JCIN said:
Shit like this just makes me shake my head.
Sometimes people here make me sick.
Yeah me too. Im going to take a break from this site. Between the kind of nasty woofing and this it just shows no respect for the game. After I click off this site I find myself in a negative frame of mind.
This game that we love will never change the course of history but it doesnt have its value. Its sense of pride and heroics. Its valor.
I think of the men and women who played it over the years and wonder what would think of it now. Irving Crane, Dorothy Wise, Mosconi, Hoppe, Lassiter, Eddie Taylor, etc. whose complete focus was on the game itself. That ideal goal of stepping up to the table and running out. The kind of focus I see in some Champions today who carry out that honor. Efren, Varner, Archer, Parica, etc. Sure they had their own personal insecurities and fault but this is something else. This is rotten. This is not pool. This not the joy of the game.
When Justin and I went to see Ernie at Gina cue I was envigorated. To see such a fine craftsman who had devoted his life to making the most perfect cue that he could and in the meantime raising and supporting his family. To see a young man, Justin, so interested in his work and brought an ethic to it that I had long lost in mine. It was a beautiful culmination that was all good in the pool world.
Now we see words of accusations by baby gamblers calling each other "nits" and what not. Hey the man is a US Champion, like him or not. OUR US Champion. Show some modicum of respect. The guy had to work hard to get there and then some. The degrading of past Champions. 99% of us will never get to the level of The Earthquake. Do you think he was born playing that way. No any pro had to do like any other pro in a sport and that is work hard at it. 24/7. But only in our sport they had to gamble to survive. The disrespect just wallows over this board like a black cloud. And I find myself participating in it too and I want to stop.
And finally this business about CW. I just dont feel we should be involved in it. We should let personal feelings aside and let the authorities deal with it.
SM insistence on crusading it about on the board is distasteful. I dont know her as a person but as any adult should know you dont discuss your case in public. Every word you say hurts you. Ask any jail house lawyer. And why she couldnt report it to the police and now can talk on a public forum is quite contradictatory. I understand the psychology of it but dont understand the intellectual logic of it.
Anyway I dont want to be in the power to judge so it befits me that I should take a respite from all of this and try to put my energies in positive things. My game has been going to pieces and even the house janitor is beating up on me. My poker game is solid but cant draw the rock properly anymore. So its back to the grind. Good luck.
