What's more interesting than the accusations leveled against Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is ESPN management issuing a "do not report" memo to its outlets and reporters. Hmmm...
I'm not going to write a lot about this because the details are very sketchy. No criminal charges have been filed and if/until they are it’s just an accusation. I will say this though, Mr. Goodell EVERYBODY is watching.
With Matt Jones being positioned as a sympathetic figure poised for redemption if just given an opportunity and Michael Vick painted as Satan--I hope Roger Goodell realizes the PR nightmare that will ensue if a criminal investigation is opened and he does not act swiftly.
Black athletes cannot refuse to play because of contract obligations. However black gloved fists raised in protest after a game would go a long way in voicing the frustration of players and fans with some of the decisions made in the three years since he took over as Commissioner. (After an 88 yard touchdown catch and run I want some celebration dammit!)
There's something in the air. A simmer seems about to boil. Crosby Stills and Nash sang there's something happening here.
Let's hope that something isn't set off by something as trivial as the game of football.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Stop Children What's That Sound...
The Greatest Country On Earth?
When I was in junior high (Philippa Schuyler Middle School for the Gifted and Talented holla) I refused to stand for the pledge of allegiance at graduation rehearsal. The faculty advisor gave me and my fellow nationalists a stern lecture. He called us ungrateful for not respecting the flag of the greatest country on earth. Really?
The "greatest country on Earth” has a higher infant mortality rate than South Korea. Health care costs in this country are higher than in any other industrialized nation. That doesn't sound great to me.
What is even more unfathomable is Americans allowing the GOP, Glenn Beck and Fox to con them into believing that this country shouldn't have a public health care option. I grant that the details are confusing but to reject it out of hand is madness.
Much of the cost to implement a national public option could certainly be offset by ending the war in Iraq and repealing the Bush tax cuts. Estimates from various sources put the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at $1 trillion. If we end the war in Iraq those funds could be reallocated to cover healthcare.
The GOP fought against Social Security in 1937 and Medicare in 1964. So let us not be fooled by the same Chicken Littles who would have denied us two of the greatest benefits afforded American people. Furthermore, the argument that Medicare doesn't work and is a nightmare of paperwork is bunk. Medicare isn't perfect but a lot of the problems with Medicare are due to the GOP meddling with it since the Reagan era.
Senator Tom Coburn (R) Oklahoma said this morning on Morning Joe that moms wouldn't have to sit in emergency rooms if they would enroll in the SCHIP program. Is he kidding? Suddenly the GOP is for SCHIP. Bush vetoed the expansion of SCHIP. The Republicans fought tooth and nail against it.
Finally, the most heinous of arguments (IMHO) against healthcare is not wanting to pay for others’ health issues. Besides being the absolute antithesis to what a s0-called Christian nation should stand for it’s not a well thought out argument. Taxpayers foot the healthcare bills of our elected officials. Therefore, we paid for John McCain’s cancer treatments. John McCain owns seven homes and his wife is an heiress worth millions of dollars—why are you okay paying for his healthcare?
I don’t like arguing with my conservative friends. However it would benefit all of us if they thought beyond what they hear on Fox and talk radio.
Republicans have consistently said that you cannot trust Democrats on national security. I would counter that Republicans cannot be trusted with national well-being.
The greatest country on earth would and should care equally for the weakest among us.
The "greatest country on Earth” has a higher infant mortality rate than South Korea. Health care costs in this country are higher than in any other industrialized nation. That doesn't sound great to me.
What is even more unfathomable is Americans allowing the GOP, Glenn Beck and Fox to con them into believing that this country shouldn't have a public health care option. I grant that the details are confusing but to reject it out of hand is madness.
Much of the cost to implement a national public option could certainly be offset by ending the war in Iraq and repealing the Bush tax cuts. Estimates from various sources put the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at $1 trillion. If we end the war in Iraq those funds could be reallocated to cover healthcare.
The GOP fought against Social Security in 1937 and Medicare in 1964. So let us not be fooled by the same Chicken Littles who would have denied us two of the greatest benefits afforded American people. Furthermore, the argument that Medicare doesn't work and is a nightmare of paperwork is bunk. Medicare isn't perfect but a lot of the problems with Medicare are due to the GOP meddling with it since the Reagan era.
Senator Tom Coburn (R) Oklahoma said this morning on Morning Joe that moms wouldn't have to sit in emergency rooms if they would enroll in the SCHIP program. Is he kidding? Suddenly the GOP is for SCHIP. Bush vetoed the expansion of SCHIP. The Republicans fought tooth and nail against it.
Finally, the most heinous of arguments (IMHO) against healthcare is not wanting to pay for others’ health issues. Besides being the absolute antithesis to what a s0-called Christian nation should stand for it’s not a well thought out argument. Taxpayers foot the healthcare bills of our elected officials. Therefore, we paid for John McCain’s cancer treatments. John McCain owns seven homes and his wife is an heiress worth millions of dollars—why are you okay paying for his healthcare?
I don’t like arguing with my conservative friends. However it would benefit all of us if they thought beyond what they hear on Fox and talk radio.
Republicans have consistently said that you cannot trust Democrats on national security. I would counter that Republicans cannot be trusted with national well-being.
The greatest country on earth would and should care equally for the weakest among us.
Friday, July 3, 2009
May You Finally Find Peace...
This image hung on my bedroom wall throughout junior high and high school. By the time I reached high school I discovered hip hop and thought I was too sophisticated for Michael Jackson. His songs were too happy. They made me want to dance. Also, X-Clan and Public Enemy were helping me discover my "Blackness”. It wasn't until last Thursday that I realized that Michael Jackson's music was the soundtrack to my childhood. He built a musical bridge between my parents, grandparents and I. When I heard of his death I went to YouTube and watched his historic Motown 25 performance again and again. I could hear my grandmother's voice when she called my mom to say "Let those babies stay up to watch their people on TV." At the BET Awards last weekend Jamie Foxx said "Michael Jackson was ours and we shared him with everyone else." On a visceral level I know exactly what he means. Michael Jackson was the best of us. He embodied the creativity, talent, conflict, duality that lives in us all. And like many of us he struggled with how to present a public face when battling inner pain.
Inexplicably, the song I played over and over upon hearing of MJ's death was Donny Hathaway's Someday We'll All Be Free. Perhaps because I've always thought Michael Jackson was a prisoner of his fame and now there's no need for masks, bodyguards, or gates...he's free.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
