I’m ashamed…

WARNING... I’M ANNOYED AND THERE IS TALK OF SPORTS IN THIS POST (but there’s something else at the end worth your time). I witnessed some shameful behaviour on the part of so-called fans aka fanatics last night after the Habs went back to their season winning style in game 7 of their series and pulled off a shut-out (THANK YOU Carey Price!!!) to clinch the series and move to the next challenge. I’m a born and bred, died in the wool, blood runs red-white-and-blue Habs fan. It’s family tradition. No matter if they win or lose, I love my team and I’m proud of it’s long and illustrious history. I want to apologize to my team for the behaviour of some misguided, intoxicated, poorly raised arses and the way they tarnished my team, my city, the rest of Habs Nation and sports fans in general. What kind of fan does this? Are they even fans at all? In the old days, the great days of La Sainte Flanelle, we took each of these victories as a step towards the ultimate prize… Lord Stanley’s Cup. The playoffs aren’t over, we have not won the cup (yet- a girl can hope) and we have miles to go before we can start chanting “25” (The Habs have won 24 cups over the years- I witnessed a few of them and they are making a run for this one). The Habs won their best-of-seven quarter-final series.. not the cup. They still have to win 12 games to bring that cup “home”… easier said than done. After the riot, 16 people were arrested on numerous counts, among them 2 17 year olds and a 14 year old… FOURTEEN! Many people are asking why… It’s on every radio station’s morning show and will carry through to afternoon call-in shows and be discussed ad nauseum in an attempt to answer that very question. You look at the age group that participated in this, you wonder about the level of intoxication, you ask where the hell were those teenagers’ parents? Basically, you ask: WTF!!! This is but one facet of what has become the sports fanatic. There are many ugly sides. I want my daughter to experience the pride that comes with the Cup win. But I’ve told her how ashamed I am of what happened last night and that I question what kind of idea of “sportsmanship” those miscreants were brought up with… In sports, one team plays the best game (sometimes that day- sometimes it’s a reflection of the season) and bests the other and one team ends up losing… but I’ll give props to The Bruins who fought the good fight and tried to come back from a deficit but just weren’t in the long run able to sustain it. I celebrate my team’s win (not the other team’s loss). This was a hockey fan’s beauty of a series... hockey at its best. There is a great deal of research into the sports fan and fanatics phenomenon which titillates someone with a psych background like myself. Are riots like this and other anti-social behaviour often engaged in by “fans” caused by deindividuation? A phenomenon by which “people lose their self-awareness and have decreased concern for how others around them evaluate their actions” (Mann, et al., 1982). People have done shameful things in the name of being a sports fan… thinking it’s harmless. We have to start thinking about how we’re going to deal with the next matches… What are the measures we have to put in place to avoid this kind of stupidity. I don’t know what went wrong, but I’ve seen some behaviour in fans that I don’t like… this kind of crap, bleacher creatures, opponent bashing…. So, I’ll do what I can to guide my Chicklet so she focuses on the good stuff. It’s all I can do really. That, and fly my HABS flag high and proud. :) Thanks for a great series boys… now let’s regroup, learn from our stumbles in this series and tackle, or is it cross-check ;-) the next one! On a positive note… Earth Day aka the important stuff… If you’re at a computer and you don’t know today is Earth Day you’ve been playing too many games, dude. There are many ways you can have a positive impact on the environment and improve your environmental footprint. Sign up for online bills. This allows you to reduce waste and the need to recycle – which by the way, is NOT available everywhere (I KNOW Newman will get upset with me for this… but hey, let him go postal. Besides, I’m not pulling a Kramer asking ALL my mail to be stopped). Find out about composting. It’s a great way to make whatever doesn’t qualify as edible left-overs (assuming the food was edible in the first place) and your kitchen waste work for you. You won’t have to buy chemical fertilizers, no bagging of lawn cuttings (free-up landfill space) and you’ll be saving your money and the environment… If you think that can’t really make a difference, 24% of the municipal waste stream in the U.S. is made up of yard trimmings and food residuals. Think about it. For more info on composting: in Canada and in the U.S. Find out how to block unwanted mail from heading strait to your recycle bin… Because paper can’t end up in your compost bin. Try to wash your clothes in cold water, using phosphate free cleaners and really ask yourself if it needs laundering… and if you can, line-dry your clothes. Less energy is used up, you might be able to reduce waste water generated and there’s something great about sleeping in line-dried sheets. If you can’t line-dry because of too much dirt where you live, that should be incentive enough to do what you can to be greener. If you can, plant a garden (you have to use that compost somewhere!) and while you try and reduce your CO2 emissions by driving around less, you’ll be planting things that will absorb some of that CO2 you can’t eliminate… plus it’s seriously pretty AND there’s nothing like fresh veggies on your table. Get the kiddos involved! I’ll let everyone else bombard you with other ‘green’ solutions… Enjoy the day , I hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods. (Watch out for UV rays though…) Love you all more than my luggage! Hugs, smooches and gropes!