This is just one man’s opinion,
and according to both local and national polls the vast majority of you disagree
with it, but I think they should have canceled the NCAA championship basketball
tournament – and the Oscars, too.
In the case of the Oscars, it should have been an easy call. Hollywood could have postponed its awards extravaganza indefinitely, or held a quiet dinner for the stars and issued a release informing the public of the winners.
Instead, the big statement Hollywood came up with to acknowledge that we are in the midst of a war in Iraq was to take away the red carpet. Was that somehow supposed to be seen as an act of patriotism – of sacrifice?
Did we really need to know right away whether Renee Zellweger, Julianne Moore or Nicole Kidman would take home “Best Actress,” whether Jack Nicholson would take “Best Actor,” or whether “Ice Age,” “Lilo & Stitch” or “Treasure Planet” would capture the coveted Oscar for Best Animated Film?
The NCAA tournament presented a more complicated dilemma. Games were booked at sites throughout the country over a two-week period. But listen to NCAA officials during the tournament. Every chance they get, they refer to the players as “student-athletes.” They sell the tournament as something more than sports.
Well, what better way to deliver a lesson in priorities not only to the players, but to all of us, than to postpone or cancel the popular tournament out of respect to the men and women risking their lives in the Middle East?
It’s fashionable now to take the stance that canceling such events would be a sign of giving into a bully – of cowering to terrorism or sending the wrong sign to our enemies. But that’s an easy out.
Do we really think Saddam Hussein is following the NCAA tournament? Do we think he’s got Kentucky and Texas in his Final Four?
Canceling or postponing the Oscars and the NCAA Tournament would have sent an important message to our troops. It would have represented a symbolic way to tell them that nothing is more important than what they are doing – that we’ll be thinking about them and praying for them.
I was embarrassingly slow to reach this conclusion. It came to me on the first Sunday of the war (March 23), the first day that wasn’t such a good one for U.S. and coalition forces.
The ground war was beginning to unfold, with firefights reported throughout Iraq. For the first time, we began to hear – to see – details of American casualties.
A U.S. Army maintenance convoy had been ambushed in An Nasiriyah. Some Americans were killed. Others were taken hostage. Soon came reports that the POWs were being badly mistreated – even executed.
Suddenly, I felt like an idiot for cursing the fact that Butler University’s upset of Louisville had all but knocked me out of my tournament pool. And pondering whether anyone would be able to stop the Kansas Jayhawks or Duke Blue Devils seemed like a colossal waste of time.
It shouldn’t have taken this long to figure out, but just a few days into it, this war with Iraq got real serious.
Melissa Derbyshire, up there in Port Clyde, Maine, wasn’t thinking about the Oscars or any basketball games last week. Just 48 hours after the war began, she was making plans to bury her 25-year-old son, Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy.
Kennedy was among a crew of four killed when their CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter crashed in Kuwait, nine miles from the Iraqi border.
Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill., Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Waters-Bey, 29, of Baltimore, Md., and Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine were also killed.
And just hours after that helicopter crash, two U.S. Marines had been killed in ground combat.
That’s the thing about this war with Iraq. It’s just like any other war. Not everyone is coming home.
As it turns out, Nicole Kidman took home the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in “The Hours.” She wore an understated “vintage black ensemble,” according to press reports. Everyone seemed happy for her. She and ex-husband Tom Cruise had split. Winning the Oscar was a “Hollywood ending” for her.
And Jack Nicholson did not go home with a trophy. Best Actor went to a newcomer, Adrien Brody, for his role in “The Pianist.”
As for the NCAA tournament, the Final Four is set. The teams will now head to New Orleans for this weekend’s games.
But none of that seems to matter much these days. Not when you know there are mothers and fathers out there making funeral arrangements.
