Rally hats

After watching the Texas Rangers (Woooooohooooo!!) burst back into the World Series with millions of fans in the park and around the world, I remembered we have the capacity to harness the same enthusiasm and energy for the common good.  Oh, we try already.  In various protest movements from The Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street, we see hints of that power.  Gathering and cheering and expressing ourselves comes naturally to Americans who enjoy the luxury of the right to peaceful assembly.  Heaven knows our history, the world's history verifies the efficacy of lifting voices in concert.  Naturally, simple rabble rousers show up for all protests, celebrations, gatherings, and their faces and less-than-noble actions often make the news.  Still, this shouldn't dampen our spirits or negate the true motivation and righteousness of those who gather in good faith.  Will we all agree with all causes?  Certainly not, but as Americans we must support that right to gather, and maybe, just maybe, decide to take a stand ourselves.  Must we pour into the streets to be counted among those rallying?  Again, certainly not, but expressing solidarity when we do agree puts our virtual feet on the ground and voices in the sound of the roaring crowd.  Maybe that's what America needs right now.  Not a protest AGAINST anything, but rather a rally FOR our country in general, a big HOOOOOOORAY for AMERICA and every positive we can find, and trust me, we can find PLENTY.  Sports often reminds us of our ability to put aside differences and don our team colors for, most of the time, healthy competition.  Perhaps, as we've done many times before, we need to pop on our RED, WHITE, AND BLUE rally caps, and cheer, cheer, cheer our way back to the unified strength most of us never lost.