The Human side of Humanity

 Good day dear readers and followers,  I have wound down and wound out of the calendar year's soccer officiating.  A record of 221 matches or games- whichever you prefer was covered.  If not for some weather related cancellations it would have been over 240.  The legion of youth sports officials is getting ever shorter.  Soccer in particular.  If not for a solid grouping of older referees, like myself, staying in the game then there would be no games.  The problem is the behavior of the fans, coaches and the players too, and it is getting worse, which is unfortunate.  Playing sports when I was younger brought great joy.  It was fun, we got out, got exercise, socially engaged and made new friends.  There are still great people out there, for sure.  I coached with a terrific group of people and we were very engaged in the community- to invest in the children.  We paid our own way through coaching schools and clinics.  W...

 Good day readers,  Here we are at the end of November.  Here in my fair city we have a full moon called a Beaver moon that is lighting the night sky. The last three months have gone in warp speed, a blur.  August ended with a prison escape of a pint sized double murderer who was in a county jail instead of a prison.  November is ending with me recovering from over-challenging myself, which I freely admit.  My primary job is in an industry where the fourth quarter of the year is by far the busiest of the year too.  So much happened in between and still I cannot believe we are closer to Christmas than any other holiday.   Back in the heat of August life was progressing as a normal passage of Summer.  Then a series of events occurred that would be unbelievable.  The week of my long awaited vacation, my Dad decided to schedule himself for old fashioned open heart surgery at nearly 85 years old and not consulting family to make proper ...

 Hello readers and followers.  I have to forgo my normal greeting.  The episodes of violence in the streets of Philadelphia is leaving them stained in blood.  The blood of both adults and children.  This brings me great sadness.  Just as I mentioned in my May post The Killing Streets , the number of homicides are not properly recorded, which is a crime in itself.  Officials are reducing the actual number of deaths by homicide released in official records vs. what is reported daily. There is a song called Peace Frog (Morrison, J, Krieger, R. 1969) recorded by legendary band The Doors.  The lyrics have come to me as I read the daily reports of violent homicides, mostly by firearm.  Despite the irony of the song title, the lyrics speak of no peace.  You could change the name of the city mentioned to Philadelphia and it would easily describe what is happening in Philly now. " There's blood in the streets, it's up to my ankles, Blood in the...

 Hello readers, I will eschew my normal greeting of "good day."  The local Philadelphia area continues to be a sordid and unbelievable bloodbath of gun violence. While the violence is not driven by any one sole individual like Pol Pot did in 1970's in Cambodia it is astounding in it's relentless continuity.  In that era, the Khmer Rouge party killed over 16 million Cambodians, over two million of which were killed  by many means and left in multiple fields named the Killing Fields.   The party ruled for 45 months.  Over a similar period, all of calendar years 2020, 21, 22 and just 4 1/2  months of 2023 there has been 2,732 homicides in the city of Philadelphia, PA.   Philadelphia, loosely translated is City of Brotherly Love.  Unfortunately, I and many others beg to differ.  You cannot watch a news report on any given day without reports of several shootings and various other homicides.  These are the Killing Streets.  The...

 Good day readers, Here we are in mid-February, post Groundhog day, post Super bowl, post Valentines day.  Hmmm, so we inch toward Spring with slightly longer days of light and a little less cold.  Honestly, in my fictional home of greater Questionopolis, it has been unseasonably warm this winter.  We are in southeast Pennsylvania, known as the "greater Philadelphia" region.  PA is the home state to the hamlet of Punxsutawney.  The town that houses weather prognosticator Punxsutawney Phil-THE groundhog of Groundhog Day (February 2). In short order- The groundhog, Phil, saw his shadow.  Well, it WAS sunny that day.  What's it mean?  Six more weeks of wintery weather.  This winter has been more like an early spring anyway in Questionopolis so it is really no big deal.  The corpulent, ground- dwelling rodent is quite expansive and with sunshine can throw quite a shadow while his handlers are holding him up in the air.   Next ...