Eating Garbage During the NBA Finals

While watching the colossal collapse of the National Basketball Association's version of the Titanic, my heart actually went out to the fans of the outplayed, underachieving Miami Heat and I briefly shared in the exultation of the people of Cleveland as their Brutus was himself foiled in his own underhanded schemings. I felt for the basketball fans of the Heat because of their feverishly pitched expectations based on their team's "Big Three" and the amount of money spent to bring about what on paper should lead to dynastic realizations. It felt vindicating to see the Dallas Mavericks, through class, superior coaching, and sportsmanship totally outlast the presumed juggernaut of the League. Ask anyone outside of Dallas, and I'm sure fans all over the nation had the Heat winning the Finals in five games, six at the most. I watched the clinching game six with my father, and after the game, I drove home, elated. As I drove home, I arrived at an intersection of perpendicular streets all too familiar to residents of Chicago's South Side, the red light camera-laden meeting of 99th and Halsted. Waiting for the light to turn green, a downtrodden, despondent-looking gentleman came up to my window seeking spare change. While I gave him what little change I was willing to part with, guilt filled my heart. There I was, in a well-working vehicle, with a stomach still full of delicacies I enjoyed with my family at my parents' home. I had just watched what, for sports fans, was one of the best NBA Finals series of all time yet I had just realized that I had participated in an idolatry of a pervasive sort. I lent my little energies to the furtherance of an industry that had inverted the priorities of an entire nation. Multiple hundreds of millions of dollars had been creating an entire universe of almost unparalled comfort and privilege for a group some of the most selfish, self-absorbed individuals on the face of the earth, and by no means do I think that they owe us anything whatsoever, and I'm certainly not jealous of what their talents and collective dedication has brought them. My point of contention is with the citizens of the wealthiest, most advanced nation on earth permitting such massive financial resources to be squandered for ultimately meaningless entertainment. If one is honest, starving, deprived citizens well-being infinitely outweighs the successful matching of competitive teams onsome hard-wood floor. In a nation with the resources, dilapidated schools should not exist. Underfunded hospitals and clinics should be the stuff of fantasy. AIDS and cancer research should continue unfettered. The elderly should be venerated and cared for with dignity. What I'm calling for is not the seizure of the funds and assets of the players in the NBA, nor of the owners who make multiple times more than the players. Capitalism is a glorious, bittersweet economic system that allows one to amass his own largesse by his own sweat and toil. However, one of the beautiful aspects of this system is that its direction rests in the hands and decisions of the consumers. This grave social injustice of Americans eating garbage out of restaurant dumpsters while billions of dollars continue to beatify athletes must end soon. It ends with the willful channeling of our monetary powers toward those activities that will preserve, protect, and elevate human dignity.