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Busch, Mayweather Aren't Allowed Free Passes

I'm not perfect, no one is.
But there are certain actions, that even when not able to be "proven" in a criminal court of law should be carried with the perpetrator forever. You beat a woman but are able to dance your way out of charges, good for  you but you don't get to be seen in a new light. You molest a child but never spend a day in jail for it, your still scum of the Earth. You like to sexually assault women but are able to argue it was consensual therefore skating the law, well played, but you are no doubt less of a man.
This week two such men have garnered the spotlight in the world of sports.
First, enter into the ring serial woman beater Floyd Mayweather. His long and sordid past was recently profiled in ESPN's Outside the Lines (video below) and I won't exhaust all of the incidents here but his history is clear.



If the history wasn't bad enough having shills like Stephen A Smith @ ESPN sticking up for is track record, and acting as if we are "bad" people for not separating the "boxer" from the "woman beater," is not only laughable, but a disgusting argument.



Now enter NASCAR and driver Kurt Busch who took the checkered flag on Sunday at Richmond. He won the race after  being forced to miss the first 3 races of the season due to a suspension from NASCAR for a serious altercation with a woman that resulted in a restraining order being issued against him.
What made Busch's win very unsettling wasn't the fact that NASCAR  had no backbone to continue his suspension but instead that his victory somehow exonerated him. FOX's Mike Joy actually uttered the phrase "from suspension to redemption," as Busch was on the final lap and crossing the finish line.
Jalopnik did a great job covering this today, and  you can read that story here.
This isn't about second chances. This isn't about what can be proven in a court or not. This isn't about if victims get bought off and then change their story.
What this is about is simple. A person's actions off the court, field, track, ring or whatever their venue is in sports or professional work most certainly should be included in their persona inside the venue. Just because they excel in their sport or win races and boxing matches doesn't give them a free pass for beating on women. They aren't "redeemed" or exonerated once they claim victory on the field.
Shame on big media for allowing anyone to think otherwise.

And so the Worm Turns -- Racial Violence Plaguing St. Louis

Just a day after I blogged about absolutely no progress being made in St. Louis on the race relations front and comparing our city's racial tension to the contrasting racial harmony, relatively speaking of course, that exists in the other side of the state in Kansas City, more ugliness rears its head.
A MetroLink passenger captured video of a black passenger yelling at a white one (to me the dialogue in the video is inaudible), but the white victim later told police that the black assailant asked the white victim what his opinion was on the Mike Brown case. His answer of "I haven't thought much about it," sends the black man into a physical rage where he is seen on camera betting the white victim about the face and upper body with punch after punch.
The video is very disturbing and you can see it all here, along with the Fox2 report on the activities.
Our city is in a very bad place right now with no signs of it getting better. Its sickening that we as a society are allowing this to happen. Something must be done.

Black Mayor Tired of "Racial Bullshit" and I Love Him For It

So an interesting article hit my news feed this morning.
Kansas City's Mayor Sly James (the city's second black mayor in its history) basically came out and told a black political group to go fuck themselves, he did it a little more diplomatically than that though, but even that isn't the headline here.
I don't know Sly James that well but I did have the pleasure of meeting him a few occasions during my time in KC at various events around the area. I have a dear friend who knows him well from back in his college days and we would both say Sly is a stand up guy and a wonderful leader for Kansas City.

