I hadn't planned on writing any more today, but I had to click on one last link, sent by a friend. What I read is disquieting in more ways than one. I may not agree with Ana Menendez of the Miami Herald on everything, but she does raise one proper point.

It seems that some hotels in Talahassee are telling folks displaced by Hurricane Katrina that they are to be displaced by Miami Hurricanes and FSU Seminoles arriving for the big game between the two schools on Monday night. They have reservations, you see, some paid in advance no doubt, and these folks from Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana didn't plan ahead for their homes to be destroyed by the biggest natural disaster in the United States in at least a century.

Cancel the stupid game.

Let the Hurricanes, the Seminoles and their hollow mascots play another day. I don't care how long the fans have been waiting for the FSU-Miami showdown in Tallahassee Monday night. I don't care about Devin Hester's kick return.

What kind of country amuses itself with choreographed violence while the world burns? How low have we sunk on the moral scale when hotels in Tallahassee are kicking out victims from the real hurricane to make way for a bunch of football fans?

New Orleans is burning. Its people are waiting in lines that stretch for half a mile. Tens of thousands have lost not just homes, but an entire way of life. A city is gone. We are facing one of the biggest displacements in the country's history. And the few evacuees who have managed to find shelter in hotels around Tallahassee have to pick up and go because of football?

''We have to let them know what's going on in town and they're going to have to leave,'' a hotel manager told The Herald's Mary Ellen Klas.

The manager added: ``Many of them are trying to get closer to home anyway.''

I guess that would be those who still have a home.

Yeah, I find Menendez a bit shrill, but I agree with her on her larger point -- no person displaced by this disaster should be displaced by a mere football game. Yeah, Iknow that is near blasphemous coming from someone from Texas, but it is also the simple truth.

But I have to disagree with menendez when she proposes that all revenue from the game -- tickt sales, concessions, and salaries -- ought to be turned over to charity. She may be offended when University of Miami atheletic department spokesman Mark Pray rejected the idea out of hand and noted that she wasn't giving up her salary for the duration, but Pray had it right. Afte all, how many of those concession workers and ticket takers are working those jobs for the money they need for necessities, not for a little extra spending money? Would Ana and her press pass care to explain why these folks should get stiffed while she continues to draw her pay and her expense-account money? Probably not, but as a member of the MSM she feels she is semi-divine royalty entitled to be treated with a different standard that the commoners whose work does not involve the First Amendment.

But while I think that most of what Menendez has written is simply shrill socialism, she does strike a note with me. Because of a pair of seats in the back of Section 541.

Most folks know that we've got some 15,000 people displaced by Hurricane Katrina living in the Astrodome (more properly the Reliant Astrodome, thanks to a naming rights deal). Two other buildings in Reliant Park -- the Reliant Arena and Reliant Center -- have also been taken for emergency shelter. There are folks downtown at the George R. Brown Convention Center, too, some miles from the the other three locations. The mayor has rightly challenged groups or businesses with cancelled events to sue, and then explain in court why their event was more important than disaster relief.

But one facility at Reliant Park is not in use for temporary shelter, despite being literally only a Hail Mary pass or kickoff return from the Astrodome. That is the crown jewel of Reliant Park -- Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans, where those two seats are located.

I'm left with some uncomfortable questions because of that. Questions that, being asked, are likely to bring some outraged fans looking for me on September 18, the first regular season home game for the Texans.

There is only one event booked into Relaint Stadium between now and the start of October -- the Septembr 18 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Does that game need to be moved to provide more shelter for the victims of this disaster? I'm not sure -- but I have an answer gnawing in the pit of my stomach that might not be too popular with my fellow Texans fans.

And beyond the shelter question is the reality that many of the folks sleeping on cots in the other three buildings are still going to be there in two weeks. Is it responsible, is it proper, to surround them with game day crowds and the orgy of tailgating that we find in the parking lots surrounding their place of refuge? It somehow seems. . . less than ideal. But one has to wonder if the game does not belong somewhere else for that reason alone.

Please, no one hear me as taking a shot at the Houston Texans. Team owner Bob McNair made a $1,000,000 donation to disaster relief on Thursday night, matching the donations called in by Texan fans during the teams final pre-season game in Tampa Bay. I'm sure players and coaches, as well as fans, have shown generosity in this time of crisis. And there will no doubt be the obligatory Red Cross collection at the gates on September 18.

But I think there is a question that still needs to be asked by the state, county, and city, the fans and ticketholders, and the Houston Texans.

Is the biggest gift that the we can give to the victims of Hurricane Katrina the gift of our home opener?

Posted by: Greg at 02:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1045 words, total size 6 kb.