Write the Way You Referee

When people ask me, “How do you write?”, I tell them, “I write the way I referee.” That is, I call them like I see them. I can’t be right all of the time, but I can be fair. In the end, being treated fairly may be the best any of us can hope for.

They asked me, once, to referee a basketball game. I had never refereed before, but having played the game, I knew the rules. And for this particular game, I knew all of the players.

Funny how it all came over me the moment I took on the mantle of “referee.” I didn’t see the people any longer; I only saw the game. I called it like I saw it.

I write the same way. It doesn’t matter to me who is black or white; all that matters is who is right or wrong.

Of course, I am not always right, though I try to be. But being right is something we have less control over than being fair. At times, I may not be right, but I will stake my claim on being fair.

The Hamlet Presidency

"And thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with a pale cast of thought..." Shakespeare, Hamlet

Hamlet, for all of his good looks and intelligence, was known for being a waffler—someone who could not make the tough decision because he was too busy exploring both sides.

You might remember, it was Hamlet who asked, “To be, or not to be…”, perhaps the greatest question of them all. At one point in his soliloquy, he acknowledges, “And thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with a pale cast of thought…”

Has our president become the Hamlet of our time? Has this become the Hamlet Presidency?

Recently, Republicans excoriated President Obama for wanting to have a chat with America’s school children. In particular, Obama wanted to ask each of them, “What can you do to help the president?” The far right went visceral, accusing Obama of seeking to brainwash the nation’s children, among other ridiculous charges.

To appease this noxious lot, Obama retracted his question—which was perfectly wonderful in how it summoned each child to a public duty—and replaced it with this banal call to self-service: “What are your goals, and how will you achieve them?”

That is only the latest example of our president buckling to pressure rather than overcoming it with steadfast decision-making from the start.

Earth's Unforgiving

"The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed. It blesses him that gives and him that takes. 'Tis mightiest in the mighty..." - Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Adel Basset al-Megrahi, convicted bomber of Pan Am Flight 103—the one that killed 270 people over Lockerbie, Scotland—is free. The Scottish government, which prosecuted and imprisoned him, released him on humanitarian grounds. The man is dying of prostate cancer. Scotland sent him home to his 95-year-old mother to spend his final days. In summing up his decision to release Megrahi, Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, said, “…that justice be served, but mercy be shown.”

BBC News reports that British relatives of the Lockerbie victims are pleased with Scotland’s decision. “Americans,” on the other hand “are appalled.” President Obama, echoing the sentiments of his fellow Americans, called for further confinement for Megrahi, labeling his release “an outrage.”

Americans and their president are true to form. No other nation on Earth locks up more of its citizens than does the “Land of the Free.” America will deny its own children a good education for the chance to keep a man locked up. It will deprive its elderly of basic services to squeeze the last the last little bit of life out of its prisoners.

Hatred? That is part of it. It is money, too; and it is jobs. Corrections workers are fast replacing the auto worker (with his big salary and comparable lifestyle,) as the new “upscale” working class. The difference: America’s auto worker gave the world a great product. America’s corrections workers give the world nothing. ( A disturbing snapshot of what America’s economy has become.)

Today, a situation in Standish, Michigan, offers a glimpse of what is happening across America. As part of a cost-cutting move, the maximum security prison there is scheduled to close…but not so fast. To the locals of Standish, the thought of their precious prison closing is hateful, and they are determined to do something about it. Besides holding a prayer vigil, they—along with the Granholm administration—have gone so far as to lobby California for some of its prisoners to stock their facility for a $60 million fee.

Commenting on this desperate move, Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections said in the August 18 (2009) edition of USA Today: “We can’t incarcerate people to create jobs; that’s not what prisons are for. But that is what it has become.”

It is a shocking admission by a top government official—one the entire world heard at once. Yet, America continues to commit this blatant crime against its own citizens; a crime we would decry as a “human rights abuse” if some other nation was doing it. But because it is done in America, we look the other way.

This is what America’s prisoners and their families are up against—not just an official here and a group there, but legions of Americans—coast to coast—engaging in the interstate trade of human beings, quashing freedom for profit,, choosing vengeance over mercy as a prerogative of power.

Mercy. Kenny MacAskill’s words were a singular shot across America’s bow, reminding us that mercy offers hope for us all; for we are all sinners and in need of it.

Obama’s words, on the other hand, rang hollow. They only appeased a nation consumed with endless retribution.

