We come together here, and in other places, to respect and present the history of a sport we all love. We talk about the good old days of how things were and talk about the heroes we all want to see remembered and honored for their contributions. I hope that will never cease for it is right that we do so. Sure, we have differences of opinions between all of us as to best driver, best car make, best track and so forth, but we all seem to get along and there is a great deal of respect among members here. We respect each other, regardless of our differences.
This past week, I had a telephone conversation with a very good friend of mine and someone I deeply respect. I had commented, negatively I might add, on certain individuals on another social media site. He pointed out that in spite of my well-known opinionated positions, there are times when I should tone down my rhetoric and show some respect. Hear that? R-E-S-P-E-C-T. After hanging up the phone and thinking about that for a few minutes, I realized he was exactly right.
Our country was built by men and women who respected the rights of freedom. It took one war to gain freedom for our country, and another war to gain freedom for a race of our population. We have since fought two World Wars to defend freedom.
We have several events coming up in the next couple of months, from Augusta, Ga., to Pennsboro, WV, to Hillsborough, NC, to Dawsonville, GA. Each of those events honor the history of stock car racing we hold so dear. At each event, memories will be shared and the past will be honored. This is all very important to us gathered here. It is important to many who will attend these events and to me, now a veteran of so many such events, I see how extremely important these events are and how important the things we do and share here are important to preservation of what we hold dear.
Having said that, and thinking of the situation we have in our country today, I am reminded of the Richmond race AFTER the Hurricane Katrina destruction in New Orleans. Jamie McMurray missed that infernal Chase by just a couple of points and the first question in his post race interview was "How does it feel to be so close to making it but being shut out?". (Not an exact quote). Jamie responded with the normal expected response as to how disappointing it was. He then went on to say, "but after what happened in New Orleans missing the Chase is not that big a deal". That's probably not an exact quote either, but I've never forgotten that attitude.
What we do here is important to our efforts. What we say here is important to properly representing our place in the continuing efforts to ensure racing history and our racing heroes (credit to Bill Blair, Jr.'s group for that name). I have been lax in my civility toward many and have made comments very disparaging to some involved in the sport. For that, I am officially apologizing. My mission is to represent the history I hold dear and to do it in such a way that the D.W. fans, the Toyota fans, and the Danica Patrick fans all know that I am about respecting what was and what is to come. Without the history of the sport, there would be no future to the sport. Without those I have disparaged in the past, that history wouldn't be nearly as colorful.
So, there you have it for tonight. Not political, just an opinion, that those deserving respect are due it. Those who give us reason not to respect them, and yes, there are such people, then we need to take the lead in presenting a positive resolution to that issue.
Thank you for listening.
