It occurred to me recently that sports is one of the few things in our society that unifies us.

While this may seem like a trite, repetitive observation, the power that sports has to perform the type of unification never ceases to amaze me. In the wake of the extremely divisive issues that face our nation — the war on terrorism, the fight between the Israelis and Palestines (who are so bent on destroying each other they seem to overlook the fact that they are slowly eradicating the land they’re fighting over), if anyone is ever going to beat the damn Lakers.

Our country prides itself on its indviduality, the right to freedom of expression — and while these are extremely important, with 100 million people in this country, it’s a given that people are going to disagree, have different views and opinions.

However, sports is the eraser that can wipe clean all those differences.

At the next sporting event you go to, take a look around. (As long as it’s not a UCSD event, since you’ll only see empty seats there.) Take a look at the type of people you see. Young. Old. Drunk and rabid. Clad in business suits with cell phones. The list could go on and on. At sporting events you will see perhaps the most diverse collection of individuals in our society.

The great thing is that for a little while, they aren’t individuals. They aren’t young, old, black, white, rich, poor, drunk … well, OK they are drunk. But the point is, they are all fans. Half of them are all rooting for one team, half are all rooting for another team.

While at this point those readers not driven to mind-altering drugs or sedation by this column (“”Stoner Steps”” is great to use as a natural anesthetic) might be pointing out that this means the fans are divided between the two teams, let me qualify. Yes the two sides are opposite, however the unification I’m talking about is all the fans, on both sides, have set aside their superficial, culturally constructed differences and focused on just cheering on one team over another.

Take another example. The Guardian is staffed by an eclectic mix of strongly opinionated people. However, on SuperBowl Sunday, on which we were locked in the office and forced to produce our newspaper (and yes, I am still bitter) we had a group of us huddled around the decrepit TV that looks like it’s been around since SuperBowl IV.

While the majority of the group wasn’t football-savvy or on the same side, everyone enjoyed the game, and seeing the news editor patiently explain the delicate nuances of an on-sides kick to the features editor was a classic sight to behold.

The point is that for a while this motley crew of obsessive, eccentric, alcoholic, mostly-slightly-but-sometimes-completely insane group of journalists came together and was enraptured by a group of men playing a game that’s constrained by specific rules — unlike real life, in which the rules are contradictory, far too numerous and fuzzy at best.

This power sports has extends to the playing field as well. My high school baseball team consisted of college-worthy athletes, honors-level kids, farm boys and wannabe thugs — yet we all came together to play as a team and somehow managed to be the second-ranked team in the state (yeah like I wouldn’t brag about that, although I certainly had nothing to do with it). We were all ballplayers for the hours we were on the field and we all just wanted to simply win.

But the thing is, you also learn to identify with your opponents as well. Sure, you’re trying to beat their brains out, but think about it: All you want to do is beat them and win. You don’t consider who you’re playing, whether they are older than you, younger than you, a different nationality than you, it doesn’t matter. Their superficial differences aren’t important, it’s how they play the game that’s important. And the fact that you both are playing the same game, even if it’s on opposite sides, creates an understanding between you two.

For example, our staff put together an intramural softball team and recently we played a team consisting of the UCSD men’s volleyball team. While naturally we are on the opposite sides of the print, seeing them bumble, curse, taunt, joke, trash-talk and have fun out there alongside us made me realize we are all just out there to have fun.

What this means for our society, that the only time we can ignore our differences is in the midst of a meaningless game, I don’t know. Maybe if the founding fathers had played a little more softball with their slaves they would have actually meant it when they wrote “”All men are created equal.”” Maybe it means every athlete should secede from the United States and form their own country, in which they just play sports all day and there wouldn’t be any problems besides who was going to win and who was going to lose.

I know I’d join.