As a longtime resident of the St. Louis area I am keenly aware that racial tensions run high in this area. That was clearly evident this summer with the incidents in Ferguson and elsewhere in the city's core.
It takes a dude with some serious stones to tell a black political group he doesn't care about them. It takes even bigger stones when that dude is a black man himself. On the surface it would appear that James is telling his African American base he doesn't care about him. But it is so much more than that.
You can read the complete history here in the original story from the KC Star but the bottom line is Freedom Inc. played some nasty politics recently and brought up Jim Crown in encouraging people to vote against a development and transportation project that James was in favor of.
Race relations are real, especially in Missouri. As a recent resident of KC I think the city is light years ahead of St. Louis in terms of integration. That's not to say KC doesn't have its share of racial issues. 1968 saw terribly violent riots in KC and even today Troost Ave remains as a socioeconomic and racial divide in the city's core.
It might be Jame's leadership, the collective attitude of its residents, a thriving business community in the urban core made up of both huge companies (H&R Block, Hallmark just to name a few) and start ups and small firms as well, or growing population of residents (vs. declining in St. Louis' urban core) but the racial line in KC is much more gray than it is black and white in St. Louis just 250 miles to the east. In St. Louis shit like this happens on a regular basis.
I am not saying its all kittens and rainbows either, but the fact that you have a black mayor saying "I'm just tired of racial politics. . . not going to put  up with this racial bullshit," the message is clear. James is not about to let his city have a wedge driven through it.
Meanwhile in St. Louis leaders on both sides of the fence not only continue to allow the wedge to be driven in the metro area, they almost encourage it and welcome it. Leaders in Ferguson just dug their heels in deeper in response to the recent Department of Justice report that cast a dark light over a municipality where racial prejudice was allowed to run rampant. County and city leaders tip-toe around the subject for fear of upsetting their "base" which only draws the line deeper into the racial fiber of the metro area.
I'm like James on this one and am tired of the "racial bullshit." I am sickened when I hear white people put down blacks and I am disheartened when I hear black people talk of their distrust for whites.
Someone, anyone, needs to step up and yell "enough of this bullshit," and let's move this community forward into the 21st century. We are all in this together and the sooner everyone realizes that the better.
We don't have to look very far for our example or inspiration thanks to Sly James.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/yael-t-abouhalkah/article16296026.html#storylink=cpy

Calls for Justice Explained

Yesterday we blogged about the perceived line between those calling for justice and those supporting cops.
Today we get to post a video of Andrew Hawkins speaking to the media. His remarks were from the heart, without note cards or a PR person telling him what to say. He claims not to be an activist but we feel his comments are spot on.

When Cops Fuck Up

I fully support the police. It's a job I would never want or could I do with any degree of success.
I also don't understand the mentality of "fuck the police" much less even running from them or cursing at a police officer. I have many dear friends and a handful of family members who make their living behind the badge.
I fully support the freedom of speech and still think it is America's most fundamental right. Our ability to have civil discourse through our speech without fear of imprisonment or retribution from the government goes to the core of what makes our country so great.
So when did police forces become the Vatican?
As a lifelong and proud Catholic I become very displeased with my church over the last 15 year as it continue to bury its collective head in the sand in admitting to and dealing with a sad and dark history of pedophile priests. We even had a Pope as recent as 2010 choose to classify the allegations as "petty gossip" in his Palm Sunday homily. Any Catholic, like myself, who was outwardly outspoken about our church's handling of the priests who committed these heinous crimes were considered "not real Catholics" or were chastised for not being in lock step with our spiritual leader.
Turns out our new Pope has done a pretty good job in clearing  up and admitting to the church's gross mishandling of this epidemic.
Now it seems that whenever Americans want to voice concern or frustration over how area police forces are handling their job of "protecting and serving" the citizens are being treated with the same sort of outcries and criticism that were thrown towards those who were critical of the Catholic church.
Cops are humans. Cops fuck up. Sadly when they do fuck up it could have fatal consequences. This column isn't about the perceived lack of justice for families in St. Louis, New York and Cleveland who recently lost loved ones at the hands of police officers. This column isn't about how the Grand Jury process might be impartial to law enforcement.
Since when do police forces feel justified in "demanding an apology" from people who show their support to those who died at the hands of police?
A child shouldn't be playing with a toy gun (without any orange safety tape or paint on it) and pointing it towards police officers. A repeated perpetrated of petty street crimes shouldn't be arguing with police when told to stop what he is doing. A suspect in a strong-arm robbery shouldn't reach for a cop's gun while sitting in his car and not expect to have lethal force used upon him.
But when all three of those people above are killed at the hands of the police then families, communities and activist of all kinds have the right to speak up in support of those victims. They shouldn't feel ashamed nor should they be forced into an apology for showing their support. It also doesn't mean that they don't support the police or law enforcement.
Since when does wearing a badge mean you are omnipotent? Maybe the apologies should be coming from cops who kill a 12 year-old child or choke out a suspect whose last words are "I can't breathe."
When cops fuck up they need to be ready for the criticism that comes their way. Maybe then we can make progress in this country when it comes to race relations.

Susan Keeler Smith

This morning I lost the most inspirational and courageous woman I have known.

