing (and may I add more meaningful thing) was that John McCain appeared to have had enough of the rabid frothing and near Klan rally type atmosphere invoked at these town hall type meetings he and Palin have been holding in America's "Heartland". He told a crowd that he thought Barack Obama was a "decent family man and that he was not someone they would have to fear if he was elected president." I thought that was decent of him and I give credit where credit is due. I was beginning to get disturbed by the tone of some of these rallies. The climate was becoming downright racist and was taking on the look of a lynch mob. (The one person who should've been lynched wasn't. I've already talked about the infamous Mr. Harris and the less said about him, the better.)

Neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin can be held responsible for what these people might say or do at these rallies but, as responsible leaders, it is their job to check that kind of behavior as he did yesterday. Unfortunately, some of the damage has already been done. The fires of racism and ugliness have already been fanned. His running mate, Sarah Palin has been the ring leader and flame thrower of this craziness with a lot of her pugnacious statements. Perhaps, that's why that crowd booed her the other day here in Philadelphia.