by Jane Smith

Okay, you are angry, you are mad, you think it is okay to downgrade anyone, anything, anytime. Are you right - never.

As people and citizens of the same country, where is our respect for each other?? Has it gone out the door, thrown in the wastebasket never to be thought of again. Racing is a sport and on a local level, it is done for fun. Not for money, maybe for glory sometimes, but mostly fun.

Then why, when you have nothing to gain, do some find it okay to invade others lives, to start wars where there are no wars. Every track has it's own problems, and whether you like to hear it, see it, believe it, fans and drivers can and do make a difference in those problems.

Every driver and every fan know exactly what a "dirty driver" is. Is that acceptable behavior anymore on a racetrack - NO IT IS NOT. Does the track owe the other drivers the right to be able to race without fear when they have seen that one driver uses his car as his brain??? Yes they do or eventually all the good drivers go where they can have fun and not drive in fear.

In today's world, nothing is certain except that we all need one another to survive. Yet in our play time, we act like we have never been civilized, never been taught there is a time and place for everything. We open our mouths and NEVER think.

NASCAR is going down hill fast. It has out-priced itself and lost the fun in racing. Local tracks still have the fun and although some do get carried away with how much money they spend on a car, most are everyday hard working joes who do the best they can and love every minute of it.

Tracks do not run on air and there is alot of time and hard work involved in getting everything done and ready for racing. Is it appreciated - NEVER. Food does not magically appear, bathrooms do not service themselves. Schedules, rules do not just appear on paper without hard work going on to make them. Gas, tires, parts are not dropped out of the sky by helicopters.

Tempers get hot, life long grudges are built, out goes the fun and in comes the desire to do nothing more than to take that person out. EXCEPT when that is done, who really wins? No one. Not the track, not the fan, not the drivers.

Racing message boards are meant to help not harm or belittle or use language that our mothers would have washed out our mouths for. Do four letter words make you a BIG person. Only in the eyes of the few who know no better.

Once I had a friend who never had a bad word to say about anyone or anything. Oh, he would get mad when he felt someone had done him wrong but he never held a grudge and he never went after that person.
He was loved and respected and no one was afraid to drive next to him because they knew he had common sense and racing was just racing and things happen. Maybe not what he wanted always but they did happen.

If you persist in looking for the bad in everything and everyone you encounter in life, you will find no good. Looking for the bad is easy, finding the good takes work and it seems that for some, that is just too hard to do.

This is it, the only chance you get in life. Find the good, forgive the bad, and put the fun back in racing and the friendship back in your heart. You might just find that life truly is a blessing and you are the one who is blessed by life.



Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board!
or send a letter to the editor!