GUYS
JUST CHECKING IN TO MAKE SURE
EVERYONE HAS THE LATEST INFO
INCOMING FRESHMAN TED YOUNGBLOOD IS IN THE 
HOSPITAL FROM THAT HIT HE TOOK AT CAMP TODAY.
IT’S PRETTY BAD, NOT SURE HOW BAD YET
BUT I HEARD HE’S STILL UNCONSCIOUS.
                                                 from Game Changer
                                       written by Tommy Greenwald
                                                 Abrams/Amulet, 2018

    The closest I’ve ever been to a football was my job at the Wilson football factory in Ada, Ohio. I laced rubber footballs and sewed leather ones back in the mid 1970s. I finished my days there working on soccer balls. I also don’t follow soccer, which is football everywhere else in the world.
    My mom played clarinet in her high school marching band during football games. So did my girls. That must be a trait that skips a generation.
    Both of my sons-in-law like football, and the girls know quite a lot more than I ever did. I never got interested in the game. Boys (or 300-pound grown men) running at each other trying to throw, catch, or prevent someone else from throwing and/or catching a crazy-shaped “ball” is just dangerous. Does a ball even have to be round to be called a ball? I guess not!
    And the complicated rules!
    Football, American football, is dangerous. When a person’s brain slams into the inside of the skull, the result is a concussion. The harder the hit, the more severe the concussion. But brain injury occurs over time, too. There is a cumulative effect on the brain when it is concussed over and over again. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is the term used to describe this serious brain condition.
    Have you seen the movie Concussion (starring Will Smith, 2015)? It’s the true story of a Nigerian doctor who discovered the alarming connection between head injuries sustained in playing football and brain damage (CTE) in older, retired players.
    Even though leather helmets have been available since 1893, according to NFL.com, football helmets were not even required until 1943. Energy absorbing helmets were introduced in the 1970s. Full face masks were, too. In 2011, an impact indicator on the helmet’s chin strap was devised. It’s used to identify head injuries. But, really, isn’t it too late if the injury has already occurred?
    Football, American football, is a violent sport. It attracts and condones violence on the football field, and elevates winning to a crowning achievement. It is whether you win or lose, not how you play the game. Not all refs stop aggression. There’s the problem of proving intent. Did a player really ram into another one on purpose. Well, yes. To get the ball, to complete the play, to score.
    Part of the attraction for the players is probably money. Professional football players are paid millions of dollars each season. In 2018, the minimum NFL salary for a rookie was $480,000, not quite half a million. Fame is an incentive for some, no doubt. And the ability to sway public sentiment to a cause worked (in a way) for Colin Kaepernick. He was noticed. He still is being talked about. He is not playing football. He recently did an ad for Nike, whose CEO reinforced standing up (or taking a knee) for what you believe in. So Colin is working.
    But the young kids. Why should a dangerous sport still be allowed, even encouraged? Since Concussion came out in 2015, more and more parents are thinking twice about letting their kids play. 
    In fall/winter of 2015/16, 1,083,308 boys played high school football. For the 2018/19 school year, 1,006,013 boys are signed up. Girls play, too: 1,565 in 2014/15 and 2,404 in 2018/19. A much smaller number than the boys, but why are more girls choosing to play? 
    Aggression must be learned. It is a goal in developing young football players according to YouthFootballOnline. Although they are encouraged to keep safety as a first priority, the first bullet-point in a list for coaches states:
“Each act should be with aggression as soon as child hits the practice field. If he puts his helmet on, have him do it aggressively. When he drinks a cup of water, have him do it with aggression. No meek actions.” (emphasis included on webpage.)
    Their premise is that aggressive actions on the field will lead to a confident attitude off the field. “It’s the attitude of if you want something bad enough, you have to go out and get it.”
    In other words, take what you want from whoever has it. No asking nicely, no compromising, no patiently waiting. No wonder so many people love the game!    
    Not all team names are angry and aggressive sounding, but a lot are. I don’t think cheese factory workers in Green Bay are dangerous, but their team is the Packers. Besides the birds, lots of teams chose animal names. I’ll save Native American tribal names for another post.
    Among the non-violent names, the Dolphins come to mind.
    Bluejays are an aggressive bird, but they play baseball. We have Cardinals, Falcons and Eagles, and Seahawks in the bird category. And Ravens.
    Of course the other side of the argument is the character-building, teammate-building, responsibility-building aspect of any group sport.
    I still choose to quote Edgar Allen Poe’s Raven (from Baltimore, just like him).
    “Nevermore.”
                                                -—stay curious! (and safe)    

