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A sports and poker fan with a unique sense of humorMore By FatMan
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The Offended Citizens of America Have Spoken - Ban Horse Racing!
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In what is becoming a more and more frequent rejoinder to daily life, people were SHOCKED and HORRIFIED by events that took place in the Kentucky Derby and demand something be done. You see, a horse died on National TV. Youth saw a horse put down on National TV. Parents were faced with tough questions on why a horse was put down on National TV!
Isn't that really what a lot of the "outrage" in life boils down to these days? People wanting to shelter others from harsh and evident truths? See a naked ass cheek on TV. Do you explain to your children that everyone has not one, but two ass cheeks, or do you call the FCC and lodge complaints?
If you said that you call the FCC, give yourselves 2 points!
I have trouble following the logic stream of people today. Apparently seeing tits and ass is dirty and bad, but watching blood gush out from a person shot in the head on CSI or ER is hunky dory. I've actually heard some people say that they know the shootings are fake, but that the body parts are real! OK. I'm trying to follow that logic. Apparently it is easier to "explain away" fake than in is something that can be flashed? Ah forget it. Whenever I try to make sense of the jumble, some 7-year old is making the news for lewd and deviant behavior for staring up the skirts of classmates. And that is where the dichotomy of events comes to a crashing point!
We want to shelter our kids. Protect them from the ugly truths in the world, but then when Little Johnny peeks up Susie's skirt, we want to place him in an institution for deviant behavior and brand him a pervert. Great way of sheltering the 7-year old. You don't think it's true?? Then start reading the news. Everyone expects the youth of today to be grown up by 5, but nobody really wants to teach them. Parents don't want the responsibility. They want the teachers to do it, but the teachers and coaches and mentors mustn't yell or get agitated, lest they break the spirit of these feeble tots.
We must cater to the children. Shield them from images unseemly. Keep them away from germs by using sanitizer like it is nectar of the God, Clorax. Never leave a child unattended. In the old days, there were latch-key kids who rolled around in dirt and sometimes broke free from their parents in department stores. The latch-key kids learned responsibility and how to do things on their own, the mud-caked grubs built up immunities to minor ailments, and the wayward youth hiding under clothing racks in Sears were returned to their parents. Now, find a latch-key kid and DSS will be on the doorstep by 5PM. Have a kid in dirt, and a trip to the emergency room for tetanus shots is a possibility. Lose Junior in the Bon Ton and Mall security might hold you until DSS can come and interview your fitness as a parent. And all of this relates to a horse race how exactly??
Here's how. We are a society of hair-trigger, reactionary jackasses who preach what should happen after it has already happened. To them, a horse that dies racing is a travesty and should never happen, so to ensure it, we must not race horses again. We see a horse die and the animal lover inside of us takes arms. The parents rush to cover the eyes of the impressionable youth. The sports reporter looking for an edge has his hook for the next week. And in a way it is sad. Sad that the horse has died, but sadder still that people who think they are acting altruistically are acting as selfish as can be. All over a tragic event that had never happened in the Kentucky Derby before.
People don't want horse racing to end to protect the horses. They want it to end so that harsh realities aren't faced. It makes it easier on themselves not to confront tragedy. Or the reporter does it for personal gain. If he is the most outraged at the event, ESPN might pick up his rant, raising his professional platform and resume a bit higher than his peers. But worse yet in all of this are the misconceptions people throw around as if they are truths. - Horse racing is cruel to animals
- Trainers and breeders only exist to make money and care little for their animals
- Degenerate gamblers are all that supports the sport
- Racing is fixed and thus it should disappear
- Whipping a horse is cruel and causes long-lasting harm
I won't debunk all of the above. All one has to do is visit a stable to see the love horse handlers have for the animals. When the great horse Barbaro broke his leg, the trainers and owners spent over $1M to get him healthy. Does that sound like a cold,unfeeling act? The sad fact is that once horses break a leg it is extremely difficult to get them back to a pain-free existence. Break two front ankles, and a horse simply cannot stand and can't be put in a position to heal. But people don't realize these harsh facts. They see horses in cartoons or movies running with grace and they can't fathom killing such a creature. To borrow from one of my most quoted movies:
You weep for Eight Belles, and you curse the sport. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Eight Belles death, while tragic, saved further pain. And that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. I know deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you don't want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline.
Is that a bit melodramatic? You bet your ass it is. But it is meant to prove a point. That people are selective in their outrage. This isn't just about sheltering kids. It is also about some self-important adults trying to make themselves seem more benevolent. If this tragedy had happened in Race 1 being shown on ESPN 6, would there be people making this a spectacle? Why not - would that horse be less important than Eight Belles, an animal that few outside of the degenerate gambling world knew prior to Saturday? Because this happened in the view of a wider audience, that is why there is outrage. A violent act seen on CSI or ER by millions is just fine, but a violent act of a horse dying is not fine. It is unacceptable. A naked body is pure unadulterated filth, but watching a graphic of a bullet pierce the skin and lodge in the heart is cool and scientific. So we demonize The Sport of Kings as being cruel and demand changes and stay on our high horses until our focus is taken away by a larger story, like perhaps a campus shooting.........
Finally - for those outraged by Saturday's events. Tell me - how loud was your voice when McKelvey or George Washington passed?? Like I thought, you probably have no clue who those two are.
These people are hiding reality to the point where the kids think their life will be like the ending to Hoosiers.
And as long as there is not a gory scene, why do they censor anything that is dead? Imagine someone sleeping and you've got a dead species.
A long time ago they banned toy guns because they resembled the real thing. Follow that logic people.
Well written and humorous article FatMan.This is incredible the way people are handling this, it's how life goes.