What does a great nation do in the wake of tragedy? Cash in, baby!
>> Thursday
Opinion Poll: Monday night's "First-Saints-Game-Since-Katrina, Super-Duper Super Dome Grand Re-opening Extravaganza Bonanza (Featuring the Goo Goo Dolls and Bono! Wowee wowee wow!!!)" is:
A) a powerful and a touching way to commemorate a seminal moment for a city and a region that saw unfathomable devestation, as well as a way to raise valuable relief funds for those who continue to suffer as intensely as they suffered one year ago.
B) an ESPN/NFL made-for-TV ratings-grab put on by some mega production firm probably based in New York or Los Angeles, having nothing to do with Saints fans or the Gulf Coast region--save the home team's stadium serving as a venue--that glosses over the still-tragic state of the region--football, Super Dome, and Goo Goo Dolls be damned.
I don't know how I feel about this event, to be quite honest. I look at it much like the post-9/11 U2 Super Bowl performance, World Series bald eagle theatrics, etc. While I'm not so cynical to overlook the philanthropic and spritual benefits of these events, I also feel they demonstrate a troubling impulse to bring grandeur into our suffering and healing.
I have a story to offer an analogy. Maybe it's a really stupid analogy, but hear me out anyway. Sophomore year in college, I went on a spring break service trip to a little, rural town in Virginia (YCS regulars--you already probably know this stuff, but just indulge me for a minute). Besides our group from Marquette, there was a group from another school. When the other group arrived on the first day, no one could miss them. They pulled up in three or four vehicles, all of which were painted up with the name of their school and their destination. The entire purpose of the trip was to put aside their own wants and identities for a week to commit to those of others. Yet there they'd come, all done up as if they were seeing their high school football team at state.
I feel like ESPN is the painted-up caravan of cars. And I feel like the Goo Goo Dolls are the girl who thinks she's cute in her bandanna and messy clothes and forgets that she went on the service trip to do work and not to pose for digital photos. (Or maybe Joe Theisman is the bandanna girl in this analogy. Either way.)
Maybe I'm the only person crazy enough to see this angle. I don't know. But it really does bother me. And I can't imagine I would be very inviting of this event were I a proud and true New Orleans resident. I would probably feel that people behind it were using my city as a stage and its plight as a backdrop for something that would lift their own spirits but bring them no closer to my own struggle.
Yes, I understand that proceeds will benefit the victims of the hurricane. But come on; who's really going to benefit more from this event--the victims or the NFL? The victims or the Goo Goo Dolls? The victims or Mike Torico? Those putting on these festivities--and for that matter, probably a vast majority of those attending the game--will be just as removed from the victims' troubles on Tuesday as they are today, no matter how warm their on-camera sentiments are.
Again, I understand the thought behind Monday night's events. But I still can't help but partly see it as an attempt to fabricate a "seminal moment" for a national television audience. Yes, these extravaganzas aspire to raise public's sensitivities and awareness, but as a side-effect, I think they can serve just as strongly to skew the significances and insigificances of the actual situation.
(Ok, I'm done. Sorry to preach. Sorry to bore you.)
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7 comments:
I do think you make a lot of good points, but there is one thing you kind of brushed over. This game celebrates the re-opening of the Super Dome, one of the major New Orleans landmarks. While much more progress needs to be made, and as far I know I know in a much hastier fashion, this could a seminal moment for the city. While the success of a sports team may seem like an illusion to making people feel better, it does play a huge in someone's life when many other things aren't going well. I can vouch on that last point from personal experience.
I get the same feeling every time that I hear Major League Baseball talk about how they "healed the country" in the days after 9/11. While the resumption of pennant races and one of the most exciting World Series in recent memory did serve as a welcome distraction from a changed world, I hate it when MLB gets up its own ass acting like they saved the country.
Likewise, it's not like the Saints were out of reach last season. They played half their home games in Baton Rouge, which closer to New Orleans than Milwaukee is to Chicago.
The people who couldn't afford to make this trip to see their team, who were most affected by the hurricane, or both, probably couldn't have afforded Saints tickets before the Hurricane anyway ($45 for a corner upperdeck seat). Hooray! The people who can afford season tickets are back on their feet, and don't have to spend 90 minutes driving to see their team!
Yeah, Zuch...You definitely make a good point about team success helping people feel better during rough personal times. I guess I might be thinking more on the perspective of someone who's not a diehard fan. But you're right; for a fan, it undoubtedly is exciting. But were I a homegrown Saints fan, I might also feel like, "They're taking something that should be OUR moment and making it into a national publicity stunt."
But yeah, it's a very fine line. That's why, like I said, I'm not totally sure how I feel about it.
I give you a lot of credit for expanding your thinking like that. It's probably based on my nature, but I really don't like thinking about things in that manner, unless it's horribly obvious something's wrong.
I think it's inevitable that it's both simultaneously a moment of catharsis for (some) New Orleans residents, but at the same time it's also undoubtedly an excercise in exploitation on behalf of ESPN/the NFL.
Because I feel that in some way the exploitation of the situation is inevitable, I'm a little less inclined to be outraged at this.
However, as Nate, Vinne, Gavin and I will attest, New Orleans is not, as the NFL would like you to believe, totally healed. This game is not the final step in a rebuilding process. IF (and that's still "if") the NFL plays the game off as such, they should be ashamed of themselves. I agree wholeheartedly with Zuch's assessment that this can be a good thing in the sense that it is a strong step forward to the reconstruction of a tragically decimated area.
The return of the Saints does indeed signify a return, in a sense, to normalcy for the city, which is undoubtedly a necessary part of the healing process. But, the NFL and the city must be delicate to remember the fact that for many, life won't ever be the same in New Orleans (if they can ever return there) with or without the Saints.
However, I think we can all agree that the city of New Orleans and its residents are all better off because, thank God, Aaron Brooks is gone.
Hahaha...something everyone can agree on.
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