The sky is falling, and I really don't know where to turn.
I seek guidance and stability in the trying days of an America where the word "recession" has grimly evolved into talks of another depression.
Where will the answers come from?
Certainly not out of the mouths of Sens. John McCain or Barack Obama.
We see barbs traded about nonissues from the past, resulting in a spectacle that makes a mockery of the entire election process.
Where are the news stories that put a smile on our faces and make us forget - if only for a moment - our stark realities?
I scoured the headlines only to find a murder-suicide in California by a jobless father, the ever-volatile stock market crashing to new lows and the homeless rate in Massachusetts spiraling of control.
In the wake of the media's perpetually negative press seemingly only meant to overwhelm and undermine the average American, we can look 150 miles down the road to find an awe-inspiring story that transcends the world of sports.From worst to first in the course of one season, the Tampa Bay Rays defy all reasonable odds.Like picking Ben Stiller to win an Oscar or McCain to win the presidency, placing an unlikely bet in Vegas on the Rays to make the playoffs could get a man Gators season tickets for life.
How did the perennial cellar-dwellers of the American League East manage such a dramatic turnaround to finish the season with the best home record in all of baseball?
Did the off-season trade for Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza spark the change? Or maybe the success came from switching up their uniforms and dropping the "Devil" from their moniker? It's more likely the team came together to play cohesive baseball and found an insatiable thirst for manager Joe Maddon's Kool-Aid during spring training.
A team not necessarily dominant in any particular facet of the game, the Rays simply played consistently at their best, a true skill that even the most talented of teams cannot master. They are a self-described "fraternity" of players, devoid of discernible chemistry issues that often spell the demise for most teams.
As Americans, what lessons can we learn from the Tampa Bay Rays?
I look to the Rays and see the value of trusting and relying on each other.
America is hardly the Rays. We're probably more like the Yankees - full of unrealized talent and potential squandered away because of a refusal to work together for the greater good of the country.
I do not foresee McCain or Obama having to perform a tour de force of sorts to fix America; rather, they are presented with an inimitable opportunity to use our country's copious resources to their advantage.
In a time in which the two candidates should be sticking to the core issues on the minds of the American people, we find them refusing to sweep aside the petty issues of politics, using them against each other in a shameful, disgusting manner.
Why must McCain and Obama make this election about themselves when the true testament of a successful president will not be about an irrelevant past, but rather future accomplishments gauged by the overall health of the country?
America cannot afford to see an election won on smear campaigns when the course of this country's future will be in the hands of one of these two men.
If the Rays can pull off the impossible, why can't we?
