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But if we never get another team here, I don't care and I'll tell you why.
Just this past Saturday, Jim, a friend of mine and I went down to Tia Juana to do some shopping. Good Bargains in TJ (Ol' Mexico) and the thing that smacked me right in the fact was the abject poverty. Especially the Indians or native mexicans.
Crossing the bridge over to the Mexican side of the border you see little Indian toddlers and I mean toddlers with styrofoam coffe cups in their hands and they run up to you and beg for money. Others sit and play little hand me down acoustical guitars (toys) and sing their hearts out hoping you will take pity on them and drop a few coins on to their blankets or in their little coffee cans etc. Other little ones run up to you with a package of gum of rchicklets and practically beg you to buy some from them for a couple of bucks. While others lay on the side of bridge with the look of despair on their four and five year old faces. Just hoplessly sitting there with absolutely nothing in their lives to look forward to except poverty when they get older. If they live that long.
The situation in Mexico at the border in TJ is very real. Sad, to see children living in the kind of poverty the Indian / Mexican toddlers are subjected to and have been before I was born and maybe after I die.
I have a four year old daughter and I felt the pain of seeing a face that should be full of joy. Instead they are forced to work and beg for scraps from ugly Americans dragging their children along with them to flaunt their wealth and well-being in the faces of these tortured little ones. Is it any wonder that United States citizens are among the most hated tourists in the world?
I wish I could do something for each and everyone of those kids, but, being only one person I can't, and there certainly doesn't seem to be any great public outcry. Certainly not from the booze-hound, sex- hungry teenagers and twenty somethings who go there for the partying and debauchery. Certainly not from the bargain hunters who view the Mexican merchants as stupid and easy to talk down in price. I certainly can't put my own family in financial jeapardy to help the hopeless and suffering.
We as fans could all band together and cumlatively we might make a difference for a while, but the United States as a people need to recognize these facts and rise up to do something about it. We shouldn't just put the blame on our politicians. It is the soul of our nation that is bankrupt for allowing these conditions to continue.
And lets face it, the poverty resides within our borders as well for I have seen it with my own eyes. So has anyone else who cares to pay attention.
When I see that type of situation existing here next to the border of the US and then I think about the NFL demanding public money for their stupid football league and to support some owners high on the hog life style it makes my blood boil.
If we never get another pro team here in LA I don't care. There are people suffering at our doorstep. Human beings who live in a totally different world then ourselves and we flaunt our wealth and well being in their faces everytime we go into their country to party and to shop for the great bargains.
No, no public funding for the NFL here in California or Los Angeles or Orange County. Hey they can take the Chargers and 49ers and Raiders and ship them all out of the state as well. We don't support carpetbaggers here in this state. Hear that Paul Tagliabue?
No, give the money to people in need. I don't need NFL football in my town that bad. Send the tax dollars to care for the toddlers who man the bridge between here and mexico and have no hope in their lives. Who've never seen a color television or heard of the Rams or Cardinals or Chargers and only thoughts of hunger fill their minds and a warm place to sleep.
I can't validate or approve of the NFL wanting more public funds. Houston can have the damn team.