Predator Extreme

Today I went to the Y to swim while my mom did water aerobics. I was done first and, while I waited for her near the front desk, I looked at the magazines. These included: “Predator Extreme--The Number One Source of News for Year Round Hunting and Shooting.”

It is hard to escape the gun culture when you are in America. Lots of items available in camouflage, hunting accessories, gun stores, lots of signs supporting veterans, lots of violent movies. When you drive over a bridge, it is most likely named for a state trooper or an army officer. You don’t see that in Ireland. Highways and bridges aren’t named for anyone.

Ireland also isn’t as sports mad as America. People follow their soccer teams and the rugby, but towns are not “The home of the 2003 State Football Champions” for example. So many small towns in America stake their claim to fame on some sports trophy or another. Not only does that not happen in Ulster, but the sign you are likely to see when you enter a town is that it won the Best Kept Town award, or the Best Kept Medium Town award. Kid you not.

"The awards, which are run by the Northern Ireland Amenity Council (NIAC), recognise those towns, villages and housing areas which demonstrate great pride in their area by going the extra mile with efforts to create well maintained, clean and beautiful communities in which to live and work.”

I would rather live there than in a town that celebrates a bunch of teenage boys compromising their future health and wellbeing by pummelling another group of teenage boys on a football field.
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