I love this time of year. I'm a college basketball fan. I'm a Tarheel, so it makes perfect sense to be a college basketball fan.
But this time of year also drives me crazy. Why? Because I along with millions of other fans around the country and the world pin our hopes on a bunch of 19, 20 and 21 year old kids. Oftentimes forgetting that they are just that, kids. Talented and gifted, but just kids. Their life experiences haven't steeled them from having the highs and lows a 40 minute game exposes them too. Their decisions aren't life and death decisions, they just seem like they are, and in the moment we may feel that too.
Compare that to the decisions we ask another group of young men to make. A bunch of 18, 19, 20 and 21 year old kids. Kids with whom we have put the burden of carrying out the policies that our national leaders decided. And by extension, policies we have decided.
So as we watch March Madness of the next four weeks, lets keep things in perspective. It's a game. It's entertainment. It's not life and death, neither for the players and coaches or for the alumni and fans.
Kendall Marshall is the outstanding point guard on the University of North Carolina's basketball team He's not a 20 year old Sgt leading a patrol in Afghanistan. His mistakes may not get one of his buddies wounded or killed, unlike that 20 year old Sgt leading a patrol. You want pressure, exchange places with the 20 year old Sgt., not Kendall Marshall.