Letters From Readers
Armory
Fee? Say it ain't so...
For over a year now, I have regularly
enjoyed exercising at the Armory on the University of
Illinois campus.
The area in the Armory where the track is located is a
cavernous and drab place where people come to burn calories.
From my time spent there jogging, I've discovered that
people in this community are highly creative when it comes
to their methods of staying fit!
Beneath the high, curved ceiling, with sunlight filtering
murkily in, the Armory plays host to a myriad of activities
that go on all day, every day, during any season. Frisbees
get tossed; soccer balls get kicked; baseballs are thrown;
hopeful track and field athletes sprint, long jump, shot
put, and hurdle with admirable determination.
There's much more at the Armory, too. I've seen riders
on unicycles navigate the track next to middle-aged women
simply walking. Jugglers finds space to juggle. During
the summer, the Armory hosts the University's basketball
camp. It's interesting to jog in sweltering heat as dozens
of basketball hoops loom over the track as if standing
guard, waiting for a new youngster to come in and take
some shots.
Many groups use the Armory as a place to practice, to
refine their skills. Batting cages are set up on occasion;
running clubs use the Armory during cold winter months;
cheerleaders are sometimes there to hone their routines,
as are various African-American dance clubs; lancing lessons
can be seen every single weeknight at the Armory; and
despite what may sound like a circus-like atmosphere,
yoga is practiced at the Armory on a routine basis.
The point is, the Armory is like an indoor playground
where people - people of all ages, incomes, races, sexes,
and interests - can come to enjoy themselves. And like
an outdoor playground, they don't have to pay a fee or
go through turnstiles to do so.
I'd hate to see the Armory become an institutionalized
gym, as the University's Board of Trustees has proposed.
Usually the Armory is mostly empty, but I'd miss the spontaneity
and freedom of the place when it's filled with people,
which would all but vanish if regular community members
had to pay a fee to use the Armory. My wish: let the Armory
remain as it is - free for everybody.
On a recent Sunday afternoon visit I witnessed a young
man acting as a mentor for a younger child. They were
hitting tennis balls in the batting cages. "Are you having
fun?" asked the mentor. "Yeah!" came the enthusiastic
response from the child, who promptly whacked another
tennis ball into the net of the cage.
Next week it might be Frisbee football or a game of soccer.
Whatever free activity is going on, it certainly makes
the Armory an interesting place to jog.
Sal Nudo
Champaign, Illinois
Why
So Bloodthirsty?
Why have Americans been so gung-ho
about engaging in a war? There is an overall context
in which this conflict occurred, a history in which
our nation has played an active and heavy hand, and
so why do we call for the blood of others when we might
more fruitfully examine our own backyards? Why does
George W. Bush enjoy a nearly 90% approval rating, apparently
unprecedented in history, for his simplistic (“This
is a war of good against evil”) and brutal response
to the events of September 11?
I suggest that we are a society that has been conditioned
to violence. We were simply not prepared for an even-handed
response to a genuine threat on our own soil. s.
I’ve heard it more than once: “It was like a movie,”
referring to the horrid spectacle of the twin towers
bursting, collapsing, pieces of people raining down
on the street. In the movies, the bad guy is always
REALLY bad, so bad he deserves to die. And we in our
seats rejoice as he gets what he deserves and the threat
is removed like a bad appendix. Force was called for,
force was effective, and the ‘good guys’ live happily
ever after.
In the movies, I sit uninspired by this trite and simplistic
plot line. In real life, it scares the hell out of me.
It doesn’t seem to bother the kids as they exterminate
video-game villains with the touch of a button. But
we, as adults, should be capable of grasping that real
life is never quite so black and white.
During the holidays I watched “The Grinch Who Stole
Christmas”. It was the updated Hollywood version, and
not a bad one, mind you, but one that like most of today’s
Hollywood movies contained: 1) a celebrity star; 2)
romance; and 3) the fiery explosion of a vehicle slamming
into something. Upon seeing this, I reflected that if
even a Dr. Seuss tale must now feature a fossil fuel
explosion, we should not be surprised to live in a world
in which jumbo jets crash into skyscrapers. We play
with fire.
We are emotionally vulnerable. I could point to a thousand
things, but take as a major example the diaspora of
extended families and the degradation of even the nuclear
family into a latchkey arrangement or worse. Television,
school, and the streets have not proven to be worthy
substitutes for the kinds of bonds found in healthy,
intact communities (villages, if you will); they cannot
as meaningfully teach the conflict resolution skills
which would provide an alternative to unreflective violence.
We bring a collective psychology of unmet, even unconsidered,
needs to the problem of our own aggression and that
of other nations. Scapegoating is inevitable.
We are physically vulnerable as well. Again I could
catalogue elements of the debilitating American lifestyle,
but onepervasive example is the simple lack of rest.
The average adult has lost at least two nightly hours
of sleep over the course of the past century. That’s
seven hundred hours per year! In the 1970’s, Americans
had 27 hours a week to devote to ‘leisure’ time. By
the 1990’s we were down to 15 hours. Contrast this with
contemporary France, where workplace parking lots are
patrolled after closing time to make sure that no one
works too long. Europeans also typically enjoy 4-6 weeks
of vacation per year. We Americans, on the other hand,
now average at least 48 hours of work a week, compared
to 35 for the typical American worker of the 1970’s,
and the Old World surely pities us our two weeks off
per year. This not only makes us edgy enough to lash
out when threatened, but who among us has the time for
adequate research and reflection? And without such reflection,
how can we possibly respond calmly and sanely to everyday
events, muchless the slaughter of six thousand in the
heart of New York?
Mark Twain wrote a story called “The Mysterious Stranger”,
set in the time of stonings and witch hunts. During
one such act of communal ‘justice’, the title character
comments that not one of the stone-throwers truly wanted
to participate; they were all simply afraid of what
the others might do if they abstained. Perhaps we are
not so gung-ho after all. Just uninformed…needy…tired…stressed.
We as a society may yet achieve a more rational perspective.
After all, we are a young nation whose vast resources
and ocean borders have so far shielded us from drastic
international consequences. As those resources dwindle,
and geographic obstacles shrink in the face of technology,
perhaps it will become easier to appreciate our interdependence.
I hope then we can drop the big stick and shake hands
with our neighbors, our brothers - our own.
Jim Kotowski
Champaign, IL
Appearing beneath the train
tracks near Downtown Champaign, this mural was photographed
by Jason and Jacqueline Waters. |
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