The kid is built like spring steel, and with hair close cut; he looks like what he is – a young guy waiting to leave the hospitality industry to go on active duty, and can’t count the days until he does.
“You would be willing to go over to Iraq?” he's asked.
“That’s probably where I’ll wind up,” he says, giving no indication that he would not welcome that assignment.
It got us thinking about something we threw out as a half-joke not long ago – the idea of forming a special international force of volunteers to do what no country seems willing to do on its own – put boots on the ground in the Middle East. Countries seem willing to do everything but that. They supply modern aircraft, drones and missiles whose names we haven’t even heard yet. But they're not sending people to actually go in and eliminate the barbarians whose daily acts of savagery stun the civilized world.
And that is the operative word. Civilization. What if a call went out for men to defend the values the Western World has established over the last thousand years? Not from just one country, but from anywhere where people are willing to risk their lives for civilization. We are speaking of people who are morally motivated (probably not a good idea to call them crusaders, or sport red crosses on white tunics. You might mix that up with the Ku Klux Klan).
This is a unit that should be formed by the United Nations, but it won’t be.
We are thinking more of a model along the lines of the French Foreign Legion, which for nearly 200 years has been composed of soldiers from all over. Indeed, the uniforms could resemble those of the Legion, just not quite so peacock-y – the kepi hat, which in the U.S. service was once known as the Ridgway cap, with a neck cloth. Of course, in battle, they would look just like our current soldiers, with all the body armor and face shields that have become international.
These would be soldiers of fortune, a breed that never seems to go out of existence – men who ignore those “Wounded Warrior” ads that feature maimed veterans, and see only the adventure of being in harm’s way. We suspect an elite unit could be quickly formed of men with military experience, ex-marines, army rangers and those from equivalent units in other countries.
They would have to be paid grandly, and supplied with the best of equipment (which seems to be no problem), and part of an elite outfit, whose feats would surely be the subject of Hollywood treatment. Mostly, however, they would be motivated to counter, in Churchill’s words at a different time, the world sinking into “the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”
If ISIS can attract thousands of recruits with a malformed concept of human behavior, can’t the free world find just as many good guys who have the right stuff?
Fort Lauderdale's St. Thomas Aquinas High School has developed a reputation as one of the best athletic schools in the country. It routinely wins the All-Sports Award from the Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald, and recently one of those outlets that compares teams around the country named it the third best athletic school in the nation.
That standing has been enhanced in the last year, as its track team won both boys and girls big school state championships last spring, followed by the football team in the fall, volleyball and softball, and just last weekend the girls soccer team won its 14th state championship. You read that right. Although its football coaches have built a dynasty, winning eight state titles since 1992 in a state with numerous strong high school programs, they are not even close to St. Thomas' winning-est coach. Carlos Giron came to the school in 1982, and in addition to his 14 state championships in girls soccer, he set a record for consecutive games without a loss. From 1994 to 2001 the Raiders went unbeaten in 158 games. That's a record that may last until eternity. The nearest team is a Texas school with 115.
To put that in perspective, this year's state champions had one loss and a tie, both to Broward County schools. And it isn't as if South Florida schools are pushovers in soccer. To the contrary, Broward's American Heritage (which tied St. Thomas) won the state 3A title – its eighth championship. And Cypress Bay defeated St. Thomas in mid-season, only to lose in a hard fought regional playoff game.
A cynic looking at these records might surmise that girls’ soccer is like football, where a few elite programs attract the best players, sometimes from distant locales, and benefit from transfers. Both St. Thomas and American Heritage got some of the area's top football players last year when University School lost its coach, and saw a mass exodus of talented players wanting to be on a winning team, with the exposure that brings to college recruiters. St. Thomas’ reputation for strong academics as well as sports has created a tradition of attracting sons and grandsons of well-known South Florida football families. It includes names such as Shula, Duhe, Bosa and Carter. Many of those top prospects, especially from lower income families, are on scholarship.
Girls’ soccer is different. None of the St. Thomas players receive financial aid other than what they would normally get without athletics. More than 20 percent of the school's students get some aid. Nor is it a case of kids moving to the area or taking long trips to reach the school. Five of St. Thomas' best players this year came from one grade school – the downtown St. Anthony Parish. That's only fitting, for Central Catholic, St. Thomas's name until the 1960s, started at St. Anthony. Most of the other players come from neighborhoods that have historically sent kids to St. Thomas.
One of Carlos Giron's coaching talents – at least this year – is his ability to build depth on his roster. He substitutes a lot compared to other teams, especially at the positions that involve the most running. Three of his wins enroute to the title fit a pattern. The opponents started strong, dominating early in the game. But by halftime, you could sense a momentum shift, and in the second half his fresh legs began to tell. This was especially true in the championship win over Oviedo, near Orlando. That team used few subs and after an impressive first half, it began to tire. St. Thomas shots on goal built; it was 19-6 at the end. And finally with five minutes to go, the Raiders broke through for a 2-0 win.
In the spirit of the Brian Williams Candor School, we must admit that this detailed knowledge of this matter comes with a price. That price is confessing that one of the St. Thomas players has a name similar to ours. Of course, she is no relative, except our son’s daughter.
The thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba should have at least one predictable result: an increase in American tourists, the first 10,000 of whom will be CIA agents. Now the Cubans may be many things, but they are not stupid. We can be assured they will be anxious to welcome our spies with good expense accounts.
We can soon expect this scene at Cuban ports of entry.
Cuban official: “Buenas. Welcome to Cuba. Here for a holiday?”
Visitor: “Nada, CIA.”
Official: “Wonderful. Welcome Comrade Spook. Please register at the line over there – the one marked CIA.”
The visitor proceeds to the appropriate line, which moves along smartly until he is greeted by Cuba’s CIA host official.
Official: “Welcome to Cuba, CIA host reception. My name is Jose Gimenez. That’s pronounced Ho-say. As in Ho Say can you see by the dawn’s early light. Now what are you interested in seeing – historic missile sites, the KBG Bath and Tennis Club, political prisoner detention facilities, the Fidel classic car museum?”
Visitor: A little bit of everything, thank you. This is my first visit.”
Official: “Si. And what is your name?”
Visitor: “Maurice Bishop.”
Official: “The Maurice Bishop? – The guy who covered up the Kennedy Assassination?”
Visitor: “No, he’s dead. We all use the name Maurice Bishop. It goes back to the game of chess, you know. Just a little play on words to break up the monotony.”
Official: “Si. But I see no Maurice Bishop name on our stolen confidential list of CIA operatives.”
Visitor: “You never will. You won’t find Lee Harvey Oswald on any records, either.”
Official: “Si. See, the past is behind us. Let us concentrate on improving relations between our two great countries. To further that end, we have a special CIA visitor goody bag. It contains a signed photograph of Meyer Lansky – a reminder of the good old days – a medallion of appreciation from the Cuban Siete Commandment Society for letting our thieves rip off Medicare and anything else they can in your country, and a few tokens to use in your travels.
Visitor: “Gracias. What are these tokens for?”
Official: “This one is for Happy Hour at the Castro Brothers Brothel. You get two for one. This one gets you a free photograph with a 1952 Studebaker at the Fidel Classic Car Museum. And this one gets you a discount on a mule ride up San Juan Hill.”
Visitor: "And what about this one with the little bulls eye on it?”
Official: “That's for admission to a firing squad.”
Visitor: “But who’s?”
Official: “That’s up to you, senor.”
Visitor: “Si, I see.”
Imagine if nobody watched – just one game, one time. It would probably cause the failure of the National Football League, and fulfill the frequent prophecies of the end of the world.
We refer, of course, to the controversy surrounding the Super Bowl. A recent study of 6,000 bars and grills between Jupiter and Miami revealed that not a single person above the age of reason believes God was responsible for deflating footballs in a recent Boston Patriots game. All believe it was cheating. Nobody believes that prominent members of the Patriots organization did not know about it. Most fans are concerned; some are outraged.
So what do we, as a nation, do about it? Nothing. We tune in to watch the Super Bowl and before that we audit countless television and radio reports, and read everything written about the subject. But suppose, however, people just said no. They skipped the game, didn’t read anything about the controversy and did not even know who won.
Imagine if just one world leader, say President Obama, or Madonna, or Dave Barry, stood up and screamed, “We’re not taking it anymore!” and called for a total boycott of this event. We would do it, except nobody reads this blog. You need a world leader to engineer something like this.
Imagine if it happened. All of those expensive TV commercials would be seen by no one. All of those lizards and ducks that are featured in those stupid spots would quack into a vacuum. The thousands of people who pay hundreds of dollars for tickets would not show up; all of those hotel rooms would be canceled. The airlines would be asked for refunds. Rental cars would sit mournfully on their lots. Millions of dollars would be lost. Six thousand bars and grills between Jupiter and Miami would be empty for a day. The economy would collapse.
We happened to see one Super Bowl live. It was in 1971 between the Baltimore Colts and somebody else. The Colts won on a late field goal. It showed what an impact one game can have on a career. Don Shula had built the Colts into a power, but he did not coach that day. He had moved to Miami and nobody has heard from him since.
Over the years, however, we have decided the game is not all that important. Who really cares about the Patriots against the Seahawks, except that Ken Behring, Tamarac’s founder, once owned the latter? This is not a real rivalry, not like, say, the Patriots playing Boston College, or Tufts or Wellesley College, which would be natural local rivals. It cannot compare with La Salle vs. St. Joe tonight at Tom Gola Arena; La Salle favored by six; or, the big soccer game tonight at Brian Piccolo Stadium between St. Thomas and Cypress Bay. No line available at press time.
Now these are events the world should watch, and we can only make one because of the big snowstorm up north. But come Sunday, we plan a one-person boycott of the Super Bowl. On principle, we will not watch that game. Of course, we lie a lot.
Among the great qualities of the Cuban people who are so abundant in South Florida, one trait that is widely suspected, but rarely noted in the media is this: Many people think they rank among the greatest thieves who ever lived.
Is it not possible that Raul Castro’s (above) comments about continuing a socialist program, delivered in military uniform, were also meant for his local audience? And we wonder just how committed that audience might be. Certainly some of the recent candid comments from ordinary Cubans suggest they may be fed up with the Castro government. And they obviously don’t hate the U.S.
Coast magazine.
