To the Management,
Thank you for seeing to it that I will have plenty of time to grade papers in October.
Yours,
Jeff
P.S. You're idiots.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Welcome? The OKC SuperSonics
This is a blog response I made at SupersonicSoul, a fan blog by understandably angry Seattle fans. I thought i'd put it here for my two readers.
I came here to issue a heartfelt apology for what Clay Bennett did to you in the name of the people of Oklahoma City. You can surely understand that, naturally, we in Oklahoma have long wanted a major league franchise (we built the Ford Center for the NHL team that became the Nashville Predators). Many feel that having a big league franchise would help to alleviate the view that much of the country (including many of the commenters on this blog) has about Oklahomans as provincial, “Slag off c**ts, f**knuts, hicks, rednexx [sic], thieves, flatlanders, horse f**kers” (whiskeychainsaw) who need their “daily crystal meth fix” (Ryan). We’re naturally tired of hearing about our “market size” when we live in a city with a larger population than Atlanta, New Orleans, Cleveland, Kansas City, Oakland, Miami, and Minneapolis (Census Bureau 2005 estimate), all of which have major league franchises, many of which with stars much bigger than KD. So we wanted –even needed- the recognition that comes from having a team.
Yet, admittedly, it feels empty. I wonder how easy it will be for me to root for a team owned by Judas and his thirty pieces of silver. It’s a little embarrassing that people here are so excited to have gotten the team so early and that Bennett is a local hero. Frankly, if Bennett had stayed until the lease was out then left, I wouldn’t feel too bad. It would be easy to say, “that’s what Seattle gets for putting six Starbucks stores within a mile of my house to steal my money.” But that’s not how I feel. I feel dirty. We are good people here, but I am afraid our desire to get something we wanted has blinded us to what it has cost others. It’s unfortunate that this is such a constant human trait. After all, even Seattle was stolen from Native Americans by the Denny party after they landed at Alki Point.
I came here to issue a heartfelt apology for what Clay Bennett did to you in the name of the people of Oklahoma City. You can surely understand that, naturally, we in Oklahoma have long wanted a major league franchise (we built the Ford Center for the NHL team that became the Nashville Predators). Many feel that having a big league franchise would help to alleviate the view that much of the country (including many of the commenters on this blog) has about Oklahomans as provincial, “Slag off c**ts, f**knuts, hicks, rednexx [sic], thieves, flatlanders, horse f**kers” (whiskeychainsaw) who need their “daily crystal meth fix” (Ryan). We’re naturally tired of hearing about our “market size” when we live in a city with a larger population than Atlanta, New Orleans, Cleveland, Kansas City, Oakland, Miami, and Minneapolis (Census Bureau 2005 estimate), all of which have major league franchises, many of which with stars much bigger than KD. So we wanted –even needed- the recognition that comes from having a team.
Yet, admittedly, it feels empty. I wonder how easy it will be for me to root for a team owned by Judas and his thirty pieces of silver. It’s a little embarrassing that people here are so excited to have gotten the team so early and that Bennett is a local hero. Frankly, if Bennett had stayed until the lease was out then left, I wouldn’t feel too bad. It would be easy to say, “that’s what Seattle gets for putting six Starbucks stores within a mile of my house to steal my money.” But that’s not how I feel. I feel dirty. We are good people here, but I am afraid our desire to get something we wanted has blinded us to what it has cost others. It’s unfortunate that this is such a constant human trait. After all, even Seattle was stolen from Native Americans by the Denny party after they landed at Alki Point.
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