Welcome Aboard the Payne Train

Many of you may have heard or seen Bill Clinton’s interview with Fox News reporter Chris Wallace. After Clinton spoke I felt like saying to Wallace and Fox News and Bush and anyone who could hear me, ” Yah that’s how I’ve felt for 4 years now!” And then Keith Olbermann (Cornell grad of Communications) comes along last night on his show “Countdown”, which was after Condoleeza Rice tried to defend Bush and his cabinet (which she is a part of) for their decisions or lack there of that they made prior to 9/11, and did a segment called Special Comment which afterwards I felt like standing up and applauding and yelling out, ”If John Kerry would’ve said that, he’d be president!” Tip of the Hat (as Stephen Colbert would say) to Keith Olbermann. Here is the link for anyone who would like to watch the clip: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/09/25/olbermanns-special-comment-are-yours-the-actions-of-a-true-american

As the great journalist Edward R. Murrow used to say, “Good night and good luck.”

If you ever have or will go on one of my tours you already know or will know that the 3rd tier of sports at Cornell is intramural sports. If you enjoy watching and/or playing a sport(s) you will thouroughly enjoy this activity. It’s friendly competition. You don’t even have to know how to play the sport to be on a team. If you love watching baseball but have never played it in you entire life go out and join an intramural baseball team, you won’t be the only one. It’s grrrreat! The games are taken seriously while you’re playing it, but in the end it’s all for fun. Don’t get me wrong you’re playing to win the championship or as Herman Edwards (coach of the Kansas City Chiefs) says, “You play to win the game.” But in the end you’re all smiles win or lose and this is coming from a very competitive person.

I play soccer and flag football in the fall, hopefully bowling in the winter, and softball in the spring. Us tour guides, captained by Nick Bannin, just completed our third soccer game today. We lost 3-2 and usually I’d be kicking myslef for the entire night after giving up the final goal but with intramural sports and a giddy team as the tour guides are (credit Nick) I only kicked myself in my mind for a couple of minutes. Just for relativity that’s a great accomplishment.

Before I begin I must explain that I felt the need to put liberal in front of Catholic to dispel the quick assumptions that just because one is devout towards a Christian religion doesn’t mean he/she is from the bible belt or votes Republican or follows religious zealots such as Pat Robertson or believes Christian religions are superior or necessarily wants to ban gay marriage or stem cell research, or even abortion. You are more than welcome to ask what my views are on these topics and I will be more than happy to answer you and explain my logic behind my decision on each of them. I believe if it weren’t for the hard-core conservative Christian right (which the Republican party manipulates) I would not even need to make this statement. But that is not the case.

This past weekend, as many of you know, the Pope made a visit to his home country of Germany where he spoke to a crowd mostly consisting of people in the academia profession. In that speech there was one specific comment that rightfully incited many Muslims. When I read the news articles I sat in front of my laptop in disbelief. I couldn’t believe he said that. I know Benedict is no John Paul II, but I thought his goal was to continue to reach out to other religions, make lasting connections for peace. Even his apology did not directly state his sorrow for making the comment but rather the reaction that followed. The speech the Pope made was an opinionated, convince speech (the term I learned from my oral communications class) not an inform speech. He had no neutrality in his speech and therefore cannot take a neutral position on that quote. Although he cited the quote as taken from an emperor, since it is a convince speech, unless he disagrees with or refutes the quote in his speech, it is one that he supports.  On the other hand, it does not help the invalidity of his claim that Mohammed preached violence when, as a reaction to what the Pope said, cloth dummies of the Pope are being burned by Muslims, 4 churches were fire bombed by Muslims, and a nun was killed by Muslims. I AM NOT DEFENDING WHAT THE POPE SAID, BUT THE EVENTS MENTIONED ABOVE DO NOT HELP IN REBUFFING THE STATEMENT FROM THE POPE.

On an aside, I would like to say that the day after the speech was delivered (Sunday) I went to church and the first sentence that came out of the priest’s mouth during the sermon was about what happened. I was pleased to see this problem was not brushed under the rug, and the priest certainly did not support what was said; rather he hoped these wounds could be healed. There are two active Catholic priests at Cornell, both of whom I consider to be progressive and universally understanding about all the differences among people whether that be sexuality, race, or religious preferences. I am happy that these two priests have a more realistic world view and compliment them on what they preach. It would be a problem if they didn’t since they are sharing a building with religious leaders from the 21 other different religions represented at Cornell.

So I was asked to talk about our intramural soccer game by fellow tour guide Nick; but since we forfeited (none of the girls showed up which is a problem in a co-ed league) that wouldn’t make for much of a post. So instead I am here sitting in front of my laptop upset because the Giants lost.

Looking back, a bright spot this week, besides the Skorton innauguration and seeing my friends Cesar and Josh (freshman year roommate), was the start of my intermediate bowling class, not only becasue the coach actually helps you to improve your average (mine increased over 50 points thanks to beginners bowling), but because I am taking it with two other friends, Dani and Ryan, both of whom I don’t live with anymore since the conclusion of freshman year put us on different paths. Nonetheless, it is fun to take a gym class with them. After the 1 and a half hour class we eat dinner up at Appel on North Campus, which is where freshmen live, and joke about the class of 2010 and analyze our freshman year which all three of us enjoyed. Although, I must say, every time I step foot on North Campus I feel like wearing a sign that says, “I’m not a freshman anymore.”