Love for Venus

 

Can we show some love for Venus Williams? Please? PLEASE!

 

No, really. Let’s stop to think about her career. Venus is one of the 10 greatest players in the history of women’s tennis. Seven Grand Slam titles, four Olympic gold medals, a revolutionary combination of power, speed and athleticism and so much more. Yet she’s barely an afterthought these days. BECAUSE HER LITTLE SISTER IS THE GOAT!

 

Before Serena ruled the world, Venus was the one in the vanguard. It was Venus who started living out the experiments of the mad tennis scientist, Richard Williams. Venus was the trailblazer who first wore the beaded braids, first broke down the doors of the country club, first survived the slings and arrows of (thinly veiled) racism, first informed the world that Black girls from the ‘hood could be any damn thing they wanted. That was Venus.

 

It was also Venus who sheltered, shepherded and protected the true Golden Child, Serena, from the media, jealous players and even the mad scientist. She was the caretaking nurturer who made the more delicate Serena secure. It was Venus who suffered loss after loss so graciously. Remember the first Serena Slam from more than a decade ago? Guess who the finalist was, all four times. Venus kept losing to Serena, watching her place in history usurped by her baby sister. While smiling and taking pictures.

 

When women in tennis won their fight for equal prize money, it was Venus who was at the forefront of that movement.  When both Venus and Serena took time away from their sport to pursue other passions, it was Venus who made the public statements, responded to the carping legends and diffused the tension. 

 

While everyone, including me, applauds Roger Federer for his slow, graceful descent from Mount Olympus, please recognize that he’s still the second best player in the world! His tumble has been relatively easy. Venus has fallen from the heights to a far less appealing plane. Now she’s consistently ranked in the 20s, struggling to make even quarterfinals at big events, and has downshifted from ‘Favorite’ to ‘Contender’ to ‘Darkhorse’ to ‘Legend’. Despite her battle with the autoimmune disease Sjogren’s Syndrome, Venus still competes against players she inspired as toddlers. All with inordinate class.

 

So, regardless of how Venus finishes this US Open tournament and her career, I want to take a moment to acknowledge one of the unappreciated greats of the modern athletic and cultural universe.

 

Thank you, Venus. Keep on keepin’ on!

 

 

Next Door

  

I live near a house

With three garages

A lake and a little place

For the horses to sleep

 

Right next to this house

Lives a family I don’t know

But on Saturdays

When I drive past

I want to stop

And talk

With the people living there

 

Asking if they ever wonder

Why their house

Would fit on their neighbors’

Front porch

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2003

 

 

 

 

Bad Timing

 

Sitting alone at a three person round

Who ever uses that third seat

Anyway, between the clatter

And clank of bagel slicers, coffee canisters

with the clickety clackety clucking

From soft hands pounding

Hard on computer keyboards

I feel like a dinosaur

Wishing for a quiet,

Peaceful coffeehouse

In which to put my real life

Pen to real life

Paper writing my day

And my life

Straight out of my brain

Through my body

And into the ether

Of the world

Like an overcaffeinated dinosaur

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2015

 

 

The Rainbow Sign

 

  

Noah did not imagine

What his wooden ark would find

Of life he could be certain

Not so of the rainbow sign

 

The cleansing water fallen

An act of the great divine

Who spared the righteous Noah

And gave him the rainbow sign

 

God made a new beginning

Saying all the earth is mine

And sealed it with a promise

Bound up in the rainbow sign

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2002

Neptune

 

 

Some days

But usually nights

I feel like Neptune

Not the god of course

Since I can’t even swim

Instead the planet

Stuck on the periphery of existence

I’m large but barely visible

And that only with great effort

 

Moving here on the margin

I’ve grown cold and austere

Distant and unreachable

Now dark and forbidding

Which allows a certain freedom

Like Triton

The inhabitants of my own

Little universe

Linger gratefully near me

Scarcely aware of the world beyond

Since on the edge of inner space

Everything revolves around me

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2011

 

 

The King’s Crowning Achievement

 

My NBA watching has taken a sad nose dive in 2015 but I'm excited that I'll be able to watch more consistently as the Eastern Conference Finals begin tonight. Part of it is sheer love for the game but I'm also very intrigued by some of the historical dynamics at play.

