Illinois Legislators Weigh In On Olympic Wrestling

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The IOC recommendation to drop wrestling from the Olympics in 2020 has galvanized national and international support that runs across party lines and has brought together nations that have been on thin ice with each other. Democratic Governor Pat Quinn and Democratic Senator Cullerton, who put together the Senate resolution passed by the Illinois Senate in support of Olympic wrestling, and former Republican Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert, joined forces in Springfield this week for the occasion. This month, Iran will bring its Olympic team to Los Angeles to take on the USA Team in an effort to show the world how important wrestling is. Earlier this year, Iran hosted the a world wrestling event and cheered for the USA team in another showing of mutual respect precipitated by the sport of wrestling.

Illinois Legislators Weigh In On Olympic Wrestling.

The marketing campaign recently rolled out by  the FILA (the international governing body for wrestling) captures the essence of wrestling and why it is so important:

To wrestle is to be human.

To struggle.

To overcome.

To triumph.

FILA Campaign reported by USA Wrestling

It is accessable and understand at every level, in every culture, around the world because it is so fundamentally identifiable with the human condition.

Jay Mohr’s Incredible Olympic Wrestling Rant Transcribed.

kevingdrendel1 Comment

I just had to pass this on. There are not too many things this side of heaven that I feel so passionately about. I do not follow sports. I am disheartened, disappointed and disillusioned about professional sports. Wrestling (and other sports that are not tainted by money) are important. Wrestling is the platform on which many men, and now women, become disciplined, successful individuals who learn what character is about and the immediate consequences of the failure of good character.  We cannot allow it to be taken from the Olympic Games. There is not sport that characterizes the Olympic ideal, which is still a good and pure ideal, inspite of the corruption of men, like wrestling. Jay Mohr’s Incredible Olympic Wrestling Rant Transcribed..

The Face of Evil

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Man in the MirrorHe was 19 years old. He went to an ethnically diverse, upscale high school near Harvard. He was a popular kid, a good athlete, very bright, well-liked. He graduated high school early and was studying to be a doctor. He killed three people, critically wounded dozens and injured many dozens more … We want him to be a monster! But “he was a good kid“.

Listening to the reflections on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from his classmates and others who knew him and looking at his graduation photo leaves me perplexed. The rage and anger that arises from my gut at the sight of the bombing victims somehow does not match the image that comes from the reflections of people who knew him. It does not fit neatly into my black and white compartments. I want to hate him, but I see a person who seemed like just “a good kid”.

Smart, popular, athletic, young … what happened!!!?

Josef Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Idi Amin, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jack the Ripper all conjure up images of pure evil. Despicable, villainous, ugly, blackened souls, with no redeeming value. The depth of their depravity seems cavernous. We loathe them. We spit on their graves. We cannot imagine what possessed them.
 Continue reading “The Face of Evil” →

Perspective

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Take a few moments and read this … and remember it.

Every shriveled old man or woman was once young and vibrant like you.

You and I will end up like this … if we are fortunate to live that long.

Life is short. It will come to an end.

Make the most of your days while you are young. Live a life well lived.

Trust the rest to God.

We go from dust to dust. It is what we do in the middle that matters.

Crabby Old Man