July 6, 2004

Happy Birthday America!

    Last Thursday and Friday, I was sent to Franklin K. Lane High school in Brooklyn to ask students and
teachers how they felt about the changes in their leadership. In four years, they've had 4 different
principals. Nobody wants to deal with these kids.
    When I got there, the first thing I noticed were all the cops that were there. My Gawd, the place was
crawling with cops, and as one students old me "It doesn't make us feel safer" No sh-t.
    Even though I got a few quotes from kids, I guess they wanted parents and teachers too. I tried to
explain to then that parents don't pick their kids up from high school, but no dice. They didn't use my
stuff, and I didn't get a byline. Needless to say I was pissed off. but what are you going to do?

The Subway Series

       Walking out of Shea Stadium on Sunday chanting "Sweep, sweep, sweep" will go down as one of
my all ime great sports memories. You can remind me as Lisa Depuy's boyfriend jack did, that the
Yankees are still 10 games better, or that its never happened before or about the World Series score (26
to 2) and any of that other crap, even the fact that the Mets were swept by the Yanks both at Shea and
the Bronx last year. It doesn't matter.
    For Sunday provided me with the reason I can't stop watching, and lord knows I've tried. 2003 was
one of the worst sports years ever. Ever single one of my teams finished with losing records, one more
pathetic than the other. Yet, I keep coming back, just to get the feeling I got Sunday.
     The Yankees are probably going to waltz to the playoffs, maybe even to the World Series. To be
honest I see them going on a big winning streak right here, just to get the writers off their backs. And I
don't expect A-rod's average to dip much more than it already has.
   And the Mets? Well, if they don't take 2 out of 3 from the Phillies, the sweep of the Yankees will mean
squat. They've been in two steps forward, two steps back mode all season. Now would be a good time
to go four or five steps froward and one step back.
     I'll have the rest of the season to worry about that, and the rest of my life to worry about Yankee
overall dominance. Sunday belonged to us Met fans. Sunday we slayed the evil empire. On George
Steinbrenner's birthday, nonetheless. It was sweep
Uh I mean sweet.

    I wanted to do something different for the end of this week's Weekly Mail. It's the 4th of July
weekend, a time to celebrate America. There will be plenty of time, with the Presidential campaign heating
up this month, and all the same things going on overseas, to argue about the issues. Today  want to talk
about something good, something that will be a positive.
     Saturday night at work, I saw a commercial for an organization called Give Kids the World. The sound
was down and nthe captioning was off so I really didn't see what it was about. I knew it ad something to
do with kids with cancer.
    So I went to the website and sure enough, Give Kids the World is an organization that sets up trips to
Disney World for terminally ill kids.
    Thanks to donations, Give Kids the World has built a 51 acre village in Central Florida, giving kids and
their families a chance to see all of the attractions, including Disney World and Sea World. Trips can be
set up from anywhere in the US on as little as one day's notice.
    I know that there are lots of charities in the country, this one happened to catch my eye. Check out
their website. Whether you want to make a donation or not is entirely up to you, but at least check out the
website.  
http://www.gktw.com
Have a Great Week
Bill