Where You Goin' With That Gun In Yo' Hand?

THAT, AS THEY SAY, is the question. It comes from a famous Jimmy Hendrix song: "Hey Joe", and it is most appropos now. The fact that it is perhaps the best college basketball player in America who remains confronted with this question, the one about where and why did you provide a handgun to a person who provided it to another person who used it to commit murder, and did you in fact know why the gun was being requested? - only enhances the notoriety of this bizarre, needless to say "awkward", tragic situation. The awkwardness derives mainly from the University of Alabama's decision to allow the player to continue to play, despite possibly being involved in the murder of a twenty three year old mother of a five year old. Seemingly, it all boils down to whether the young man, Brendan Miller, new what the gun was poing to used for when he provided it. As one sports commentator put it: "even though this involves players from one of the nation's top college basketball teams, it is really, really hard to even get basketball involved in this tragedy, or to even care about basketball, for now". At least sociologically, of special interest is the way in which the University, its basketball team, and its fan base is responding to the situation, with apparent dismissal, even to the point of presenting superstar Mr. Miller as a victim, the victim of a cruel and judgmental media and public. We are confronted with our modern "bubble" mentality. We all tend, so it seems, to congregate and associate with other people who share our values, beliefs, and interests. Hence segregation in society, liberals among liberals, conservatives among conservatives, and sports teams and their fans and their fan clubs and bubbles. It has been suggested that University of alabama fans and personell simply do not understnad how their situation and their behavior looks to the vast majority of the Americna people, those who do not root for Alabama. As game time approached for the game between Alabama and Arkansas, it has been suggested that Arkansas will suddenlyl, temporarily become "America's team", what with Alabama starting a potential accessory to murder in their line up. Most shocking of all is the apparent stisfaction of most Alabama players, university personel, and fans, including the university president and Board of Directors with this arrangement. We now know that rabid American sports fans are willing to accept a possible accessory to murder on their tema, all for the sake of winning. Maybe our standarda have lowered, or maybe they have never really been all that high.