For those who know me, I'm a foe of most sporting events. Baseball: painfully boring. Hockey: gratuitous idiocy. Boxing: All of the above. Don't get me wrong. While I don't advocate these sports, I don't necessarily condemn them either. I understand that simple minds crave simplistic stimuli. And I also understand that ESPN and Gatorade need to make a buck somehow.
During a trip to a local bar last weekend, however, I witnessed the disturbing depths to which the sports and entertainment industries have sunk. I saw young calves being prodded with an electric "phaser" only to be released into a pen and beaten down onto the ground and "roped" by "cowboys." Throughout the series of "calf ropings," the crowd thundrously cheered as each of the cowboys, unscathed, threw his arms up victoriously as he grinned a most sadistic grin.
Distraught by what I saw, I did more research and realized that calf roping is but one of MANY so-called "sports" that falls under the umbrella of the "rodeo." After consulting with www.prorodeo.com, I learned that the insanity does not stop with calf roping, but "steer roping", "steer wrestling" and "bull riding", among others. Each of these "sports" shares a common thread: animal abuse for the sake of "entertainment."
This is neither sport NOR entertainment, folks. I find nary an iota of sportsmanship when a 180 lb human being beats a 40 pound calf to the ground. Moreover, I find it highly UNentertaining that the media propagates such a sport in the midst of a nationwide epidemic of pointless violence . Guns do kill people, that much is true, but what is the impetus behind pulling the trigger? Depending on the source, it is claimed that 40-88% of adolescents and adults convicted of homicide/manslaughter have had some prior practice with torturing and/or killing animals.
I do not blame the rodeo as the sole culprit behind our Nation's recent tragedies. I do, however, find the rodeo guilty of desensitizing violence. I also find the rodeo guilty of eroding our Nation's social conscience. Of course, one might argue that we can lobby for stricter gun legislation, but it is merely a temporary panacea to a more permanent problem. After all, what good is remedial law when homicidal tendencies are left unquelled? Indeed, guns are only one vehicle by which these tendencies are employed and executed. To our chagrin, we may find that bombs, machetes and other mortal weapons are just as effective.
For shame, TNN, ESPN and rodeo patrons. The "Wild West" was won over a century ago, but you continue to perpetuate the inhumanity and violence of yesteryear. Please, visit
http://stream.realimpact.org/rihurl.ram?file=realimpact/peta/video_switchable/rodeo.smi for a glimpse of the rodeo's crimes to animals and to humanity. Better yet, write your local congressman/congresswoman at
http://www.house.gov/writerep/ and tell them that the rodeo is not (and will never be) welcome in your town. Nip the problem in the bud and [b]uck the rodeo.
