I agree with former Notre Dame player Aaron Taylor’s assessment of a less than enthusiastic crowd at Notre Dame football games. I am an old-school fan who was thrilled to be at a game back in the 1960s and 1970s. All the focus was on each play with roars of excitement over a big run or catch and groans over a fumble or missed field goal. Regardless, all the attention was on the team.
Now it seems as though the emphasis is on an individual fan’s “experience” at the game: The stupid “Ahh haa haa ha” that I hear on television drives me nuts. The fancy reserved areas. The jumbotron for replays. And now the announcement of enhanced technology so that texting, receiving phone calls and scanning the internet is easier and better! When the cameras scan the crowd so many people are just staring at their phone or taking selfies instead of watching the game. No wonder there isn’t as much crowd noise; attention is not on the field but elsewhere. It is a privilege to attend a game in person; embrace it.
Nancy Fischer
Middletown
The nature of kings
Great kingdoms appear subject to constraints that lead to ruin. Biblical Samuel gave warnings about the demands and nature of kings. The Roman Empire, being built upon pillage and slavery, later laid in ruin.
Today, great nations like ours have many powerful kings. Their greatness and wealth make similar demands. They make claims to resources and cheap labor in remote regions of our world. Being built upon forms of plunder and environmental ruin, they and their kingdoms take more from life than is given.
Plato was unimpressed with self-rule. Those truly wise are few, while the brutes and belligerents, being many, listen to the clanging gongs of the village simpletons who understand little of life’s circle of events and what is best for all. They eventually submit to forms of self-tyranny.
Plato preferred the rule of a king. He believed that the ills of the human race would never decrease until by God’s grace, true lovers of wisdom would attain political power. His tutoring of Athenian king Dionysius II failed to provide him with such a king.
There did come a king of humble estate. One, who held the lowly high. His was not a sterile environment, removed from the multitudes. Rather, he taught, healed and was touched by ordinary people. He spoke of a kingdom having an everlasting domain.
Behold the nature of this king.
Lynn Slagel
Middlebury
Parking woes
I am very fond of the University of Notre Dame and its athletic teams. What I am not fond of is the total lack of parking for events such as women’s basketball. This past weekend there was an early game (noon) due to an evening men’s game. Unfortunately, there was also a hockey game at the same time, which reduced available parking severely. It must be noted that a large percentage of women’s basketball fans are elderly, and many disabled as well. Therefore, adequate parking is a major issue, but one that has a simple solution.
To alleviate this parking pressure, Notre Dame should build a multi-level parking garage on at least part of the Joyce lot. A four-level structure would at least double the total number of spaces available. With such an increase in spaces, the university could designate at least an additional 100 accessible spaces. It could be considered a community service for a loyal Notre Dame community, the Notre Dame fans.
Gregory VanArtsdalen
Mishawaka
The good news
The bad news is Donald Trump has won the election and is almost certain to attack the freedom and democracy we’ve enjoyed in this country for the last 250 years.
The good news is that if and when he attempts to do so, the American people will be ready to organize to stop him.
The recent failed military coup in South Korea gives us a blueprint for how to do so. President Yoon Suk Yeol — a Trump-like figure himself — attempted to illegally declare martial law, but large-scale protests forced him to back down. And now he has been impeached by his own party.
If Trump tries the same thing here, he will face the same fate. The American people just need to remember that resistance is not futile, and that all authoritarians have weaknesses that can potentially result in their downfall, if their domestic opposition finds a way to take advantage of those weaknesses.
Chris Tidmarsh
South Bend
