Hollow victory

Although only half way through Egypt’s constitutional “referendum,” it seems that even if only a fraction of the charges against the process turn out to be accurate, the vote is far from democratic.

Seven rights groups, perhaps ironically including the state’s own body, the National Council for Human Rights, claim that Saturday’s vote was beset by violations, ranging from the standard – denying entrance to Christians, who were more than likely to vote “no,” and polls closing early – to the surreal, with power cuts occurring in tandem with the vote count, a phenomenon perhaps borrowed from Lebanon’s Kesrouan district.

But the vote was marred before it even began. The vast majority of judges boycotted the referendum, so most ballots were without neutral observation and rights groups have now alleged that some of those who identified themselves as judges Saturday actually presented false papers.

The lead up to the election had also paved the way for a rocky referendum, with violence between President Mohammad Mursi’s supporters and opponents leading to some 10 deaths and around 1,000 wounded.

After the first round of voting Saturday, the only cities to have a majority “no” vote were Alexandria and Cairo, perhaps not coincidentally the country’s two largest cities, and those areas with the highest levels of education and literacy.

Rights groups claim that in other areas, voters were actively encouraged to vote “yes,” by whispering Brotherhood members, often present within polling stations.

Asides from all these flagrant violations, the turnout for the referendum was low enough to render any verdict worthless. Around 32 percent of people voted, after the first round, with a 56 percent majority. So really, only 18 percent of Egyptians are in favor of the Constitution, if in fact, this was the option they chose, with their free will and without external pressure.

The overwhelming majority of Egyptians does not want the new Constitution then, or does not feel well enough informed or motivated either way. Short of a miracle, however, it seems the Constitution, which will affect the lives of all of Egypt’s citizens, will pass.

Without a large or at least comfortable popular majority, any referendum on a topic this decisive is destined to fail, in so much as its passing will undoubtedly lead to more of the street anger and violence which has already been seen. Passed in such a way, this referendum looks set to sow more dissension and sectarianism.

In this test, apparently designed to display the Muslim Brotherhood’s power, Mursi and his allies have failed. The president has revealed himself to be little more than a puppet for the party, and one happy to do their bargaining for him, no matter what the expense to the country and its citizens as a whole.

Since his election, Mursi has repeatedly acted as if he a representative of one sector of society, and not the country’s many diverse faiths, parties and classes.

This mistake will continue to haunt him, and the country. Making decisions based on the wishes of one party damages Egypt now and in the future.

In the short term it will continue to create strife on the streets, meaning the government will be unable to direct much-needed attention to the dire situation of the economy, the real issue affecting people’s lives.

In the long term it creates a system whereby each successive government will see fit to mold the country and the Constitution as it sees fit. A strong house is not built on shaky foundations. If Mursi does not realize this soon, the future of this new democracy is in jeopardy.

Then there are the two teams from the SEC that had good BCS credentials, but because of the two-team rule had no chance of getting that at-large spot: the Tigers and South Carolina Gamecocks. The Gamecocks had numerous injury problems on offense with quarterback Connor Shaw missing a few games and running back Marcus Lattimore’s season ending early for the second year in a row thanks to a gruesome knee injury again. The Gamecocks still went 10-2 and put on particularly great defensive performances against the Bulldogs and later against Tajh Boyd & the Clemson Tigers. The Tigers also went 10-2, and their offensive issue throughout the year was quarterback Zach Mettenberger never fully getting into high gear, though he finally did late in the season.

And of course, there’s the Texas A&M Aggies. In their first year in the SEC, not much was expected out of them. Enter Johnny Manziel, or “Johnny Football” as he is now known to the country. Just a freshman, Manziel took the offensive approach that is more typical in the Big 12, brought it to the SEC, and ended up being the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy. His numbers were huge, but the one really big game against a really big team that Manziel had this season was handing the Crimson Tide their only loss of the season. The Aggies finished 10-2 and will be playing in the Cotton Bowl.

And there you have it: six out of the 14 teams finished with ten or more wins and all six are in the current BCS top ten. This is the best conference in college football. Period. End of story. End of discussion. End of debate. Some may whine about favoritism with the rankings, and that may be true. However, you simply can’t deny the fact that this conference produces quality football teams practically in the old-school mold. And they win year after year after year. It’s a slap in the face to people who want to believe that defense and rushing are dead in college football, and I like that.

But the SEC’s continued success is further proof of a simple reality in college football that few people want to accept: it’s not about if you lose, but when you lose. Even if you lose during the season and it’s not too bad of a loss against a good enough team, you’re not out of the title hunt. Three of the SEC’s six straight national champions have had at least one loss. Why they were able to stay in the national title hunt is simple: they lost before the stuff hit the fan. If you look through these last seven seasons you will see the SEC’s best only lose early in the season or early in November. The rest of those in the title hunt each year tend to lose late in November, on Thanksgiving weekend, or on Championship Week. In other words, these teams tend to lose in any of the final three weeks of the season, a time when the SEC team or teams still in the title hunt are back to winning every week.

Robert and Judy Peeler have plastered their house and yard with 50,000 lights, which is actually down from their all-time high of 69,000, because Robert stayed away from his tallest trees this year.

Strings of cars, even buses, move slowly down this country road in eastern Rowan County to marvel at the Peelers’ Christmas decorations.

“I live next door to it,” says daughter-in-law Vicki Peeler, one of several people who nominated the Peelers’ property for the newspaper’s “Yule Light Up My Life” contest. “He does a great job, and he made all the wood cut-outs that he uses and has Christmas music playing.”

Peeler told me he starts work on his house and yard two weeks before Halloween so it’s ready by Thanksgiving.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, the Peelers’ house makes the “Yule Light Up My Life” Top 10 list of places to see in Rowan County for holiday decorations.

I spent several nights during the past week visiting nominated locations for the “contest.” About 40 nominations came in, though many people mentioned the same properties.

In the end, I performed drive-by inspections of 22 different places, from one end of Rowan County to the other.

The goal of the contest was to come up with 10 places worthy of getting into your car and — except for the gas — having a cheap night’s entertainment by visiting sites that are jaw-dropping and suitable for all ages.

It’s definitely a G-rated tour and one worthy of taking if you’re into grand gestures, music, ingenuity, light pollution, moving parts, figurines and blowups, secular and religious themes and indomitable Christmas spirits.