Colts fans

Lots of crying today, not only in Indianapolis but widely among football fans, about Manning being let loose. Surely some compromise could have been reached to let Manning retire where he made his fame, where he built the team, among his truest fans. Nope. Money, money.

Well, the fans could respond and boycott next season. Make the team go broke and that surely will send a message. Of course, this will never happen. Owners screw the fans because they know they can get away with it. Repeat, owners screw the fans because they know they can get away with it. And until fans make owners suffer in the pocketbook, via boycotting games, nothing will change. Hey, I may get screwed, I may be a dupe, but at least I can watch football on Sunday!

In my new novel, my protagonist is working on a book called You Get the History You Deserve. Exactly. If you let someone screw you over repeatedly, they will keep doing it. Football owners, banks, politicians. They'll screw us and lie to us. We'll bitch but do nothing practical about it. We don't boycott elections. What if there was an election and no one came but instead millions protested in the streets over lack of real choices to vote on?

Fans have power. People have power. But they have to use it. They have to use it. Money talks and in this country it's about the only thing that talks. Not until bad deeds have serious financial consequences will anything change. Why should it? The doers know the rest of us are dupes.

You get the history you deserve. Or, to quote my favorite curtain line, from my one-act "The Stiff," What the people expect, they get. What they get, they deserve. Always.