I’m a sports fan. Football is my first love, followed closely by basketball. I always enjoy the NCAA basketball tournament. It’s a wonderful opportunity to watch talented young people playing a game they love. It’s fun because it’s single elimination – the winner moves on, the loser’s season is over. Most of the games are close and fun to watch…
I always root for the team in colors. In this tournament, the higher seeded team wears home white uniforms and the lower seed underdog wears their traveling colored uniforms. There are two good reasons for my rooting for the guys in colors: 1) I always like to see underdogs win, and 2) even though I have degrees from three universities, none of the institutions (Penn State, University of Colorado and Harvard) ever seem to do very well in basketball, so I have no natural rooting interest.
This weekend, I’ll definitely be rooting for the guys in green, George Mason University, probably the biggest underdog to ever make the Final Four.
Like most people, I had some idea that George Mason was a revolutionary war era figure. However, I knew nothing else about him. As it turns out, he was a pretty cool guy.
He was the first person to articulate the doctrine of inalienable rights that found its way into the Declaration of Independence. He drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights in the spring of 1776, writing in part “all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural rights” among them “the enjoyment of life and liberty”.
In 1787, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but voted against the adoption of the Constitution because it did not contain a statement on individual rights.
He wrote much of the Virginia constitution, in which he included strong language on individual rights. This language became the basis for the Bill of Rights adopted in 1791, a year before he died.
Also, Mr. Mason, although a Virginian, is said to have been opposed to slavery.
A strong champion of individual rights, a man opposed to slavery – for me two more good reasons to hope George Mason continues its Cinderella run.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Log on to my website, www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense advice – and the occasional sports and political ramble.
I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.
Bud
PS: You can now access my archived internet radio shows directly from the home page of my website www.BudBilanich.com. Turn on your speakers and follow the link.
PPS: My new book, Fixing Performance Problems: Common Sense Ideas That Work is now available on Amazon.com. If you're so inclined, I'd appreciate it if you would purchase a copy at $14.95. This will help me get my Amazon ratings up. Nice reviews are welcome too.
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