 

The next 3 or 4 weeks may prove to be the stretch in which LeBron James cements his place as the greatest forward to ever play basketball. I’d argue that he’s already there and that whenever he retires, there is likely to be a gulf separating James from Barkley, Bird, Baylor, Erving, Garnett, Havlicek, Malone and the rest of the all-time great forwards. The next few weeks might convince some of the last remaining skeptics.

 

Consider that with victories over the top seeded Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Rockets-Warriors* victor in the NBA Finals, James would lead his teams to 5 straight Finals appearances and titles in 3 of those seasons.# That specific level of sustained brilliance has been rarely achieved in the NBA.  Russell’s Celtics are the only team to do it and James (along with teammate James Jones) would be the first individual to do it since.

 

As impressive as that feat would be historically, considering the context of this Cleveland Cavalier team, another championship might well be King James’ crowning achievement. At the beginning of the season there were high hopes for this team because of their formidable trio of All-Stars. Their Big 3 enters the conference finals as a Big 1 ½.

 

The Cavs mortgaged their future to acquire Kevin Love from the Timberwolves, hoping he could replicate Chris Bosh’s success with James in Miami. Love is out for the season after suffering a Minnesota Wrecking Crew style shoulder separation. Kyrie Irving, the Cavs incumbent star, was presumed to fill the Dwyane Wade role this year but Irving is suffering from multiple injuries and limped awkwardly through the end of the Bulls series.

 

The current third member of the Cavs Big 3 is Timofey Mozgov. It’s true. Folks, we are not talking about Robert Parish and Kevin McHale here. Apologies for referencing Moses Malone and Andrew Toney in this context. Yes, the mere comparison is embarrassing.  

 

And it gets worse! The rest of the Cavs team is a “clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk”, to quote the Wizard of Oz. Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert are their fourth, fifth and sixth best players. Please read that sentence again.

 

If James can lead this team to a title he’ll have demonstrated that his two year MVP drought has no bearing on his continuing status as the best player in the game. He will also be able to make the case that none of the other contenders for BEST FORWARD EVER ever won a title with such a motley crew.

 

The amazing thing is, LeBron James is good enough to pull it off. Would you bet against him?

 

 

 FDO

 

 

*- Especially the Warriors. With a championship, they would cement themselves as one of the greatest seasons ever.  They 67 wins, MVP, and runners-up for Coach of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Beating this team will be an historical feather in the cap.

 

#- It would actually be 3 rings in 4 years.

 

 

When Tomorrow Comes #2

I posted this poem just a few weeks ago but since the Recorder article about me and my son, Jake, just arrived, I'm sharing it again. I hope that it will help remind someone that America really is moving in the right direction. Fits, starts, traumas, abuses and all, we are moving toward a better future.

 

FDO

 

I'm seeing integration

expressed in the million different ways

that define America

in the 21st century

 

Neighbors standing across a fence

my almostkindabuddy

prodding the little girl in his arms to smile

while speaking to me

 

Sharing stories of dogs and kids,

potholes and the weather

The small, simple recognitions of community

That are welcome prophecies of transformation

Fleeting, powerful moments of joy and recognition

begging for sustainability and sanction

 

Oh, if only our churches

and clubs and families

would do the unthinkable, could somehow do

the impossible, next generation inevitable

hard work of embrace

 

Ah, the sweet embrace that’s waiting

To be given and claimed

By untold millions

And my own White son,

still learning to be a man

and fully human

 

 

Needing to be told over and over

You are not alone

because Michael Jackson was right

and you, my child and most precious creation

 

 

are the hope and future of our people,

of all the people

whose hard earned righteousness

will lead us,

must lead us, to the glorious shore

of a future

authentically prophesied

with love and deepest understanding

 

Mijo, you ARE the Dream

I only wish I could explain it,

without crying

 

I'm still worried you might confuse my tears

with sadness though really

its all joy

 

So much joy

for the man you will be

and the life you will live

 

My sweat mingles with those unavoidable tears

And my laughter and my envy

and my love and my joy for you

because I wish I could live to know it

 

Still, I am free enough for now

 

In the sacred vestment of love

I am blessed to be the poet

Celebrating the poetry

 

And I thank you for becoming a poem

Of the future

Even more than a prophecy

The clear vision of today

You will help to create

And manifest with your life

And your vision

And every tomorrow

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2015

 

 

Rejecting RFRA

 

Today I've seen lots of folks suggesting that RFRA is unimportant because there are so many other laws like it. I reject that argument for a few reasons.

