Saturday morning I awake and as usual grab the telephone and take a gander at Facebook. I would bet I am not alone on this ritual. What I saw is something I found disturbing, something that does not promote our sport in a good light, something we have fallen into the habit of doing, something that is destroying not only our sport but I believe our country! What I saw was video of a race where there was contact made. Quite honestly I watched it and thought why was this posted it was just racing, nothing intentional, and by the way I know both drivers involved. Then there were the comments which maybe that is why so many including myself are addicted to Facebook. Then the thought hit me, was the person posting the video looking to place blame or was he looking for sympathy as the victim?

Facebook provides both, as a voyeur you get the angle of the video and can place blame or you can support one of the two and make a comment thus making one or the other the victim. Is this not how we got segregated with Black Lives Matter, then Blue Lives Matter, then All Lives Matter. Aren’t these groups trying to place blame on one or the other and then make themselves out to be the victim? What is the difference? Take a video and only show part of it on Facebook and receive instant either gratification or victimization. Has that not been some of what we have seen on the media of partial video showing shootings only later to find the complete behind the scenes story was actually something else. Yet the initial shock of some of these videos leads to riots, shootings, and worse, killing of innocent people. So why throw a racing video on Facebook or any social media? Is there any difference, either we are trying to place blame or we are trying to become a victim and receive sympathy.

Is this why the grandstands look slimmer and slimmer every year. Is this what is killing our sport? Can we not be the leaders and change the world or at the very least our country. How many of you searched any of the incidents with Tony Stewart over the last couple of years? Why because you wanted to be a witness? You wanted to take sides? The same goes with the numerous deaths this sport has suffered this year, why do you want to look?

You know someday we will all have to account for ourselves, why we did what we did when we did. None of us our perfect, not one, we all have flaws, we all have feelings, we all seek love, we all need to be satisfied, but do we need to seek this via video at the expense of others? Let’s stop the blame game, let’s stop making ourselves out as victims. We have the greatest sport in the world let’s share the greatness. Let’s share the close finishes. Let’s share the behind scenes work to get a racecar to the track. Let’s share what it takes to get a racetrack open. Let’s share what is positive for our sport. Let’s share our memories. Let’s share how great it is to be at the track and be in competition. Let’s share the family atmosphere of our sport. Let’s share the fun of our sport.

And next time we want to post a video involving our sport, let’s ask am I posting this to place blame or am I posting this to get sympathy because I am a victim? Am I any different in posting this than someone who is trying to create hate and discontent and stir the media? Let’s think of all the ramifications before we post.