Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 13 No. 3 | January 2021

8 Inside Hokie Sports I am guilty of it too. This is not meant to preach. I am guilty of it too. I love the Minnesota Vikings. I have since I was a kid. If you follow me on social media, you probably wonder if I also love to hate them. That is because I freely take out my frustrations with their performance with the keyboard on my smart phone. It’s odd that it’s called a smart phone, because that’s where I do most of the dumb things I do. I jump to negativity, because hey, everybody is doing it. What I don’t do, however, is attempt to incite people. What I also don’t do is attack people personally. But that’s not good enough. There is no doubt that our country is as divided as it ever has been. And the truth is, there isn’t a simple explanation for that or an easy way to fix it. You can’t right the wrongs of social injustice or xenophobia with a tweet. Yet we try. And it backfires, and we get angry. And then we join the “mob”, because there are others that agree with our opinions, and there is comradery in that—even in digital form. Even if it doesn’t do any good to join the crowd that already agrees with us. with Jon Laaser #HokieHope Social media is not the reason there is racism. Nor is it the reason that we don’t have gender equality. Nor is it the reason for all the things that are wrong with our world at the moment. But, it’s time to recognize that it sure as hell doesn’t help anything in that regard. When I get off the air, the first thing I do is check social media. The reason being that if I made mistakes—and I always do—it will be pointed out there. And in many cases mocked. And that’s fine as we say. My skin has gotten a lot thicker since I’ve become the Voice of the Hokies. I recognize that not everybody is going to like me. I’ve accepted that some will not like me to the point of attempting to bring me down digitally. And that’s okay, I can handle that, because I don’t believe it to be personal. I believe it to be a result of personality. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people that I don’t care for either. That’s my prerogative, as it is yours. What I don’t understand though is the inclination to attack things and people that we supposedly support or are a part of. This is not political. It should be, but it’s not. Try this. Any game that you’re watching, go on Twitter and search for the name of the team that is losing. Or the name of a player or coach that has made a mistake. Or the name of the announcer that is calling the game. Or the names of the officials. I can guarantee that they will be getting skewered on the platform. Sure, we’ve had message boards for years, and before that the water cooler at the office. Passion is fine. Encouraged even. Women’s Basketball’s D’asia Gregg and Alex Obouh Fegue