Spare Time for Striking Thoughts

The February issue of The Bowling News will be out shortly in your favorite St. Louis area bowling center and pro shop.

Below is editor Craig Mathew's column that would have appeared in his January edition:


Spare Time For Striking Thoughts

By Craig Mathews, Sr

In watching all the news media hype about Tiger Woods, it really makes me sick.

Not because of what he did, but because of the feeding frenzy of the media and the public.

One person said it is because he is black. And I said that was a bunch of bull because Magic Johnson's life-style makes Tiger Woods look like a piker and there wasn't a feeding frenzy about his being HIV positive.

Everybody is acting like Woods is the first and only public figure to get caught having affairs.

Does anybody else remember Bill "Slick Willie" Clinton and his affairs?

I don't know if any pro bowlers, male or female, have had affairs while on the road, but it would not surprise me. Why? Because they are human!

The problem is not with his indiscretions. The problem is with the general public thinking that public figures are some sort of God-like creature and they should be revered or even worshiped because they are better than the rest of us "low lifes". BULL!

They are people, all with their own opinions and with all the other human failings.

Did Tiger's home life make an affair a viable option?.

Did she complain constantly about every little thing he did? Or what he failed to do?

Was her previous life-style a stumbling block? If you didn't know, she did some nude modeling and, being European, with the European mores, has she talked about that phase of her life and made comparisons?

I don't know and I don't much care either, but that could have been the cause in his actions.

Was Tiger wrong for what he did? Yes, but without knowing all the details, I'm not going to condemn him. That's between him and his deity . And whether he's represents a product or not has no bearing on me buying it either.

People need to stop needing to know all the dirt that is going on in other people's lives. Maybe people do this to make themselves feel better about their own life.

The tabloids and tabloid TV exploit the failings of others because of the need of the general public to know the dirt.

If the general public would stop wanting the "dirt", TMZ and other exploiters of this attitude would go away.

Just think, if there was no market for the dirt, then Princess Diana might still be alive.

Everyone of us have done things that we may be less than proud of and that would be embarrassing if generally known. Would you like your private life secrets plastered all over the evening news?

Do yourself and your country a favor, stop buying into the negative journalistic hogwash. You really don't need to know how bad things are for someone else, just to make yourself feel better.

Do you?