Im as ecstatic as the next person about winning the National Championship. In fact, I just spent $200 on sweatshirts and t's as future reminder of the past event.
But lets take a moment to think about what has occurred. When we (I guess we didn't play, but the basketball team) won the championship, there were 40,000 people on Mass street. Everyone was happy to give hugs, hi-fives and some even chose to show some nudity. It didn't matter if you really didn't know someone because that night everyone was part of a community.
The happiness is still visible and seems as if are some are still on cloud 9.
But my question is, why is it that a basketball GAME can make people feel this way?
There are so many other more important issues that a community should gather for.
For example, the war. Or perhaps a AIDS walk or some other charitable event.
I am not pointing fingers or blaming anyone because I too acted in the same exact way. However I am just wondering what is that makes it so.
Comments anyone?
I agree with you that it is interesting that we can shut down Mass Street with a celebration over a basketball game, but do not choose to do it for other things. However, I don't think that other things are as uniting as the game was for a few reasons. One, important issues (not all, but most) aren't viewed the same way by everyone. You mentioned the war, but not everyone sees the war the same way. Though, in Lawrence it is probably looked upon in a more similar way than other places. Not to say that the war is good or bad (though it's bad), but some people agree with us being over there and that keeps the war from uniting us. Two, that celebration was done out of elatedness. More important issues do not usually inspire the same emotion. No one is going to run down to Mass after a genocide seminar. Three, this was a celebration, not a protest. Celebrations are more attended than protests, because people would rather celebrate accomplishments than stand on a street telling people about something they aren't going to listen to (e.g., honk for hemp). Also, the Mass Street celebration was celebrating US. It was about us winning the National Championship for the first time in 20 years. In a self-centered society people think about themselves before others. Protesting China's human rights policy may be a worthwhile cause, but people here don't get affected by it, so sad as it is, they don't care enough to flood Mass Street everyday until Tibet is free.
Lastly, it should be pointed out that the community does gather for more important events, just not in the same numbers. For gay pride week there were a bunch of drag queens in front of the Union one day. There are ALS and AIDS and all kinds of walks trying to raise money for cures. Right now there are people disrupting the running of the Olympic torch because they think that will impact China's human rights policy. Fred Phelps and his followers go and protest what they consider to be a righteous cause. Hell's Angels ride around and follow Fred Phelps so they can rev their engines to drown out his protest outside of funerals. People do gather all the time, but it takes a bizarre circumstance to get 30,000 people to feel the same way, at the same time, about the same thing.