[PRCo] Re: THEIR 6TH SUPERBOWL WIN!

[Phillip Clark Campbell]

Mr.Cramer;


This is one excellent treatise;  thank you for writing your observations.


Phil






----- Original Message ----
> From: Dennis Fred Cramer <trombone at windstream.net>
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 6:08:29 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: THEIR 6TH SUPERBOWL WIN!
> 
> The city and county are not the same and the economic variances across both 
> the county and region are staggering.  It is one thing to found memories of 
> what once was and another to live in the reality and see it day to day. 
> Realize that the Steeler Nation exists because so many people had to leave 
> this area to find meaningful employment and people feel a need to belong to 
> a social group that has little rules.  Religion does not work as well today 
> because there are expectations.  Belonging to a group in Facebook, MySpace, 
> this group, or something as vague as Steeler Nation is comforting to many. 
> We can do it from the comfort of our homes without necessarily having to 
> make any commitments.
> 
> The Steelers won, not me or any of the other patrons.  We are the ones who 
> had new sports stadiums shoved down our throats when we voted them down. 
> The politicians like to talk about the incredible revenue teams bring to an 
> area.  There were 10 regular season football games in Heinz Field played by 
> the Steelers, one day of WPIAL high school playoffs and about 6 PITT games. 
> Far too little usage for my tax money.  They should have let the Pirates go. 
> They thought if they built a new park that everything would be 
> wonderful--build it and they will come.  They never considered traffic to or 
> from the games.  Watch other cities and see how there stadiums have parking, 
> road, and many times rail access.  Pittsburgh is a nightmare when there is a 
> sporting event and the Rooney's want public money to build an entertainment 
> complex.
> 
> I do not spend money on sports and think there is far to much emphasis on it 
> in the media.  Too many people want to live their lives through someone else 
> than themselves.  We stopped at the Grove City outlets on the way home from 
> Niagara last weekend and in this struggling economy, the Steeler store was 
> jammed with people spending incredible amounts of money thinking they own 
> the team.  It is a business and all professional sports owners & players 
> realize that.  They have to meet a budget and try to get what they can. They 
> sit on the couch and call themselves sports enthusiasts.
> 
> We have seen rude behavior by all sorts of people in all sorts of settings. 
> Many times alcohol has a lot to do with it.  I remember playing at Three 
> Rivers in the early '70's and seeing people being carried out because they 
> were so drunk.  Many stadiums have built family zones and a few even have a 
> district magistrate office in the stadium.  It is just as bad in high school 
> sports.  I spent 40 years as a student and teacher in music programs 
> directly involved in sports programs and many times the parents bring the 
> wrong attitudes. Many fine coaches leave the profession, because of "expert 
> parents" who gained their expertise by watching sports on TV, want to run 
> the show instead of letting the professional teach.  Don't even ask about 
> performance enhancing drugs given by parents to their kids to help them 
> improve.
> 
> If their was as much time effort and concern actually spent on learning our 
> educational system might not be the basket case that it is today.  Parents 
> cannot afford to provide them with the basics needed to succeed, but they 
> all have $80.00 team jerseys on their backs and a cell phone in their 
> pocket.
> 
> Enough of the tirade, I am going to spend the day celebrating on of my 
> favorite persons 200th birthday.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dennis F. Cramer
>       Trombone