Editorial shortcuts

On the joy of prep football and ongoing dislike of Jane Fonda.

Last update: November 15, 2007 - 11:16 PM

A TRUE PIGSKIN CLASSIC

Football worth watching

The annual November celebration of high school football in Minnesota returned to the Metrodome this week, bringing youthful exuberance and determined athletic effort to a stadium that has lacked those elements this fall.

The rebuilding Gophers and their fans have suffered through five home defeats entering Saturday's game with Wisconsin. The Vikings have brought some Adrian Peterson-fueled optimism to the building, but with the team at 3-6, most fans are looking ahead to the NFL draft.

That brings us to the preps, thankfully. From the four-time defending champion Stephen-Argyle nine-man team to the suburban powerhouse Eden Prairie, there are enough storylines to keep a sportswriter happy for weeks. Stephen-Argyle is the team that practices before the sun rises. Eden Prairie is coached by Mike Grant and quarterbacked by his son, Ryan. You might remember a coach with a similar last name who once stoically roamed the sidelines at Metropolitan Stadium and the Dome.

But enough name-dropping. The real beauty of the high school game is in its purity. Cheerleaders actually wear cotton. Players come in all shapes, sizes and skill levels, but if you look closely at those young faces you'll see a determination a certain Vikings defensive back should try to emulate.

They'll be lining up for more playoff football today and in the Prep Bowl next Friday and Saturday. If you're a Minnesota football fan, make the trip to the Metrodome. In a season of gridiron disappointment, the kids will make you remember why you fell in love with the sport in the first place.

A GOP GOLDEN OLDIE

Fonda animus won't heal wounds

Jane Fonda is almost 70 years old. She's a two-time Oscar-winning actress, a best-selling author, a fitness maven, and an activist for adolescent pregnancy prevention.

But to Minnesota GOP spinmeisters, she's still 34 and posing atop a North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun, protesting the war.

When Fonda was invited to join the presentation Tuesday of new leadership awards by the Democratic Women Leadership Coalition and the DFL Feminist Caucus, the Republicans reran the old 1972 tapes. Fonda is an "anti-veteran lightning rod" whom the DFL should be denouncing, not inviting to ceremonies, said Republican state chairman Ron Carey.

The "lightning rod" metaphor is one Fonda has used herself. "I have come to accept the fact that there are people in this country that will never be able to fully understand the Vietnam War. And I'm a lightning rod for their hurt, their pain, their anger. I made mistakes, which have made me a lightning rod," she said on ABC's Good Morning America on April 17, 2006. "I have to live with that. I'm not happy about it."

Apparently there's no statute of limitations to the animosity Vietnam generated in this country, nor to politicians' willingness to keep ill will alive. Fonda's many apologies and expressions of regret through the years go unacknowledged by those who want old wounds kept open.

With another unpopular war again dividing Americans, it's too bad that political leaders apparently think there's more to gain from perpetuating old conflicts than from reconciling them.

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