Soccer fields have their place in Cedar Rapids

I didn't realize that there was a soccer field issue in Jones Park (March 29 story). Thanks for not letting this slide under the radar. Personally, I'd have to side with the soccer field advocates.

Baseball has more than its share of public space around town, perhaps much more considering the eyebrow-

raising financial inputs from Major League Baseball.

While I'm not going to waste ink extolling the obvious merits of soccer, it is for most of the world the best team sport - and it's one that American teams can't win at the world level without recruiting world-class players from other countries.

That said, “I don't care if you're purple,” is a peculiarly loaded remark (from a city official) to uncork in ethnic context. It's race-conscious, even though Latino is only a “race” to us tone-deaf and culturally naive white guys. And if you decode “I don't care if you're purple,” it means “No!”

Let's save a corner of the city for the Beautiful Game, which is soccer for the other 4 billion people on our beautiful planet.

David C. Oshel

Cedar Rapids