SPORTS: Pro and Con

The sports issue arouses emotions, pro and con. Miles Seeley, a sports enthusiast, must be assured that at the conference the issue will be discussed on its merits. Bernardo Naranjo asks that we distinguish between sports, which involve human physical exertion, and competitions, such as chess and cock-fighting, which do not. Thus sports would include my competetive gardening and gladiator ganes. Doug Carroll says that "the Gladiator games continued until 404 AD, when they were officially abolished--more for practical reasons (too expensive) than moral. Rome fell to Alaric and his horde of Goths in 410 AD. " I am waiting for an answer to my question as to their effect on relations between parts of the empire. As for chess, which as a youth I played successfully, I am amazed that chess tournaments arouse such interest and passion. Is chess a mental or a physical activity? That brings us to the word "tournament", defined as "originally a sport consisting of an encounter of knights on horseback in which the opponents tried to unseat one another". The loser was forced to take it lying down, but sportingly? Ask him. So, WAISers, please discuss this subject dispassionately. The issue is more serious than the game.

Ronald Hilton - 2/16/01