March Madness represents that rare and magical moment when our highly partisan, attention-deprived, and often coarse culture coheres around a simple innocent pursuit. In this moment we transcend differences of race, class, party, geography and gender to root for the underdog, to passionately back small, obscure schools we never knew existed (LIU-Brooklyn?), to embrace school mascots we heretofore had no name for (Clutch, Cosmo, Mr. Cat, Mr. Wuf, Prospector Pete, Big Al, and The Billiken) and to collectively and simultaneously engage in what President Obama termed a "national passtime" with tens of millions of our fellow citizens. During March Madness we become, as Langston Hughes wrote, "America again."

pubblicato il: 13/03/2012 - 00:23