After All these Years Indy Needs a Winner

I’m sitting here in the Abbey coffee shop on a Sunday morning, just finishing up my breakfast of scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and cream cheese, still feeling good about the Colts playoff victory on Saturday.

Now, I’m not a big sports fan. I typically don’t watch football on Sunday afternoons, except for Colts games. I can’t stand baseball except for the occasional Indianapolis Indians game at Victory Field. And I haven’t even watched a Pacers game this year, since I lost all respect for the players after the late-night strip club antics of several of them during the preseason.

I never played sports when I was in school. I wouldn’t have been any good anyway. I did enjoy the mechanics of the game, especially football. It intrigued me. Just after I graduated high school, I officiated a few Bantam League games. And in college, I was one of the officials for their intramural football and basketball games. Unfortunately, I really stank up the proceedings.

I was quick on the whistle and often didn’t see what officials are supposed to see. But I still liked doing it.

In my teens and early 20s, my favorite sport was football and my favorite teams were the Bears, Cowboys, and Packers. That was long before Indianapolis got a team. It was still very much a minor league city, with the Indians and the ABA Pacers.

I liked only professional football, not college. And I didn’t like the AFC. So when the AFC Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984 I was a little ambivalent. I was really pleased the city now had an NFL team, but I would have been happier if it had been from the NFC. I also would have much rather the team be renamed. I firmly believe that team names should remain with the city.

Still, I suddenly became a Colts fan. Indianapolis now had two major league professional sports franchises, the NBA Pacers and the AFC Colts. But simply having the teams didn’t garner instant respect from the nation.

We almost lost the Pacers in 1977. If it hadn’t been for a major season ticket drive and even a telethon hosted by then Channel 8 sports anchor Chet Coppack the Pacers would have been history.

The team struggled throughout much of its history following the NBA-ABA merger. Attendance was so low at Market Square Arena that Pacers management had to bribe the fans into attending by putting on rock music shows following the games.

Finally, though, the Pacers started getting noticed. In the late ‘90s and throughout much of this decade the Pacers have been a contender. The Colts, too, whose name used to stand for “Count On Losing This Sunday” started to gain national respectability. With Peyton Manning at the helm, they have almost become America’s Team, replacing the Cowboys. At least that was the perception last season and the year before.

But, alas, a Super Bowl appearance has remained elusive. They almost got in once, but the Hale Mary pass to the end zone as time ran out fell to the ground.

Well, despite a less-than-spectacular end to this season and a defense that ranked dead last during the regular season, the Colts are poised for another Super Bowl bid. All they have to do is win one more game. It won’t be easy, but it will be possible. And if the team has proven anything during the playoffs, it is that they are now driven.

After 23 years of ups and downs, mainly downs, the Indianapolis Colts might actually be Super Bowl bound. Hopefully, this will be their year to go.

My 2007 Wish List

Schools are all back in session and everyone has gone back to work after the holidays. Most of those who made New Year resolutions have already broken them by now; after all, it’s been almost two weeks.

Most people think nothing of the fact that we begin a new year in the dead of winter. The ancient Babylonians started their new year in March, when spring arrives and everything is beginning to come back to life. That makes more sense.

But thanks to the second-century Roman Senate, new years begin at the most ludicrous time of year to start one, January 1.

I don’t make New Years resolutions because I know I probably wouldn’t keep them anyway. But I do sometimes make a list of what I would like for those in power to accomplish during the upcoming year.

So here are a few things I would like to see happen during 2007 at the local, state, national, and global levels.

Starting locally, I would love to see the population of Edinburgh and Blue River Township start to grow as fast as the rest of Johnson County. According to the latest census, every town and city in the county grew rapidly except Edinburgh, which actually lost population.

A new subdivision in Blue River Township would help. And, like I’ve said for the last 15 years, if people won’t come to Edinburgh, take Edinburgh to the people. Annex more land where people already live, like Talberton Addition and Pleasant View. Population growth, however it is accomplished, helps municipalities garner more federal dollars and helps put them on the map.

At the state level, I would love for the Indiana General Assembly to do what more and more counties and cities are already doing. They should pass a state-wide law banning all smoking in any building where the public congregates. That should include bars and bowling alleys.

