Is it just me …?

Am I the only one who, watching the Super Bowl last Sunday, wondered why the most gigantic broadcast sporting event of the year didn't feature American performers at halftime?

Was I the only one mystified that we've been featuring, for several of the last few years, non-American artists – like U2, Paul McCartney and now the Rolling Stones? Don't get me wrong; I love these guys like most of us do and look for opportunities to see them perform. I find myself older than any of them now, so I especially applaud their lasting power.

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But Sunday, it struck me as somehow off-kilter – as the mighty junkyard dogs of Pittsburgh battled the sleek greyhounds of Seattle, in America's premier athletic and entertainment showcase, broadcast to over 200 other countries – that the stage at halftime was surrendered to a group of 60-plus-year-old Brits! They strutted and staggered around on a set designed as a huge, rolled out tongue (their well known lurid logo), hammering out three of their famous rock standards and getting bleeped once or twice. Exciting enough, at least to many, but was it really appropriate for our largest American extravaganza? And for a Sunday "family audience"?

Are we fresh out of popular and dazzling entertainers of domestic origin?

I wonder. There's one more huge, worldwide sporting event – the World Cup, the Super Bowl of soccer. Has any American entertainer, no matter how popular and currently "hot," ever been invited to perform on that platform? I guess Europeans still have the old-fashioned notion that Europeans and Asians who are into that most popular sport prefer to be dazzled and entertained by their own stars. Curious, isn't it?

But back to our own Super event: Has Bruce Springsteen, Mr. "Born in the USA," ever been our halftime performer? Couldn't Toby Keith and Shania Twain, or Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, or maybe Charlie Daniels and Allison Kraus do a whale of a halftime show? And what about Garth Brooks, for Pete's sake?! Simon and Garfunkel filled Central Park, and so did Barbra Streisand. Neil Diamond fills stadiums everywhere, for multiple nights. Or how about an "American Idol" halftime, featuring not just the winners, but some of the extremely talented runners-up? An all American show-of-shows, and really one for the whole family?

I don't know, for two or three years, I met with NFL execs and producers, almost selling them on my concept I called "The Living Legends." Simply, I proposed bringing together, in a way not even Dick Clark had figured out how to do, ten or more real legendary performers who've sold millions of records and made American music loved all over the globe, and having them introduced by the living legends of pro football. It would be rapid-fire but respectful, with powerful reminders why the artists are living legends.

All the NFL execs did think it would be "super," perfectly suited for the football audience and its known age demographic. But … they understandably wanted to reach a younger audience – the "kids," many of whom really aren't that into pro football (unless it's a video game version) – and they've since elected to book entertainment that they hope will have younger audience appeal. Ironically, research has found that the kids may indeed tune in for halftime … and then out again when the second half starts.

Maybe it's just me. But I'd sure love to see America's biggest sports day be an all-American day.

Another nagging thought after the week just passed: Did you cringe, watching Coretta Scott King's six-hour funeral on television, when the president of the United States – the current one, who came to pay homage to the valiant lady – was embarrassed and criticized by other speakers (who included one former president!) only a few feet from where he was seated? I was dumbfounded by the tastelessness, the lack of class and propriety, exhibited by mature leaders who ought to have known better. Mrs. King herself might have hushed and reminded them, "I reside above and beyond politics now. Differ with the president if you must, but this is neither the time nor the place to criticize and try to humiliate him. Please remember why you came here; this is not a partisan event."

And a final nagging thought this week: I read about the latest "fetal pain" bills that were introduced in 19 states in 2005, and passed in Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The bills require doctors to tell women who seek abortions that their "fetuses" (translate babies) might feel pain during the procedure.

I was appalled that Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed the bill, citing a very controversial report in the Journal of the American Medical Association that there is "no conclusive evidence of when a fetus first feels pain"! And Karrie Galloway of Planned Parenthood (or is it Planned Non-parenthood?) in Utah, says, "There is no medical or scientific consensus" that the unborn feel pain at 20 weeks!

Is it just me, or does it seem patently obvious to you as well that any living being almost five months in existence, with a functioning brain, heart and complete nervous system, might – almost surely must – feel pain?

Will many among us never remember that we were once just 20 months along in our mother's wombs, and that we were each human beings, little babies, who did get the chance, the right, to keep developing into the individuals we've become? And that if anyone, a doctor or abortionist or anyone, had chosen to obliterate us, we'd have felt pain? We wouldn't have understood it, certainly. (Who could?) But it would have hurt. Terribly.

Nagging thoughts. Not gone just because the week is. I don't know; maybe it's just me.

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