How Many More?

So that "vacation" ended up being more of a hiatus that almost became permanent if not for the prodding of a few folks. So thanks to them - you know who you are. I'm now blogging on the same couch in a different state than the last time I was here. Other than that, not too much has changed. I am looking forward to September, though, because real sports finally return. I love Pardon the Interruption but I struggled to keep my interest with no sports of interest going on. That's one reason I like the fall. The other is the clothes. (Yes, I'm a woman, and I like clothes).

Now I had hoped to start it off with an interesting story, but not necessarily a tragic one. Unfortunately, life doesn't always go how we plan.

This one out of Jacksonville, Florida, home of the NFL's Jaguars, where tragedy struck over the holiday weekend when two players (one now former, since he was recently cut from the team) were involved in a shooting while waiting outside what the media is calling a "middle class neighborhood." One - Kenneth Pettway - was not hurt, the other - Richard Collier - was shot several times and is in critical but apparently stable condition. One can't help but think back on the Washington Redskins' Sean Taylor, who was killed nearly a year ago, also in Florida. I truly hope this one doesn't end like that one did.

Collier seemed to have an interesting story. After high school, thinking he didn't have the grades for college, he worked for two years at Wal-Mart. But then, he entered junior college and transferred to a Division II school where he excelled and learned the value of hard work. He never got drafted so he certainly expected to be where he was, and was probably was told he would never get where he was because of the choices he made in his life. He almost quit and went back to Wal-Mart until the Jaguars gave him his only crack at the big times, and he took it and ran with it.

I could take this and run with it, too, calling it another situation in which an athlete is in the wrong place at the wrong time, running with the wrong crowd. And that could be true. He could be another Mike Vick. It doesn't help that the storyline says that they were going to the house of women they had just met that evening.

While we don't know all of the details just yet, at the very least, we have another example of the extreme vigilance necessary to be a "have" in a sea of "have nots." But they aren't the only ones getting caught up. Right before I started writing, I caught a rare few moments of the local news and was saddened to hear about three children who lost their lives in three separate shootings this weekend, ones in which they "just happened" to be outside at the time. One of the mothers of the deceased children said she wished there was some kind of program to get these kids off the streets. (If all goes according to *my* plans in the election this year, we will.) But no program will work without buy-in from the rest of us, and buy-in means giving time to change things where we can, no matter how small. We can't get used to this, folks.

My prayers for a speedy recovery to Richard Collier.