by Mac Olsen
I can still remember the three-minute ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ educational cartoons from the 1970’s, in particular the ‘Interjection!’ episode.
In this cartoon, a football player passes the pigskin to the opposing team, so they win the game. All but one of the fans yells their frustration. The dissenting one says, ‘Hurray! I’m for the other team!’ The other fans turn to him and give him a dirty look, so he cowers back to his seat.
That episode came to mind when I read a recent story from The Canadian Press, dated Sept. 12, ‘Fans pour beer on head of boy for wearing green at Bombers-Roughriders game’.
The game was held in Winnipeg on Sept. 10, known as the ‘Banjo Bowl’. In the story, Janell-Marie Edmond said that people were swearing at her nine-year-old son, Taylor, because he was wearing a green sweater over his Bomber T-shirt and “saying he was a Rider fan and he should go back to where he came from.”
The story also says that they poured beer on his head. However, the Bombers were quick to make amends for what happened.
“We consistently strive to provide all of our great fans the best game day experience possible, and incidents like these are extremely disappointing, and do not represent the majority of our fan base,” the team said in a statement.
Kudos to this CFL team for their efforts.
I’m also reminded of two other incidents maliciousness towards kids, and both are hunting related.
In the first, I watched an episode of Wild TV in 2009, where a youth showed off his first-ever white-tailed kill. One man came up and looked at it and said that the buck was too young and he should have shot an older deer.
In the second, I saw a Facebook posting of another youth who also shot a white-tailed buck. One of the comments I saw in the posting was, ‘No wonder why he doesn’t have a father’.
In all three cases, I condemn the people for their acts of cowardice.
Picking up on children like that. No, better still, in each case, it was bullying, an act of malevolence or sarcasm.
Since who are they to pass judgment on children? Who are they to impose themselves on children?
The people who poured the beer on the boy at the football game should feel ashamed of themselves for their conduct. It’s inexcusable.
Even if he was a Saskatchewan Roughriders fan, so what? He had every right to be at the game as they did.
And those who take swipes at kids who participate in activities like hunting, they should keep their malovelence to themselves. They may not like such activities, but it doesn’t give them the right to belittle those kids.
In my quest to become a foster parent, there is one thing I take to heart. Kids need nurturing and positive influences in their lives. It does no good to be piling malevolence, sarcasm and bullying on them.
Is that what you want them to do when they grow up? To become you?