Article Overview:
Is the Super Bowl a "day of dread" when domestic violence soars, or is
it a myth, an attempt to make the most watched television event of the
year a time of Terror? And, what should the Super Bowl be
more than 150 million family members who watch it this year?
Find out. |
VigilanceVoice
Saturday,
January 31, 2004—Ground Zero Plus 871
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Super Bowl Sunday--Is It A Day Of
Terrorism For Abuse To Women Or A Myth That Needs Vigilance Revision?
___________________________________________________________
by
Cliff McKenzie
Editor, VigilanceVoice.com
GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Jan. 31, 2004 -- Tomorrow, nearly half
the homes in America will be tuned to Super Bowl XXXVIII.
An estimated 150 million people, half the population of the United
States, will be glued to the sights of 300-pound linebackers smashing
into one another, Titans of the gridiron.
|
Tomorrow,
nearly half the homes in America ..... |
But, to feminists who advocate this is the "day of dread," women will
be huddling in the background, fearful of being body slammed by angry
men, lubricated with beer and booze, seeking to release their pent-up
violence on the "weaker" sex.
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....will
be
tuned
to
Super
Bowl
XXXVIII
|
According to the feminist theory, the children will witness the Beast
of Terror at his worst.
Is the claim that domestic violence
spikes on Super Bowl Sunday, or, is it a myth?
History has some answers.
It started back in 1993 in Pasadena,
California. Shelia Kuehl told reporters a news conference
organized by a coalition of women's groups that "forty percent more
women would be battered on that day." She based her claim,
she said, on a study done in 1990 by Janet Katz, a professor in
Sociology and Criminal Justice at Virginia's Old Dominion University.
|
Is the
increase in domestic violence during the Super Bowls real or an
urban myth? |
The
press ran with the story.
NBC buckled under pressure from the
advocates and ran a public service announcement in the pre-game
showing a well dressed man being put in jail with the announcement:
"Domestic violence is a crime."
The 30-second commercial, given free, would
have cost more than a half-million dollars at the time.
That is the seed of the myth, many
argue. Researchers charged the alleged study by Ms. Katz
and found that emergency room admissions she had cited were not linked
to football games in general.
Other studies--the following links
will guide you to them(
link 1,
link 2,
link 3,
link 4)--debunk the claim that
domestic violence rises during Super Bowl Sunday. They call
the statistical fabrication an "urban myth," and it appears to not
have statistical validity.
However, Super Bowl Sunday is a day
when millions of gallons of alcohol are consumed, and there is little
doubt that booze and violence run along the same path.
What is notable, however, about
Super Bowl Sunday, is that half the families in America will be tuned
to it. Children, whether they want to watch the show or not,
will be exposed to the battlefield where men thunder against one
another in a Clash of Titans to find out who will be King of the
Gridiron.
I am not a football fan, even though
most people accuse me of being a linebacker. I stand 6-4 and
weigh in at 280 (20 stones) and have that "linebacker scowl" that
signals anyone in front of me to weave or be knocked down.
My sport is golf. I prefer
trying to place a tiny ball on a target with a narrow piece of iron or
wood to smashing into another human being.
Be that as it may, the football game I
would love to see on Super Bowl Sunday would be the Beasts of Terror
vs. the Sentinels of Vigilance.
|
On the field
of scrimmage is Fear, Intimidation and Complacency |
On the
field would be Fear, and all its many forms; and Intimidation plus its
many sisters and brothers; and, Complacency with all its synonyms.
The Beasts would issue a rank odor.
They would have scales and fiery breath, and long pointed tails.
Their eyes would glow like coals from Hell and their fangs would drip
with drool, ala the beast in the movie Alien.
Of course, they would be dressed in black,
not to be confused with the Raiders.
Opposite them would be the Sentinels of
Vigilance, a combination of men and women. They would
appear weak and undernourished compared to the Beasts.
Some would be young and others old. They would be mothers,
fathers, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandmothers, grandfathers and loved
ones.
The betting pools would not give them much
of a chance just by looking at their physical side. When
they set up on the line, the shadows of the Beasts would loom upon
them as dark clouds gathering before the storm. They
would appear to be toothpicks butted up against the girth of a giant
Douglas Fir.
The Beasts would hiss at them before
the ball was snapped: "Loser. Failure. Nobody.
Weakling." They would peel back their prehistoric
lips and expose sharp fangs, polished to needlepoint tips to rip and
shred the vulnerable flesh during the pileups. They
would dig at the Astro Turf with their long claws, ripping it and
telling the Sentinel across from them how they were going to
eviscerate them.
|
The
captain of the Sentinels of Vigilance calls the plays of
Courage, Conviction and Rights Actions |
Each of
the Sentinels would be forced to face Fear, Intimidation and
Complacency on the line. They would have the choice
to fight it or flee from it. Those who felt the fetid
breath of the beasts beating on their necks would listen to the cheers
of nearly 100,000 fans and decide whether they wanted to stand up to
the Beast or fold.
