To see and to be seen
to listen and be listened to
to hear and be heard
to hold and be held
to excite and be excited

LOVE

Here is how it began. Atlantic City has been in the news quite a lot lately and most of the news has been dire. The issues primarily concern the proposed closing of several casinos in Atlantic City. Some prognosticators have suggested that this signals the beginning of the end for Atlantic City. There are others who remain optimistic that Atlantic City has a bright future but needs to readjust to stay relevant. The issue had dominated my social media, particularly my Facebook page. After engaging in several discussions a thought occurred to me.
Many of us who are concerned about the future of Atlantic City and who have an idea of what we think the City needs or what might be attractive in the City have posted our thoughts and ideas. However we seem to be waiting for someone or some group of folks to come along and bring the ideas to fruition. It occurred to me that maybe a grassroots investment group might spearhead the effort to attempt to bring to the resort the attractions we believe the City is lacking. So I decided to throw out the idea to see what the reaction would be. My post read as follows: Here is a crazy idea. Several of us have expressed what needs to be done in Atlantic City with ideas such as amusement piers or water attraction or things of that nature. Why don’t we put ourselves on the front line and do a grassroots effort, along the lines of Kickstarter and all invest in one of those properties and see if we can make a go of that?? Let’s have that discussion and put a skin in the game.
Much to my surprise, the post received over 75 likes and some very encouraging responses. Most of the responses were supportive of the concept and several of the individuals seem ready to get involved and put their money behind the concept. What I envision is a group of investors who would form some entity, led by a management team. That group would meet to determine a concrete concept and plan and then seek additional funding to achieve the goal of bringing about the proposed development. Ideally the grass roots group will raise enough capital to be taken seriously by a venture capital group or some other financier and then move the project forward from there.
The notion depends on the one very real and somewhat unique quality about Atlantic City, a sense of nostalgia. Those of us who grew up in Atlantic City before gaming remember a different Atlantic City. We always had tourist and visitors in town. Entertainment was a central element of Atlantic City. An incredible amount of research and organizational planning would be required to move this concept from a Facebook status post to a real project but nothing happens until the first step is taken.

When I first indicated that I was looking for topics to discuss on my blog, a friend suggest youth sports issues. Now I do not profess to know all there is to know about youth sports issues and I am somewhat removed from youth sports these days. However I have a few friends and I know others who are firmly entrenched. I also remember fondly my days of being a youth sports parent and a youth sports coach. I am somewhat grateful that I no longer have a young athlete. From what I have seen these days things are becoming more and more intense.

My greatest concern regarding youth sports is that kids are specializing in one particular sport so young. I feel that kids should play every sport that might want to play for as long as they can. It does’t seem sensible to place all of your eggs in one basket so young. However this current age of AAU competition has created a situation where many athletes have to choose one sport over others. For example when school basketball leagues end in March many kids have to immediately try out for AAU teams which play through the spring and summer. This might require a baseball player to make a tough choice.

In addition to the specialization there is the issue of cost. Youth sports have become such a financial burden for parents. Parents are responsible for registration fees to join teams. Parents pay additional fees for AAU teams which often include travel and lodging expenses. In addition, today’s kids all want to wear the newest shoes, the special socks which are the new trend and all of the other popular gear. And in the age of modern parenting we dare not disappoint our children.

Beyond spoiling our children with material things, today’s helicopter parent gets way way too involved in the process of team management, the coaches job. Gone are the days when parents trusted their kids to the male or female role models, in the form of coach, and allowed the coach to do what he or she had committed themselves to do, which is build young athletes and young men and women. There was a time when parents would pull up to the practice field and drop their kids off, pausing long enough to confirm with coach that practice would end at the usual time. Today parents bring the beach chair or take their spot in the bleacher to “support their child” or is it to let coach know that they are there. Parents have to commit to allowing their children to rise and or fall based strictly on their athletic ability.

So where did we turn the corner? What has caused parents to take this posture where their children are concerned. Are today’s parents so involved as a means to giving their children an advantage or a leg up toward a college scholarship or an opportunity to get to college. Is that really it? Or is it that we don’t want our kids to be disappointed, we don’t want them to “feel bad.” This is consistent with the concept that all of the kids get a trophy for participating and just “giving it a try” is worthy of an award, the same award as all the other players. No superlatives, no cuts nothing to distinguish the strongest athletes from the others. This sugar coating of reality is detrimental to the development of children today.

When I was a youth football coach I would often do an experiment mid-season. I would take a couple of my weaker players and allow them to be captains and pick teams for a intra squad scrimmage. As is said earlier, the kids would take turns selecting the best players on the team. Kids, left to their own devices know who is who and who has what skills. We know this from the school yard growing up. And truth be told, if the adults stay out of things the kids would probably be fine with the results.
I have only begun to scratch the surface of the issues involved in youth sports today. I invite a further dialogue on this issue.

Ok, so this is what is on my mind today.  When and how did we lose our sense of neighborhood.  It happened in my lifetime because I remember having it.  I grew up in a great little neighborhood.  I grew up in the late 60’s and early 70’s.  I lived on a block where every family knew each other.  There were 5 homes on my side of the street on my block.  I can honestly say that I had an occasion to be in each one of those houses at least once.  There were probably 10 homes across the street from us and I was probably in 5 or 6 of those.  

It sounds a bit like a cliche but we lived in the type of community where everyone knew everyone, you could come across someone and they could tell you your life story, what church your family attended, where your parents worked, who your siblings were, the whole story.  

As kids, we played outside.  We went to playgrounds and played games.  We played “sandlot” sports.  We did not need a gym, or a coach or a ref.  We picked teams and the good players were picked first and the bad players last.  Sometimes the bad players picked the teams and guess what. They picked the good players first.  We rode our bikes all over town, we walked all over town.  We spoke to adults.  We had block parties and cookouts and invited the neighbors. 

When did we lose this.  When did we get to the point when we don’t know our neighbors.  When did we get to the point when the neighborhood kids did not greet you as “Mr._____” or “Mrs. _____”  What happened to the days of knowing your neighbor well enough to ask for a cup of sugar.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I am speaking in general terms because I happen to have been very luck in the two homes that I have owned.  I have had the fortune of having an great relationship with at least one neighboring family in each of the homes I’ve owned.

I realize that the new suburban developments make it more difficult to move about our communities.  Our developments a more spread out and are further away from the center of town so walking to the center of town does not happen.  

I don’t know whether this is a general state of the times or if it is unique to my set of experiences but in any event I would love some to the simpler times back.

Wishing on this peaceful storm
Sharing it so close yet so far
Hoping it is a symbol of good things
Wish on it with me