Cash For Clunkers

It may be one of the most ridiculous government-sponsored programs ever. What sets it apart—besides the government paying people to go into debt—is that so many people are thrilled about it.

“A new car for you!”

“A new car for you!”

“A new car for you!”

What is this, Oprah II?

Of course everyone wants a new car. But if you cannot afford a new car (on your own), then you do not need one.

Cash-for-Clunkers is a boon for people with money who yearn to buy a new car anyway. It is a bust for people who cannot—and never planned to –buy a new car. The latter end up helping the former, buy that which they, themselves, cannot afford. The cars they hope to afford—the used cars they traditionally waited for the “well-off” to discard—the government crushes.

The government calls if “getting less fuel-efficient cars off the road.” I call it, “waste”. Many of these “crushed cars” are solid vehicles, able to go another 80-100,000 miles. Here, “fuel-efficient” becomes a smokescreen behind which the government, tell “poor” taxpayers to “suck it up.” It is elitism: Make the poor help the wealthy get what they want, then, give the poor nothing in return.

Add this: Destroying good used cars, which are the staple of many working class communities, necessarily limits the choice of used cars on the market. Decreased inventory automatically raises the value (i.e. price) of the used cars left on the lot. So, not only do poor people get no help, but they end up paying more for what they need—a good used car.

It's Visceral...You Wouldn't Understand

The one constant that underlies race relations in America is that the white man enslaved the black man, and neither can get over it.

Recently, Sgt. Crowley, a white officer with the Cambridge police, arrested a black man - a Harvard professor - in his own home. Followed a brouhaha, with claims and counter-claims.

We learned that Sgt. Crowley teaches a course on "racial profiling" at the Cambridge police academy. But for all of his fancy "sensitivity training" he could not understand the fundamental reaction a black man harbors when a white policeman enters his home, (which points up a fundamental flaw in Crowley's teachings.)

Twice, Crowley stated, "I don't understand why he wasn't glad that I was there."

One reason Sgt. Crowley "does not understand" is because Professor Gates' reaction was purely visceral - that is, it was not based on intellectual reasoning, which one might expect from a Harvard professor. Rather, it was elemental, spawned in a well so deep, it goes all the way back to the beginnings of slavery in America.

That well, apparently, does not run dry. Jim Crow replenishes it, as does the Gay Nineties - that American paradox, when more blacks were lynched during any other period of American history. Add the Civil Rights struggle - where images of police brutality against blacks - the dogs, the hoses - are seared into America's conscious.

The generation that absorbed those abuses have died away; and they will continue to die away. But the pain they suffered lives defiantly (and seemingly forever) within African-America, fed as it is by the contemporary images - fairly or unfairly - of beatings of the likes of Rodney King, and the shootings of innocents like Amadou Diallo.

There is no other relationship on Earth like the one that defines white and black America. Two powerful peoples who strengths hold us together; whose weaknesses hold us apart.

The Desparate Duo

Two lame duck governors of two debt-ridden states are going into business. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has the largest prison population in the country, (and the largest budget deficit.) Jennifer Granholm of Michigan has the highest unemployment rate—over 14%.

To help remedy their problems, Granholm is offering to house California prisoners in Michigan for a fee. (That’s right America human beings once more have become a commodity to be swapped and traded.) Theoretically, this proposal would save California money, while enabling Michigan to hire more prison guards, thus easing unemployment.

The rub: California is in such bad shape, it is now issuing billions of dollars in I.O.U.’s to its creditors. Not only is Michigan likely to receive an I.O.U. for its dubious services—housing prisoners; (is that all you got?)—but it will have to go to the back of the line to receive that.

"Blood Diamond"

Last night I watched the movie, “Blood Diamond”, a disturbing account of the diamond trade in West Africa. More compelling than the trade, itself, were the child soldiers of Sierra Leone—children forced to wage a war of devastating cruelty against their own people.

Interesting that two days earlier, in our own Detroit, young gunmen shot seven children in front of a public school.

Blood Diamond: On the face of it, Africa in all of its utter chaos. Beyond it, inner America and its own child soldiers, murdering and maiming on a similar scale.

We watch the movie and are appalled at the brutality of the child soldiers of Africa, like something out of the Dark Ages. But do we think our children are any better? They are the same children—the same senselessness, the same callous disregard for human life. The only difference: our children here in the States do it with less coercion.