Win, Lose, Drew by Drew Litton for May 16, 2013

Sadly, so true…but hard to see how to whack ’em back.

Boy is this true. Remember that insane highschool football stadium they built in Texas at the same time they were cutting class resources?

I’m so glad I got my public education before it was ruined by political demagogues.

What smart kids need isn’t media attention — what they need (and what all kids need) is a school system that will challenge them and teach them to think.

This is a great toon from a cartoonist who only draws about sports. Good to know Drew’s priorities are in the right place.

Sports will always be revered by humans. Humans have an innate need to feel superior. You can see it in nationalistic jingoism, being cock-sure that my religion is the correct one, racial/social discrimination, even social cliques in high school. I’m sure you can find more examples.

The best part about sports is that we don’t have to do the dominating; we wave a banner or wear a T-shirt or a cap (backwards, of course, so that the sun can stay off our necks while it bakes our eyes), and the other guys do it for us. Taken in this context, isn’t it a small price to pay one person $10 million per year? Isn’t it worth much more?

This comic hit close to home as my Wife has stage 4 breast cancer. We as a nation do have misplaced priorities fawning over celebrities like their gods while people who do the real important work are hidden in the shadows.

Not only do most universities pay coaches a LOT more than professors, when I was at university, they took the budget for lab equipment from physics and chemistry budgets to buy new uniforms for the football team!! Many schools in the south held kids back in grade school so they’d be “big enough” to play high school football. It’s been a sick obsession with sports for a long time.

I find this comic hilarious considering the considering the fact that the Jock Huffer only draws nothing but sports related editorials.

Just got my “Harpers”, per their index in this issue: Percentage increase in per-student spending at major public U.S. colleges since 2005: 23. Percentage increase in spending on college athletes: 61.

’nuf said?

So, if we cover kids who get good grades and one day might cure cancer, should be cover T-ball games in case one of the kids becomes a major league star?

Oh, and there is plenty of coverage of scholarships around this time of year, if you have a local paper instead of a major metro McPaper.