This is a great article that gets at some of the tension in Catalunya in regards to being a separate independent country and in whether or not to support Spain’s national futbol team. There is a long and interesting history of why this is an issue, but I won’t go into that.

After the win over Germany the other night, I was surprised at how few people were out celebrating in Barcelona (To later find out that people were on La Rambla…which is also interesting because it’s a total tourist spot, but it would be cool if it were taken over with a city wide party!). It’s not crazy after a win here like in Madrid or other cities without separatist tendencies. But as this article talks about, we are seeing a change. And if Spain wins the match in a few hours, I’m wondering how many more steps people, especially the young, will be more ok with identifying with Spain as a whole. Spain has never been to a World Cup final. Had never won anything big until Euro2008 and the wounds that divide this country are still fresh…relatively speaking.

I think that this article is getting at something. There could be a change on the horizon. What if the young Catalans (think 18 and younger) are more ok with celebrating Spain than the generation before? Would a ‘Spain’ victory in the World Cup dull the edge of a historically separatist culture? Could it unite people?

There is a part of me that wishes that it would. One half of me would like to see people here more unified and less angry about the past. Just yesterday there was a massive protest by the Catalan Nationalistic Party (the group that wants Catalunya to be it’s own nation-state) on Passeig de Gracia. Hundreds of thousands of people were out with Catalan flags. On my walk home from a meeting I saw people burning a Spanish flag.

I thought, “That’s kind of disrespectful…” The atmosphere was intense. People were angry. At this point in the protest it was mostly 20-somethings with probably a bit too much angst. I wonder what they would be passionate about if they didn’t have this? If there was no more fight.

But there is another part of me that loves the revolution spirit of people here. It’s been within a generation that they’ve even been allowed to protest like this. After learning more about the history of the region, and it is recent history, I understand why they want to be separate from Spain. They are basically a people who were conquered in the past and no longer want to be captive to Spain now that we live in a different time.

It’s a very interesting and complex situation. I’m glad to be here during this time as I feel like it could be a breaking point…if Spain wins. So I’m understanding as to why the Catalans have a hard time supporting the national team (even though 7 of the team’s players are from Barcelona’s team).

But we’ll see what happens in the next 10 hours…it could shape the sentiment of the next 10 years.

Al Davis has done a fabulous job of preparing the Raiders to establish a new legacy when he’s no longer running things. I am a not a Raider’s fan at all, but still feel for fans who’ve had to put up with his selfishness and lack of wisdom.

Just to add some sort of relevance to this post…This situation reminds me of what happens at churches when new leaders aren’t developed and the church slowly loses relevance. The only difference is that these fans don’t just leave and start rooting for a new team and talk bad about the team they left! If only churches could have more healthy debate (key word healthy), but I guess that would require shaking up the current hierarchy that exists in many of the families of God…

BBC News – Vatican ‘snubbed Ireland church abuse inquiry’

This is just too funny not to post…A soccer player in England was given a yellow card for ‘unsporting behaviour’, which is another way of saying that he farted while the opposing team was taking a penalty shot. The ensuing shot was missed…but because of the ‘distraction’ another shot was awarded and made. Neither the fart or the missed, then made, penalty kick effected the outcome of the game. But it did help effect the wallet of the club that was fined 90 pounds for the three yellow cards it was given during the match. Apparently, this referee doesn’t take kindly to crop-dusting the pitch. (link has additional content that is not really ‘proper’…as if this post is.)

I’m not even going to try and make this into an analogy for anything…it makes enough noise on it’s own.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373

thanks to Brant at Letters from Kamp Krusty for posting this…

Lives – Facebook in a Crowd – NYTimes.com.

All Politics Aside — Today is a Good Day! » Blog » Greg Boyd (Christus Victor Ministries).

His words were good enough for us (Jen and I) to both copy them onto ours…I hope you don’t mind Greg! (like he reads my blog!)

Today is a good day.

I don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Libertarian, Communist, Anarchist or even a Christarchist who feels called to abstain from the whole political process. I couldn’t care less. The fact that Americans have elected a black man to be their president makes today a very good day!

When you reflect on the centuries of bondage and abuse blacks endured as slaves who were bought and sold like cattle and often treated worse…

when you remember that blacks were once regarded for legal purposes as just over half-human…

when you consider the extraordinary illegal and immoral ways white politicians changed all the rules to keep blacks out of power following the civil war…

when you recall the dehumanizing injustice of the Jim Crow south, the horrors of the KKK, the heroic struggles for civil rights, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the on-going systemic racism that continues to marginalize and oppress blacks…

you can’t help but celebrate the day Americans elected a black man to lead them.

All politics aside,

today is a very good day!

Greg Boyd