World Kup

I just got done watching the viral video that someone sent to Landon Donovan, which showed a montage of fans in U.S. bars, streets and living rooms reacting to his goal against Ghana that propelled the U.S. into the finals. After I got done crying (I cry in commercials), I asked myself why. Why am I crying from a viral video about a sport I've never played, though I have been watching the games? The answer is as immediate as a Spaniard's fall in response to the light touch of his opponent: I'm crying because we, the people of the United States, have nothing else. There is a pipe in the Gulf of Mexico that is currently spitting out the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez of oil a week into the ocean. 37 dying dolphins washed ashore today along the Gulf Coast. We have been in two wars for 8 years and our economy is third world. That's why the scenes of sheer joy in response to the scoring of a goal against a team from a country 1/100th the size of our own, which I have been a part of, look so much like a street scene from Calcutta on free lamb kabob day. We need this team like a liver transplant. It's as sad as it is wonderful.