Really, how can any ordinary American, which I consider myself to be, be spiritually ready to embrace the concept of peace on earth and good will towards men and women?
People these days are always talking new paradigm, such as how government, or Thoroughbred racing is supposed to work, a different way to recapture former glory--at least for those who’ve been around enough to appreciate such a notion.
Here’s an idea; how about a new paradigm for Christmas? How about going back to the future, before there was such a thing as “Cyber Monday.”
Deck the halls… and harken back to a time when elected officials didn’t play politics with the lives of 160 million Americans who work for a living, the 90 percent who have jobs, a time when legislative gridlock wasn’t policy.
Consider this, K-Mart shoppers, that in 2009 Time magazine estimated that one of every 50 children in America were homeless. According to the latest estimates, that figure is now one in 45.
Tis the season…so how about going back to a time culturally when Thanksgiving didn’t mean Christmas is already here, when Yuletide didn’t signal it was time to begin compiling high-light, low-light, best-of, and worst-of lists, a time to bend over and kiss another year gone by.
Wouldn’t it be nice this Christmas if middle class Americans could occupy jobs and homes, not tents in the street, that being fair were more than just a baseball term? Terms had limits…fala-la-lala, lala-la-la.
How about going back 10 years and think about spending a couple of trillion dollars to fix broken schools, roads, bridges and rails and not on two wars fought and paid for with the lives of America’s best young people.
Then there’s the racetrack, where every day is heaven and every day is hell and the trick is not getting too high or too low, learning to sit down while the boat rocks.
For this game I’d love to find an equine Moses, have him or her gift-wrapped, and present this person to an industry badly in need of leadership, even if Thoroughbred racing is often more naughty than nice.
With fewer races on the Christmas list docket, post times could be staggered to help grow the handle, and free past performance data so that new players wouldn’t have to pay to learn so that they may earn.
Now, with fewer race days and this new paradigm—that word again--bettors could bet with real time odds while going up against an optimally lower takeout, the price point that becomes a universal rebate and ultimate revenue generator.
Or should we commission a few more studies, instead?
My Christmas wish would give regulators all the tools and dollars they need to continue striving toward uniform medication rules, that’s if I couldn’t eliminate race-day medication altogether.
I would build the game a national racing channel modeled after CNBC with new statistical handicapping data that’s less arcane and so logical that a high-schooler with a GED could do it.
I’d allow television to coordinate post times within a five-minute simulcast window on this new national news, handicapping and wagering network, segregating racetracks by time zone circuits; Eastern, Midwest and West.
And I would buy an HD signal for all my friends.
I think about these things because I cannot possibly live up to a Hallmark standard of what Christmas is supposed to be. I've become resentful of a season in which “Black Friday” used to be more about family fun and less about pepper spray.
Because all we’ve learned to do in America the last three decades is to become good at shopping. Can’t fool us. We’re sophisticated now, knowing there’s a difference between half off and buy one get one free. In the age of LOL and OMG, make that BOGO.
For a holiday meant to be about love and wonder and generosity, we now celebrate a season gone mad, where expectation often runs a bad second to dread; concerns about spending too much, too little, wrong size, wrong label.
This year in America I've been compelled to rethink Christmas. I don't need to make myself “feel” the Christmas spirit. One season of paying lip service to peace and good will cannot possibly erase the sadness and pain of a runaway American dream.
It is what it is, they say, and Christmas shall be whatever it can be. So I’m treading lightly, trying not to overthink what Christmas in America has become. I will celebrate it by being grateful for all my blessings; family, good friends, and a living that’s more a way of life than a job.
I surely can’t complain and I surely can’t fix what’s wrong. I don’t know how to fix it and that makes me mad as hell. I ask you: Is that anyway to feel a week and a lifetime away from what Christmas in America used to mean?
WWJD?
17 Dec 2011 at 03:15 pm | #
John,
You made some real good points. I am an ‘old school’ type of man: loyalty,family, friends, America and simply doing the right thing.Helping people without a price tag attached and living by looking a person in the eye and speaking the truth.
Today, it’s a crap shoot out here. Complex problems are sometimes solved by the simplest solutions. Today, in this ‘age of excess’and greed I am baffled on an everry day basis. However, I press on with a smile on my face because i was raised to never give up, with the enphasis on NEVER. There is always some good around the corner..and so life goes on.
17 Dec 2011 at 10:34 pm | #
That’s all we can do, Jack, press on and hope somehow we can make a difference with our actions.
A Merry Christmas to you and your family.
JP
18 Dec 2011 at 09:09 am | #
And a Merry Christmas to you and yours and a major thanks from all of us for your racing passion (and a great web site) that makes our days better!
18 Dec 2011 at 12:46 pm | #
Some nice preachin’ there, Brother Broadway. I especially liked “a living that’s more a way of life than a job.”
In the spirit of Xmas – or perhaps Xtermination—California racing’s 1% are taking aim at the 99% as it appears that rebates are about to be offered to high-volume CA residents in lieu of lowering takeout directly for all; and just in time for the Santa Anita meeting. It would seem that Frank’s dream of bringing whales on-shore could be fulfilled with a little help from his elves and that dynamic duo known as the TOC and CHRB. The code name for the project might well have been “Winnow Minnows.”
WWJD? Well, Julius would “Divide and Conquer.”
No doubt reeling from the boycott led by a “handful of angry horseplayers with no jobs,” the CA horsemen’s alleged brain trust may have sent out a Trojan Horse to separate big players from small ones within their opposition. Apparently at least one conflicted boycott leader has taken the bait and is working at another horseplayer forum to recruit big-bankroll bettors for a pseudo-secret society of subsidized “investors.”
Some at HANA may call this a victory, but if so, it would be in letter rather than spirit; and only for a handful of horseplayers. This move will not increase overall handle; it will only cause a few existing bettors to play musical chairs, while fewer continue playing altogether. Without a level playing field, most potential recruits will find other forms of gambling more to their liking. Just another own-foot-shooting bullseye by the special interests throughout racing.
What Would John Do—as a HANA advisor, that is?
Should HANA continue on it’s course as a self-appointing, self-funding, and self-accountable group (ironically modeling the TOC) that sometimes appears to benefit the majority of horseplayers and sometimes not? Or is it more like that state-appointed group of civil self-servants called the CHRB that is supposed to protect the betting public, but protects horsemen’s butts instead. Talk about turning the other cheek!
At least you’re on the right coast, BJ. Racing’s last hope lies in New York, once the leader of racing in North America, and now the beneficiary of long-delayed slots revenue. Messrs. Duncker and Hayward have paid lip-service to lowering takeout directly in the past. Will the NYSRWB cooperate with NYRA and together lead the way back to the future?
What would John Delorean do?
More importantly, what will John Sabini do?
16 Feb 2012 at 03:28 am | #
jack,you have my back
keep going and we can make a difference
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