The captain of the Sentinels
would issue his signals. Courage over Fear!
Conviction above Intimidation. Right Actions for the
Children's Children's Children instead of Complacency.
Then the ball would be snapped.
The mountains of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency would rush angrily
at the Sentinels. They would be Towers of Fear,
hurling themselves at the Sentinels. To the people in the
stands, and the millions watching on television, it would seem futile,
hopeless the Sentinels would have any chance.
But as the Courage within them
grew to counter the Fear, and the Conviction boiled up over the
Intimidation, and the vision of the faces of the Children's Children's
Children blossomed larger than the Complacency of selfish
self-preservation, the Sentinels would morph into their own form of
Titans.
The grandmothers and mothers
and other women on the line would suddenly become Amazons, strong,
iron-willed women who met the Beasts with a maternal force garnered
from all the children past, present and future.
The men, some young and small,
some old and weak, grew into Herculean figures, broad shouldered
Spartans with Swords and Shields of Vigilance to counter the Beasts'
attack. There would be a loud thunderous explosion
as the two forces met at the scrimmage line, each driving all its
power to uproot the other, to gain territorial victory.
At first no one would know who was
victorious. The two forces would combine, appearing as
though they had braised themselves from two into one.
There would be silence after the collision, a dull nothingness while
the people watching, as though in slow motion, waited to see who was
victorious.
Children, mothers, fathers,
grandparents, relatives and loved ones viewing the game around the
nation and world would suck in a united breath, holding it, waiting,
wondering.
Then the Beasts would begin to fall.
They would crumble under the weight of the Sentinels' Courage,
Conviction and Right Actions. They would scream and
cry out, no longer Beasts but now Gnats of Terror. Their
ferocity, a facade in the first place, would be shattered.
Like bullies caught with their pants
down, they would try to run away, pursued by the Sentinels.
Leaping through the air, the Sentinels would tackle them one by one,
reminding the viewers that Vigilance has the power to crunch
Terrorism, that Right Actions in the face of seemingly oppressive odds
ultimately triumphs over Complacency, and that Intimidation--however
large at any given moment--can be shrunk to the size of gnat when
one's Conviction to do the Right Thing for the Right Reason is fired.
|
Show up and
suit up no matter what the odds |
It would all
come down to standing up against Fear with Courage. It would all
start with suiting up and being willing to face the Beast, no matter
what the odds seemed to be against the outcome.
This would be my Super Bowl choice.
And that's why I wondered about the myth of
the "day of dread" where violence against women was promoted as the
outcome of the largest-watched sporting event in America.
If it were true that domestic violence was
such a large part of the Super Bowl, how could it continue to grow as
the most-watched event? Did that mean that despite all the
data, women allowed their husbands to become Beasts of Terror that
day, endangering them and their children?
Did it mean that men didn't care about their
wives and children, and would take the day off to become a Beast of
Terror at their family's expense.
Ultimately, after searching for facts, I realized
the Super Bowl was a family event. It wasn't a time when
the Beast of Terror ran rampant.
It was a time when two forces meet on a
field to find out who has the most Courage, Conviction and takes the
most Right Actions.
If one looks at the Super Bowl from a
Vigilance rather than a Terroristic perspective, one sees the best in
athletic skills being played out. The game is
monitored by umpires and referees to insure it is played clean.
Two forces meet, not to see who is the best
versus the worst, but to see who is the best of the best.
Children
and
families
watching
the
event
see
the
best
Sentinel
of
Football
Vigilance
competing
with
the
best
Sentinel
of
Football
Vigilance.
They
see
two
Sentinels
of
Vigilance
trying
to
improve.
The second best in the world is not a
loser. The loser is the one who doesn't compete to be better.
|
Ask your
children or loved ones to pick a team and root for its
ability to try to be its best |
A
suggestion for viewers who have children. Think
about telling your children that the players on the field are
Sentinels of Vigilance, trying to improve. Tell them
that to be the best one has to face many challenges, and the
challenges one faces are often based on overcoming Fear with Courage,
trumping Intimidation with Conviction, and taking Right Actions rather
than falling Complacency and doing nothing.
Ask your children or loved ones to
pick a team and root for it, not on the basis of its just winning, but
on its ability to try its best to be its best.
Vigilance is about our attempt to
improve. It is about our willingness to want to be our best as
human beings, and that means we have to face the Beasts of Terror on
the scrimmage line. It means we need to have the faith in
ourselves first to overpower the Fear and Intimidation the Beast tries
to inject into us as we look up at him just before the ball is
snapped.
You can make the Super Bowl a
Super Bowl of Vigilance, not a "day of dread."
Enjoy it.
Jan 30--Broken
Promises Feed The Beast Of Terror
©2001
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2004,
VigilanceVoice.com,
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rights
reserved
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