 

As usual, application is what matters most about the law. How will laws be used in our lives?

 

Consider that the 14th amendment was originally intended to provide former slaves with full citizenship. It's now applied in dozens of different ways to ensure "the equal protection of the laws" regardless of condition. This expansion of original intent happens all the time.

 

A big part of what scares me about RFRA can be found in the NUVO article below. We already know how this law is intended to be applied. There is no mystery about it. It is clear that the driving force behind this law is exactly what everyone has said: Christian businesses will now have legal protections to allow them to choose which people can use their publicly offered services.  It is, at best, disingenuous for Governor Pence to pretend that there are no possibilities for bigotry associated with this law. Advance America specifically advocated for RFRA to be used in this fashion.

 

The other scary part is that Governor Pence was perfectly aware of the backlash that would accompany his signature and signed it anyway. He's made a clear choice  indicating where his deepest priorities lie and they are not to be found in the 'good for business' mantra he's claimed in the past. Attempting to use RFRA to attack ObamaCare in his public statement indicates that today's signing was, at its core, a calculated political strategy.

 

My hope is that Hoosiers recognize that we can make signing RFRA a losing political strategy. We can do that with our votes, petitions, voices, phone calls and dollars. Today, Indiana made a deeply retrograde move but it doesn't have to be a permanent step back. Indeed, I am confident that it won't be.

 

America is a vastly different place than it was 20 years ago, as is Indiana itself. More of us than ever recognize the need for the 14th Amendment's great concept of "equal justice for all". Social justice is a broader concern than ever.

 

Great gains have been made recently and will continue to be made as long as they are demanded by those of us who emphasize our shared humanity over the divisive politics of fearful hatred. History makes it clear that love wins in the end. This is so because we, the people, will eventually choose love.

 

Let us make that kind of history repeat itself.  Here, in Indiana. Soon. Let love win.

 

FDO

 

 

Reflecting on John Lewis

 

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Selma march I want to take a moment to reflect on the life and career of John Lewis, one of my personal heroes.

 

“Registering to vote is an act of commitment to the American ideal. It is patriotic. The Federal Government must decide whether it wants to let Southern Negroes register. It must make that choice this summer, or make us all witnesses to the lynching of democracy.”

 

-John Lewis

 

 

John Lewis was a young college student when he got his start as an activist in the Nashville Student Movement. Lewis was often viewed as the prodigy of the movement as he was the youngest of the “Big Six” leaders of the Civil Rights Movement by a full decade.

 

 

As a co-founder and an early chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Lewis first became a national figure during the Freedom Rides of 1961. It was during this endeavor to desegregate public facilities in the South that Lewis was beaten so badly many feared his death was imminent.

 

Continuing his leadership of SNCC, Lewis was one of the speakers at the legendary 1963 March on Washington. SNCC worked throughout the South to develop Freedom Schools that trained nonviolent activists and 1964’s Freedom Summer efforts at registering potential Black voters.

 

Lewis was also one of the leaders of the Selma, Alabama march now referred to as “Bloody Sunday” because of the brutal beating Lewis and many other nonviolent protestors received at the hands (and clubs) of the Alabama State Police. It is this march we celebrated last weekend.  

 

As the sixties came to an end, Lewis became deeply involved in electoral politics. Initially, he became a prominent advisor for Robert F. Kennedy’s Presidential campaign in 1968. For the last quarter century, Lewis has served his country as a member of Congress from Georgia.

 

In some respects, Lewis is considered the conscience of the national Democratic party. It was Lewis' decision to switch his support from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary that opened the floodgates of superdelegates declaring Obama their preferred candidate.

 

Lewis continues to fight for human rights to this day. His efforts to pursue justice have extended well beyond his original pursuit of racial equality to include a whole host of social concerns. Still, he is widely perceived as the most important living link to the Civil Rights Movement.

  

I continue to be grateful for John Lewis. You should be too.

 

 

FDO