High school is brutal. No where does that seem more true at the moment, then in Lakeland, Florida, a town that has become a media hot spot recently due to the brutal attack of a high school girl by six cheerleaders. Why has this story gained such a huge array of media attention? It’s not because of the incident itself, although it was vicious, cruel and pre-meditated. It’s not because the victim was an honor student and her abusers were blonde haired, blue eyed cheerleaders. The reason this story is worse than the countless others that are reported every day is because the attackers primary motivation for video taping the incident was so they could upload the video to MySpace and YouTube.

In the days since this heinous story came to light, a lot of media shows have been concentrating primarily on that fact. I even heard MySpace referred to as the “anti-christ of this generation.” Call me crazy, but if six teenage girls and two teenage boys (they were standing guard outside to make sure no one caught on to what was going on inside) have no qualms about tricking a fellow teenager into coming over to their house, ganging up on her and beating her until she’s unconscious, waiting until she comes to and then beating her some more, leaving her with a concussion, partial loss of hearing in one ear and partial loss of sight in one eye, I think there are some people a little closer to home that need to be taking the blame.

Not only did these teens commit these horrible acts, they also showed no remorse and no concept of how severe their actions were. One girl was quoted as asking police officers if they would be out of lock-up in time to go to cheer leading practice. Obviously the parents of these kids need to step up to the plate and take on a little responsibility. I’m pretty sure it must take years of parental inaction for children to reach this level of selfishness and cruelty. Let’s put the blame where it is deserved, on these children, who have no respect for human decency and on the parents and families who created them.

This was a test and most of you failed it. Not really, but if it was, I would fail you. It seems the only reason people responded so strongly to this is because I mentioned Oprah. Next time I will go after Paris Hilton instead.I write blogs often, actually I have written 63 of them since I started working here in July of 2006.Since that time, I have written about various topics such as a sneaker I saw on the side of the road, my car catching fire while my husband was driving it, the crime rates in Chenango County and various other real or fictional subjects.  One thing I have learned throughout my blog writing experience is writing about a celebrity is one way to make sure people are reading what you write.I could write about school drop out rates, poverty and sexual abuse, but nothing and I mean nothing, gets people’s attention more than putting the name of  a celebrity in the title.Just look at Mike’s blog about Tom Petty, the poor guy got canned for such things. And Jessica, her blog responses hit the roof when she wrote about Tom Cruise.Why is this? I am unsure.I did however, like the responses I received. People now think I  get a kick out of making people feel bad, I  am a sad excuse of an individual because I picked on such a “humanitarian.”Have you ever met Oprah? I haven’t … therefore to judge what is seen on television is one rule my parents always said to obey: “Don’t you believe everything you see on TV” I can hear my father saying clear as day!On a side note, to Ana Sarca, your application for copy editor is in the mail.

Really, does she?

I just read a statement about her dog dying and it occurred to me, that I for one think the woman does not know how to cry. OK, so maybe she has shed some tears on camera in her time, but I mean real tears, the kind where she actually sobs and her shoulders shake like the rest of ours do when we have had enough.
Her dog of 13 years, Sophie, passed away and Oprah is dedicating a show on the abuses of dogs to her, what did she call her, “a true love in my life” man, I don’t think she has ever even referred to Stedman like that.
So let me get this straight, her dog dies and she is banking on it in some way or another right. Okay so maybe the dedication is just that, a tribute to her lost dog.
But anyway….do you think she really cries? If she does, she doesn’t do it right.
Maybe it is just me but I can’t see it. I am sure she gets mad, like when Stedman leaves his socks on the bathroom floor or something, or she may yell when her employees mess up her lunch order. But still, I simply can not see the woman breaking down and losing enough composure to shed tears, real ones. I also can not really see Hilary cry, I know she did on TV, but come on who fell for that? Laura Bush, nope, have never seen a tear.
I am pretty sure that to become such a powerful person, it requires certain bodily functions removed from your body. Like passing gas, burping, having the hiccups, throwing up and even your stomach growling device is probably removed upon becoming a somebody.
I think when someone out and out cries, it tells you something about them. Not that their weak, but that they can show emotion now that’s power!
Ok, so if you are still reading this you may be wondering why I decided to bash Oprah, in actuality, I am bored and saw he face in the newspaper so what the hell, I thought I would pick on her today, not really for any reason just because. Maybe she will read this and cry…….

Wednesday, April 2, I ran into Unadilla Valley head varsity baseball coach Matt Osborne around 6 p.m., who, like me, was eating dinner with his family at the Pizza Hut in Norwich. That statement alone should tell you something.
Osborne, again like me, was enjoying a relaxing evening with his family. Normally, I would be moving dinner along quickly with the purpose of reaching The Evening Sun office to take incoming calls from coaches. Or, I would be returning from an out-of-town game. Osborne, as well, would typically be finishing up a baseball game or finishing up an after-school practice. Why were the two of us so blithely going about our business? Cancellations and more cancellations.
Osborne had games on Monday (at Harpursville), and Tuesday (at Bainbridge-Guilford) slated, and both were postponed. Regardless if either or both games were played on UV’s home diamond, postponement was inevitable. On this April 2nd day, a day available to make up the postponements, field conditions remained across the majority of the area, unplayable.
Not having an exact count handy, I will conservatively estimate the area-wide baseball and softball cancellations due to poor weather at around a dozen and a half. These are all games that will eventually need to be played, and according to empirical evidence and my 13-year track record covering sports, the games left outstanding on each respective team’s docket will appear on open dates in the schedule. As cancellations pile up – and they will most assuredly accrue voluminously – the open dates become fewer and fewer, and legitimate practice sessions will linger as a long-ago memory from the early weeks of March.
My point here: Scheduling baseball and softball games in Central New York this time of year is wishful thinking at best, and unrealistic. I have pushed the idea yearly to move the start of the season back 10 days to two weeks. Cancellations are still inevitable due the fickle nature of spring weather, but the imminent postponements due to cold weather and horrid field conditions may be avoided.
I also like the idea of playing twinbills on Saturday, or at the least playing the make-up contests on the first day of the weekend. Why not? Be it a home game, a road game or a rescheduled game, regular Saturday contests will cover around one-third the entire schedule. Of course, Saturday is not exempt from rain-outs as well.
The end result of the current state of local scheduling is a stack of bunched games over a two- or three-week period. I have written up half a team’s schedule over a seven-week season in 10 days – nine games in 10 days!
Remember, we are not talking about Major League pitching staffs that carry 10 or 11 world-class arms. In most cases, these local clubs have one or maybe two quality arms, and perhaps a couple other guys that can give a couple quality innings. It is watered-down baseball where scores in the double digits become commonplace.
I’m all for offense, but Abner Doubleday did not intend baseball games to end in 22-19 counts with double-digit base on balls and double-digit errors.
To paraphrase a Ben Franklin quote: “Insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result.” It is time the brain trusts of high school sports look at the inequities in the scheduling and find a better way.