Two conservative teams battled to a standoff in Seattle. The city, itself, won by calling it the Pride Match.

While both countries are culturally conservative about gay rights, Egypt and Iran's teams played to a tie score in the World Cup. This game took place in the US city of Seattle, noted for liberal attitudes on gay rights; the city calling that game "The Pride Match."

Some rainbow flags were flown in and around the stadium to the dislike of both Egyptian and Iranian officials. Meanwhile, back in the Middle East, war is still more deadly than a soccer game. Missiles fly between Iran and Gulf state Sunni nations more aligned with Egypt. The Sunni and Shiite split, in Islam, is one of many friction points among conservatives in the Middle East.

Ironically, the "elephant" in the Middle Eastern room is the United States with its alley Israel, each with the most powerful weapons of all. These countries are leading a sputtering war against Iran under the leadership of their conservative leaders Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Still, within the belly of the US elephant, rainbow flags fly peacefully in Seattle, in spite of more conservative leadership at the top of the US government. Freedom of speech is still alive in USA.

The soccer match between Egypt and Iran took place to a stalemate, as rainbow flags flew and crowds cheered more peacefully than the war that is now taking place in the Middle East itself.

Here in Bellingham, far out in the hinterlands of Seattle, some rainbow color projected on our Acid Ball Sculpture. Sculpture, a leftover from former Georgia Pacific Pulp Mill.