    After Joey leaves, Mary Ann and I go back to pushing coins into my piggy bank. When we’re done, I pick it up and shake it. It’s so  full, it barely makes a noise. It’s heavy too.
    I hand it to Mary Anne so she can feel it. “I can’t believe how much you have,” she says.
                                      from: In Business with Mallory
                                         written by Laurie Friedman
                                        illustrated by Barbara Pollak
                                            Carolrhoda Books, 2006
    In high school I worked as a sales clerk for The May Company, a national department store chain with a local outlet. The store was close to home and I usually walked there and back. I had my driver’s license, but I didn’t have a car. Not too many of my friends (and none of the girls) had one, and that was okay. 
    I earned $1.60/hour. When I started working, most people paid with cash. Some used a Charge-a-Plate to buy on credit. I think their bank issued it. I approached my mom with the idea for my own credit card, but she didn’t think much of it. I’m not sure how I convinced her I would buy something only when I already had enough money in the bank to pay for it. That seemed counter-intuitive to me, but I played by Mom’s rules. I opened up a checking account so I could pay off my new Charge-a-Plate as soon as I received my bill.
    The card was a small silver-colored rectangle, embossed with my name and a number. It was about half the size of the Visa Card and the Discover Card I have in my wallet today. I wish I could remember what my first purchase was.
    People spoke about a cashless society and I wondered what that would look like. Well, it looks like now. I know people who buy their morning coffee on credit, and charge restaurant meals and groceries, too. 
    Here’s the thing about buying groceries on credit. Before they’re paid for, I’d have cooked, eaten, and eliminated (or more likely, stored as fat!!) most of what I bought. That feels strange to me.
    I understand the necessity for credit. Not everyone can save up for a car, or a home remodel, or even a washer or dryer or new fridge. I expect to pay interest to the bank for the convenience of having what I want (or need) immediately. Sometimes, it’s an emergency.    
    When I asked them, my parents explained the National Debt in familiar terms. People pay taxes to the government, then the government pays the senators, congressmen, and judges. The government pays to run the national parks and federal agents to solve crimes and the CIA to keep us safe. And the government funds Social Security and Medicare. Aid goes to people who don’t make enough money or who don’t make any money for whatever reasons, some good, some bad. And the government buys electricity to keep their buildings open.
    When the government spends more money than it has and needs to borrow, it is called deficit spending. It’s what my mom cautioned me not to do. 
    If the government’s bills are not paid in full each month, the bank or other lending institution applies interest that is added to the total. The National Debt increases, but without the benefit of getting more goods.  
    Besides receiving money from the tax-paying population, the government can issue bonds. Private citizens and corporations can buy them. The government can borrow money from other programs (or really our kids) by tapping into Social Security and Medicare. And they can borrow on the world market. Our government borrows from other countries, too.
    About 66% of the National Debt is money the government owes the public, businesses, and foreign governments that bought investments is the US. The rest is what the Federal government owes itself for loans it took from Social Security and Medicare and other trusts. 
    The US debt is over 22 trillion dollars. That’s a 22 with 12 zeros (22,000,000,000,000). (2021: over 28 trillion) Only four trillion one-dollar bills laid end to end will reach all the way from Earth to the moon.
    As of May, 2019, the United States government owes China $1.11 trillion (one trillion, eleven billion). That’s 27% of the debt held by foreign countries. 

2021 update: According to a paper called Foreign Holdings of Federal Debt (Updated July 9, 2021) and published by the Congressional Research Service:
    Based on their estimates, Japan holds approximately 17.7% of all foreign investment in U.S. publicly held federal debt, China holds approximately 15.2%, and the United Kingdom holds approximately 6.2%. The other (approximately 60% is domestically held, what the government owes itself and its citizens.) https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RS22331.pdf 
    And, since the government can only use reconciliation a limited number of times, if they raise the debt ceiling before December, 2021, they will not be able to use it to pass any or all of the Infrastructure Bill. 
    Meanwhile the Freedom to Vote Act languishes, at the peril of our free and fair elections.

    Why does all this even matter? If the US keeps borrowing and increasing the amount of the debt, world markets could lose confidence in our government. Obligating ourselves to other countries is a risky business.
    Raising taxes and reducing spending is one way to borrow less. That’s pretty uncomfortable, too. 
    I don’t know the answer to this very complicated problem, but I’ll keep reading and listening. Stay tuned.

2021:The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton (PublicAffairs, 2020) is an interesting book (well the introduction is, anyway). In it she discusses Modern Monetary Theory and claims governments should not be run like households. That is, tax revenues do not fund the government since the Treasury is controlled by the government and can provide printed money in an endless supply. Now if someone could just explain that to Mitch McConnell and the rest of his Republicans…
    Maybe I’ll look for a class in Chinese.
                 -—stay curious! (and take a deep breath, or two)