@Randem

What if you spoke out against something — a group, or an idea — and you vocally opposed it, defamed it, and campaigned in opposition to it, only to wake up one morning and realize you were beginning to agree with it? What would you do?

Okay, now let me be very clear here… I’m not saying that I’m becoming a Republican, because I still disagree with them. What I am saying is that I’m realizing that I’m a lot more conservative than I thought… and that The Left really doesn’t represent me or my views. Granted, The Right doesn’t represent me either. I’ll remain an independent. The only difference is that where I used to be a liberal independent, I’m now far more of a moderate, perhaps even bordering on conservative.

This has all been going on over the last year, but the true realization hit me this week — in the shower, of course, where all revelations seem to happen.

You see, I was thinking about the idea that life isn’t fair. It’s a phrase that we hear all the time while growing up, but perhaps we don’t really think about.

You see, there are pretty people and there are ugly people, and you don’t get to choose which one you are. Some people are born to rich families while others are born into poverty-level homes with alcoholic parents, and you don’t get to choose which you’ll get. In this poker game of life, you’re dealt one hand, and you make the most out of it.

The left-winger in me naturally didn’t like this proposition. I tried to justify in my head that there were people who believed in fairness and those who didn’t, and that it takes both. I rationalized a world where 50% of people wanted fairness and 50% didn’t. It was a perfectly “democratic” fascination. But it was foolish.

Even in a world that was fairly divided into 50% who want everyone to be equal and 50% who don’t, the problem is that the half that wants fairness will consider the fairness of the other side. Meanwhile, their opposition doesn’t believe in fairness and offers no such consideration in return. Therefore, the right will always have an advantage. And thus the world will never be a fair, democratic place.

Look, they tried it in the Soviet Union and it failed. Communism doesn’t work. And the brand of communism in places like China is really a disguise for totalitarianism, or feudalism — they only offer communism for the have-nots.

What I’m saying is that the world really is not fair. It never will be. And with that established, the argument in favor of The Left is greatly diminished.

I still hate The Far Right. But I have far less tolerance for The Far Left. Maybe I’ve been moving around so much that I’m getting exposed to many different sides of the argument. Or maybe it’s just a natural part of growing up.

Okay, so it’s been a few days, but I’ve decided I want to chime in.

These are my thoughts on Super Bowl XLI:

• Chicago was the better team. For them not to win speaks volumes — not about the resolve of the Colts, but about the lack of character and leadership on the Bears.
• After the opening kick was returned for a touchdown, every kickoff the Colts made was a flopping squib kick to keep the ball out of Devin Hester’s hands, resulting in a lot of returns from the 35 by linemen and role-players. Why didn’t the Bears adjust to this strategy by loading up the area around the 35 yard line with running backs and receivers?
• All year long, Cedric Benson has been the Bears’ featured back while Thomas Jones has chewed up the yards and made defenses miss. How do you get to the Super Bowl and still be unaware of this? Benson had two short runs and a fumble before his injury gave Jones the opportunity. Result: huge gain on the next run, by Thomas Jones. The fact that his future in Chicago is unclear is atrocious.
• The Indianapolis defense was the worst in the league against the run this season, yet closed their gaps effectively throughout the entire postseason, basically taking away the run as a weapon for their opponents. I think the name of Anthony MacFarland should not be overlooked when credit for a Super Bowl win is discussed in Indy.
• By comparison, the Bears defense was categorically number one for most of the season, before they eventually melted down. By the time they got to the Super Bowl, they were missing tackles and dropping interceptions as if they were a totally different team. What happened?
• When you’ve got Brian Griese on your bench, how do you keep going back to Rex Grossman every week? Why hasn’t the NFL learned to stop drafting quarterbacks from football factory schools in Florida?
• I’m happy for Payton Manning and Tony Dungy, two gentlemen whose brilliant careers will finally be taken seriously now that they’ll be wearing rings. There’s a guy named Urlacher who understands that really well right now.

Though I’ve moved around a lot, and never really had a “home”, my moves have always sort-of centered around Chicago, so that’s always been the place I call home. Most of my family is from here, and most of them still haven’t left. I’ve always been a fan of the Bears and the Cubs, and when I left here, the Bulls were on top of the world.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time in this area - sometimes living here, sometimes just living nearby and visiting regularly. The south suburbs have always been the place where I feel “at home”. I’m comfortable with cultural diversity, because I’m used to those places south of Chicago where being a white male makes me a minority. Run-down homes and dirty streets don’t bother me — in fact, they help me to relax.

After I left here in 1993, though, I spent almost 13 years away from Chicagoland, visiting only once in 1995 for a funeral. Throughout that time, I’ve spent many afternoons and evenings waxing nostalgic about the people and the culture I miss in Chicago.

I’ve managed to get through my time in places like Tampa, Atlanta, and Greenville (SC), hating the indirect, two-faced, spineless lack of character that people had. I built up Chicago in the nostalgia of my mind as a place where people are direct, brutally honest, and don’t have time for playing games.

Well I’m back now, in the city I love. And so many things really are better here, so I’m not unhappy to be back. But I’m feeling a little let down by the indirectness, spinelessness, and lack of character that I’ve seen in the short time that I’ve been home.

It just goes to support what I’ve thought all along: cultures differ, foods differ, weather differs… but people are people. From New York City to San Francisco, Chicago to Los Angeles, in Atlanta, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Las Vegas, and Pittsburgh, the end result is that people are insecure, spineless, and indirect, and they all play games. There’s no Shangri La, populated only with people I can respect. There’s no Paradise City where everyone has common sense.

Well, fortunately the food is good.