Sunday morning sun rays

Roger Carlson

There’s a gnawing sense that in times like these there are not very

many important things that one does over the course of a day, that most

everything on the regular schedule is pretty trivial.

I’ve thought about that a lot since Tuesday morning, putting together

the various local sporting items for publication, frankly feeling a

little guilty that a good deal of my attention is directed to these

matters, instead of the overwhelming stories of grief and horror and of

the impending retaliation and, I fear, a never-ending war with insanity

and hate. There are going to be more tears, more prayers, more resolve.

Despite the knowledge that some would suggest our priorities our

warped ... (just how important is a high school football game on a Friday

night or any other night?), there is only one answer to all this and

that’s to keep going wherever it can be accomplished.

Major League Baseball, the NFL and virtually all Division I college

and national events have been put on the back burner and presumably will

return very soon.

But on the local scene, most of the games have been going on.

Friday was dark because of the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance.

But it’s back now. Corona del Mar hosted Troy Saturday night, Costa Mesa

was at Westminster Saturday afternoon, and in the evening at Westminster,

Newport Harbor dueled Marina. Estancia elected not to play Saturday, but

the Eagles will be back on Friday. Orange Coast played, as scheduled, on

Saturday.

These games, as well as all of the others - water polo and cross

country, soccer and volleyball, AYSO and Pop Warner football, play a

major part in our lives.

Friday Night Lights are moments that are relished for a lifetime.

The players and fans, the cheerleaders and coaches, the upsets and

setups, scrambling around Saturday morning to read the game accounts, all

play a huge role in the process of the American life.

The terrorists who managed to complete their rotten deeds in New York

City and Washington, D.C., certainly have no right to collateral damage.

We have to keep going the best way we can, and blend it with the

obvious compassion and sympathy for our fallen citizens. It’s not a

matter of disrespect. It’s in honor of them.

World War II claimed a lot of our Major League Baseball players, but

the games went on. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made that decision.

Despite four years of carnage, G.I. Joe in the fox holes of France and

the Pacific had an up-to-date knowledge of how the Brooklyn Dodgers were

doing.

Pilot sports coverage and the sort isn’t going to change now for this,

or anything else, for that matter, in terms of doing what we can do with

what we have.

Buck Johns, a longtime Newport Harbor High supporter, once told me in

a note, “You have the best job in the world.”

I couldn’t agree more, and we’re going to keep doing it the best way

we can.

High school football and all of the things that revolve around it in

the fall, and sports in general, are an American way of life.

God bless America.