The big game was originally still on. Then the games are canceled and calls, e-mails and complaints into talk shows deal with the issue that individuals can’t believe the game got canceled. Never have I been so ashamed to call myself an Iowan.

That game should have been canceled right away. Respect should have been shown right away.

Why did that game need to be played? I heard people talking about how they had been looking forward to the game and they wanted to get away and see something other than the news.

I do not understand how individuals not only need others to entertain them but expected them to.

A NFL player said it best, “I can’t see myself attacking, I can’t see myself briefly hating other Americans.”

It has nothing to do with the terrorists stopping our lives; it has to do with the fact that in the week after thousands of lives were lost, respect needed to be shown.

Of course our lives were interrupted and of course our lives are changed – four planes were hijacked and crashed.

And respect should be shown.

A game, a simple game that is played on a field, didn’t need to occur. I do not understand how players could have been ready when such violence has occurred. Yes businesses went on this past week.

However, a mistake at a bank or at a grocery store is solved with a few keys pressed. A mistake on a football field results in injuries. I don’t understand how officials wanted a game when rescue workers would be working around the clock to find victims and survivors. I do not understand why some wanted to celebrate when others are grieving.

There is a time and place for everything and the day after the President declared a day of mourning a game shouldn’t be considered.

On a talk show Friday morning a lady called, and asked where “respect” went. The talk show host asked, “What is wrong with this country and people who think others need to entertain them? Are sports that important today?

Maybe that is why heroes now are sports figures who make $1 million dollars and hit a baseball, not the firefighter who makes $30,000 and saves lives.” Where do our values lie?

Lastly I ask, if some sports-crazed individuals “needed” football this weekend to show their lives were moving on, what did they do since there was none?

Did you spend time with your families?

Donate blood or plasma? Try to find out what support you could lend?

Or did you just complain and think, “Sports start on Monday, I can’t wait.”

Scott Koch

ISU Alum