Since my brother had a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, the stories he told me helped me sympathize with the strange combination of boredom and fear that occupies the lives of soldiers. So when I read that Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk donated $50,000 worth of hockey gear to soliders in Afghanistan, I thought that was a tremendous gesture of support and Canadian solidarity.
Mind you, my favourite part of the story is buried at the bottom of the article, where we find out that the Canadian soliders played ball hockey against the American troops. "We have to be out of our minds to be playing hockey in the middle of the desert," Melnyk said. Far from it, I think that game combined with the Tim Hortons on their base is exactly the "slice of home" the soliders need. I wonder if they ever had to stop the game when someone yelled "TANK!"
Best of all, the Canadians handed the Americans their butts on a platter, winning 9-0. After returning from a week's vacation in Key West where I had multiple bad encounters with surly South Floridians (one truck-drivin' redneck actually spat on my car!), it was nice to remind America that they're not #1 at everything.
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~by Scott Carefoot~