It also should be illegal to smoke cigarettes in any enclosed space where children are present, including private homes and vehicles. It’s a form of child abuse.

Nationally, I hope the new democratic congress will quickly overturn Pres. Bush’s ban on funding for embryonic stem cell research. We are years behind where we could be in that area.

Almost 80 percent of Americans support embryonic stem cell research. Last year Congress passed legislation approving federal funding for it, but our knucklehead-in-chief vetoed it. He’ll veto it again, but hopefully, the vote this year will be veto-proof.

It would also be on my New Year’s wish for Congress to realize the error of its ways and repeal the No Child Left behind Act. It is a travesty for American education that schools have to spend so much time, effort, and money trying to educate those students who are incorrigible or incapable that we have virtually forgotten about the ones who need most of the attention, those in the middle.

And, globally, it would be nice if scientists and governments on a world-wide basis would come together to make a firm commitment to develop alternative fuels. The continued burning of fossil fuels will eventually kill civilization as we know it. We don’t really have a choice if society is to survive. If it’s not already too late, now is the time to set a firm timeline and put a real plan in place to switch our global fuel consumption to something other than crude oil.

The Year that Was 2006, part 2

Last week I started a retrospective of the year 2006 as perceived by me in my Over Coffee columns. I made it through June. So this week, while sitting in yet another coffee shop drinking a large decaf sugar-free vanilla latte with cinnamon, I’ll finish out the year.

In July, I grumbled about the fact that Indiana is one of only a handful of states that do not provide free textbooks to school children. Only 10 states charge a book rental fee, and some of them pay part of the fee for the parents. Indiana pays only for those who are on the free or reduced-price lunch program.

Also in July, I wrote about this guy in Canada who got the bright idea to trade a red paperclip for a house. He did it via the Internet, working his way up from paperclip to a fish pen to a clay doorknob, to a camping stove. Later, merchandise included a snowmobile, a van, and an evening with Alice Cooper. Finally, he traded a spot on a TV show for his sought-after house. What a deal!

I started off July with an intriguing story about two researchers who determined with mathematical certainty that every person alive on earth today is a descendant of someone who lived between 2000 and 5000 years ago. We just don’t know who, but he or she probably lived in Asia.

In August I wrote about some unbelievably naïve Californians who gathered at a chocolate factory to see a lump of chocolate drippings that had solidified on some wax paper underneath a vat of melted chocolate. The owner of the place thought the drippings resembled the Virgin Mary. So we had yet another virgin sighting in California; that is quite rare. But being made of chocolate, I wonder if we could call it a sweet Mother of God sighting.

And kids, there is one less planet you now have to learn in science class. In August the International Astronomical Union decided to downgrade the former planet Pluto to just a large asteroid.

In September, I wrote about Edinburgh’s Fall Festival Parade. Even though it’s a small parade that changes little from year to year, I enjoy coming together with the rest of the crowd and observing the event each year. I did get a couple of e-mail complaints, however, because I wrote that I didn’t see any purpose of having some annoying semi truck in the parade. After all, I see enough of them on the freeway.

In October I let out my frustration yet again at Pres. Bush’s education policy. Give me a break. The No Child Left Behind Act would be a joke if it were not hindering so many mainstream students in their quest for a good education. As a teacher, I know for a fact that putting too many resources into trying to bring the incorrigible kids into line and including so many special needs students in mainstream classrooms cheats the majority of students out of the attention and resources they would otherwise be getting.

In November, I lamented how Thanksgiving often gets left out. It is the poor stepchild of holidays, stuck halfway between two more popular observances, Halloween and Christmas. Even so, I love the turkey dinners.

I also complained about the trouble we seem to have doing elections. My plan would be to let people vote online. After all, they do everything else online, from renewing their license plates to booking air travel. Why would it be so hard to vote online?

I finished off the year’s columns with an idea to have a real jury trial about whether or not global warming is real. I believe it would be a slam-dunk case.

In an update, last week the Bush administration moved to place the polar bear on the endangered species list due to the lack of shelf ice in northern Canada. It was a backdoor admission that the climate is warming. Still, Bush did not blame the problem on human activity.

No matter how often Bush is wrong, he’ll never admit any of it. It’s in his nature. Let’s hope 2007 gives us some more Bush surprises like the decision on polar bears.