What America Could Learn From The World Cup – Bruce Goes On A Rant [Opinion]

I have been watching soccer. The advertisers during the game seem hell bent on getting me to call it football but football involves the New Orleans Saints and I haven't seen Drew Brees on any of the fields yet. Still I have been quite entertained by the play that I have been able to watch.

World Cup Soccer is totally different than any other kind of soccer we normally see in the United States. While it's still soccer, a game most of America doesn't quite embrace, it is soccer that is  played on a much higher level.

There is one thing that the World Cup does better than American football, baseball, basketball, even NASCAR. It's the national anthem. Even if you don't give a rodents rear end about watching Ecuador play Italy just watch the pregame ceremonies. Watch the crowd when the national anthem for their country is played. Talk about a total national investment. During a match that involved the home country of Brazil, they stopped the music and the crowd took over. It was amazing.

World Cup soccer is about a country. Sports in the United States is about an  individual. Even on the team sports it's more about Lebron and Jimmy Graham than it is about the  geographic area that cheers for them.

When is the last time you went to a sporting event and everyone in the crowd sang the National Anthem as loud and as proud as they could? In today's sporting climate it's a wonder that you can get most people to take off their hats or stop sending text messages during the anthem.  In our materialist United States we usually reserve the singing of the National Anthem as a place for a music star to promote their new album or remind viewers of an  upcoming TV special.

The National Anthem should be sung by the people and the people should sing with every fiber of their being. You'd think in a country as blessed as America we would be singing our anthem the loudest and proudest of all. Instead countries like Uruguay,Mexico, Italy, France, and Ghana will top us in volume and passion when the colors of their nations are presented.

It seems to me that in America the only time we raise our voices is when we are pissed off. Granted this nation is not perfect but you don't see our citizens jumping fences, swimming rivers and climbing in to rickety boats for the chance to start anew somewhere else.

Those are my thoughts, I'd love to hear yours. This is America where the sound of one voice can be as power as millions.