Do politics and sports intertwine?

(Originally written on 12-28-12)

Sadness

Do politics and sports intertwine?

Opinion by William Wilczewski

On the morning of Dec. 14, all I had on my mind was how the NBA’s New York Knicks had just beaten the L.A. Lakers the night before.

Then I turned on the TV.

That’s when I heard about the massacre of young children in Connecticut and realized that was what everyone was talking about back then—and are still talking about to this very day.

One topic was serious. The other one wasn’t.

On one hand, I’m from New York, so the game mattered to me.

On the other hand, my family and I are victims of gun violence—and this matters infinitely more!

In the Knicks game, Jason Kidd was on fire.

In Connecticut, 20-some innocent children and adults were fired upon and gunned dead, to the shock and sadness of the entire country.

What did a basketball game matter anymore?

It didn’t.

It was time for my wife and I to just stare into each other's eyes and together relive the anguish, sadness and despair of when my stepdaughter—Perla Sofia Palma—was shot in the face and killed by an irresponsible Nogales High School classmate back on July 6, 2009.

Some might ask why I use this space to talk about all this. This is supposed to be a Sports column, right? Not a platform to talk about politics, and what should or shouldn’t be done about gun control, like NBC Sports Analyst Bob Costas did at halftime of his network’s Dec. 2 NFL game to give his take on the topic after the murder-suicide involving a Kansas City Chief’s player.

That, however, helps make the point: Gun violence affects us all. You, me, the guy next door—not just in some other city on the picture box.

Gun violence does not discriminate because one is a great dancer—like Sofia—or a great football player—like linebacker Jovan Belcher, and his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins, or innocent children like Charlotte Bacon, Daniel Barden, Olivia Engel, Josephine Gay, Ana M. Marquez-Greene, Dylan Hockley, Madeleine F. Hsu, Catherine V. Hubbard, Chase Kowalski, Jesse Lewis, James Mattioli, Grace McDonnell, Emilie Parker, Jack Pinto, Noah Pozner, Caroline Previdi, Jessica Rekos, Avielle Richman, Benjamin Wheeler and Allison N. Wyatt—all who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Or should we be too afraid to utter these names anymore, because they conjure up too much pain? Quite the contrary if you ask me.

Keep those names on the tip of your tongue.

Scream them out loud for everyone to hear.

Remember.

PLEASE, NO NOT FORGET!

Because only when we face our fears—and anguish, sadness and despair—can we have any hope of not repeating what put us there in the first place.

And repeat it does; every time you turn on a TV, radio or computer—or pick up a newspaper—anywhere on this planet, you will likely be hearing about gun violence.

That, however, makes me remember why I love sports so much and what I love about them.

When you’re immersed in them—no matter the form or shape—it’s one of the few places that take you out of the cruel world, if even for a moment.

A moment like the one I had watching my Knicks beat the Lakers on that Dec. 13 day.

Sadly, I had to wake up to life’s reality a moment later.