Has Sports Ruined Self Government?

Congratulations to Bryan Harsin and Chris Petersen on their new jobs.  Their hiring will be the lead story on every newscast locally in the Treasure Valley. I've mentioned it and covered while on the air this morning.  The big question; is our attention on sports hurting our republic form of government?  The founding fathers created a government that relied on its people to participate in the election process.    When's the last time we had over 50% turnout at the ballot box?  We all love  Fox News but can it compete with 40 channels of ESPN?   I'm sure more folks know who Chris Petersen is than Kathleen Sebelius.  The trouble is what Katleen does impacts their lives more so than Chris Petersen.

Sports at one time use to be our escape from reality.  Now it's our reality.  We can watch a game and listen to jabronies pretend to analyze them for us.  Let's not forget the fantasy aspect for people that really have nothing better to do.  (I can hear you now saying, it's fun, why do you have issues Grinch Miller?)

The danger, like too many trips to the golden corral for your humble writer, is our entertainment has become our focus.  We see too many folks uninformed about the issues but can name for you the starting lineups of their favorite team at the drop of a hat.  We feel those consequences in our paychecks and insurance premiums.

We talk and read about their troubling stories everyday.  Millions of our fellow Americans are losing their health insurance or paying double, triple or more for the same coverage.  Ask them if Obamacare was a good idea?  This wouldn't have happened if the public had been engaged and understood the issues.  Then again, it's easier to switch SportCenter or the Voice because they're non offensive.  We've become a society of watchers instead of doers.  We let the television athletic supporters do all the work while we wine about what we don't have.

If the fallout over healthcare doesn't bring us back then I don't know what will?  Could you imagine a town hall

debate with the intensity of a fall football game?  How about a primary field that was covered with half the attention of March Madness?  We would have a better class of politicians who understood they work for us and not that we work for them!

How do we do it?  It all starts with you.  Put down the remote and begin to get involved.  Every morning we offer you a chance to be heard, take advantage of it!  Get on social media and have no fear about being offensive!  Support local candidates that have the guts to knock on doors while the hotdog eaters are comparing stats and trading baseball cards.  Great coaches like Harsin and Petersen continue to work hard to better their product.  It's time we stepped up to better ours.