Inspiration can be defined much differently\nI was rather confused after reading "The State of the Game Address" by David Resnik (May 24). I believe that Resnik and myself have extremely differing opinions on what the word "inspiring" means. Resnik had some choice words to describe the recent play of Lakers guard Kobe Bryant: "…his ability to deliver this caliber game while dealing with a much-scrutinized court case in Colorado is astonishing….in fact, it is inspiring." \nThis is where Resnik and I seem to have an argument. It seems that he needs a course in Inspiration 101. You know what I think is inspiring? Watching Phil Mickelson sink a putt on the 18th hole to win the Masters and his first major title. That was inspiring. Tom Coverdale willing his team to a national semifinal win over Oklahoma on a bum ankle was inspiring. Watching 72-year-old Jack McKeon leading a bunch of young kids to a World Series ring was inspiring. Heck, even Reggie Miller coming off a screen and nailing a game-winning three-pointer in the waning seconds is inspiring (and that's coming from me, a die-hard Knicks fan).\nWatching a 27-year-old accused rapist play basketball does not inspire me. And even if Kobe Bryant is eventually exonerated from the charges, watching a man who cheated on his wife with a 19-year-old woman in a Colorado hotel will still never inspire me. It is sad that the media chooses to display players such as Kobe Bryant and Ray Lewis as victims and that sports fans like Mr. Resnik buy into that image and are so greatly inspired by their play. I believe that Resnik labeling Kobe Bryant's play as "inspiring" not only degrades the word itself but also offends many that may have been in a situation quite similar to Kobe Bryant's accuser. \nI am still going to pick up my copy of the IDS each day. However, once I get to the sports section and Resnik's column, the newspaper is going where it belongs -- in the garbage.\nDerek Schultz\nJunior
Left-wing fantasyland misplacement\nThe notion that liberals are living in a fantasy-land while the benevolent President Bush leads us to the good life is so patently absurd that I would have laughed, had not Brian Adkins ("Life in Pelosigrad," May 24) seemed so serious.\nIn reality, it's the conservative thinkers of this country who are operating out of a delusional state. The economy is fine and the free market is the cause? What a joke. Unemployment goes down a miniscule amount and a couple of indicators tick upward and suddenly it's all sunshine and lollipops. What the conservatives don't like to mention is just how many of those new jobs are hopeless, grinding, poverty-level dead-ends and temp jobs -- the end rather than the start of a career. They don't like to mention the steady decline in the technology, information and manufacturing sectors. These facts get in the way of their blue-sky fantasies.\nThen you have the Iraq debacle. "Oh, we weren't misled," they cry. Please. The evidence on Iraq didn't amount to jack, a few grainy photographs of empty train cars and the decision to go to war was, as Bob Woodward has revealed, never about facts at any rate. Besides, the discovery of a crate of mortar shells with mustard gas doesn't make a credible case for war, ex post facto as it is. How did those mouldering weapons pose any threat to us? The reality is that Bush and his ideologues had decided from the beginning on an Iraq they naively thought they could make in our image and they won't be the ones to suffer for that disastrous mistake in reasoning.\nNot to mention the active deceit and betrayal the administration did perpetrate. Remember the yellowcake uranium? The fabled story about how Iraq was trying to buy it abroad? The incredibly transparent forgeries and the courageous stand Joe Wilson took in disclosing them? How about the cruel, felonious, vindictive outing of his wife by administration sources and the sleazy reporting of Bob Novak? \nI do. And I'll vote in November with that knowledge in hand.\nJohn J. Sears\nSenior