Many of you are aware that my dear sister-in-law Susan Keeler Smith had suffered from metastatic breast cancer for the past 15 years. I am saddened greatly to report that early this morning (Dec. 1, 2011) Susan passed peacefully in her sleep with my brother by her bedside at Prentice Women’s Hospital.

When someone deals with metastatic breast cancer the long-term outlook isn’t good, and Susan continued to defy these odds even until the end. It was over a month ago that her doctor told us on a Thursday (Oct. 27) that she wouldn’t make it through the next Monday (Oct. 31).

You can imagine that none of us were really surprised when not only she made it through the weekend but was more alert and awake in the follow days and weeks than she had been in the few months prior. We weren’t shocked because a) it is no secret that Thanksgiving was Susan’s favorite holiday and b) she was hopeful to make it to another Thanksgiving.

You see, for all the great things I can say about Susan, and trust me there are many as she was the “older sister” that I never had (and I was always quick to remind her how much of an “older” sister she was to me), her will, desire, courageousness, and class are what I will forever remember her by.

It was never that Susan tried to “defy the odds” or even think that she would be able to “beat cancer.” She knew her long-term fate was going to be the shame, but she also knew that no matter how much medicine, how many treatments, how many new drugs they tried on her, or anything else that life threw at her, the one thing she could control was how she dealt with it. By her attitude and determination to live her life as best she could she would be in control. 

She had two options 15 years ago when her cancer returned; she could sit back, take the hand dealt to her and ultimately wait to die, or she could look it square in the eye, realize her life would be different now but that wasn’t going to stop her from living it to its fullest potential.

The Thanksgiving Day example I gave earlier is just one of hundreds of examples of how Susan’s determination over the last 15 years is what guided her life, and not cancer. It wasn’t until the last few years that Susan rarely missed a trip to see family, witness a marriage of friends, or enjoy a much-needed vacation with her husband and daughter. If she had made it up in her mind that she was going to be somewhere, she was going to be there.

Of course her ability to be called “mom” over the last 9 years was her most recent driving force. The example she showed to Grace of how to respect others, have compassion, courage, and an appreciation for the arts will be a beacon of light forever.

When someone has a terminal illness I think it is natural for the loved ones around them to contemplate their relationship with the person suffering and the impact they had on them. I will consider it a blessing that I have had so much time to dwell on this subject as Susan continued to deal with her disease with such ferociousness.

I realized I was able to love her deeply and this is the same woman that while having this terrible and dreaded disease was able to:

-- Become a loving, caring and strong mother.

-- Be my biggest sounding board as I went through my divorce (a situation sadly she could relate to).

-- Not know who Ozzie Smith was.

-- Let us take over her condo on our regular visits to Chicago

-- With a few bottles of wine could solve all the world’s problems and remind Steve how wrong he was about many of his political views.

-- Stay up and watched a World Cup game with me in 2002 that kicked off at 3 a.m. local time and then watched as me and my “other brother” shot-gunned a beer on her condo balcony to great the rising sun! 

-- Be the first person I called and told I thought I found someone I wanted to marry again (after of course swearing off the idea to her just a year or so earlier).

-- Be a spokesperson/”poster child” for Gilda’s Club in Chicago and try to tell her story to as many people as she could in hopes of giving them a ray of hope.

-- Be such an inspiration that she was invited to attend a star-studded event in Austin put on by the Lance Armstrong Foundation (the LiveStrong folks).

-- While even dealing with treatments and drugs, was a regular caller to check in on Kelly and I after the sudden and premature loss of our twin boys.

-- Be in St. Louis shortly after Kennedy was born to see her new niece.

-- Not even 6 months ago, mustered up all the strength she had to be with Steve, Grace and all of us in St. Louis as we laid “Opa” to rest.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

There are a lot of mysteries to life and this world, but I can’t help but think of the discussion we all had with Susan just this summer as we dealt with the sudden passing of my father. She considered it a blessing that just this spring the two of them were able to go over Bible readings and other elements she would want in her memorial service. It was really the first time she talked to anyone with such openness on the matter.

I also can’t help but think that Susan’s own father Owen, my father, and a host of other loved ones and friends are welcoming her with open arms right now in heaven. She is giving our boys the hugs she promised she would when we I was able to say my final “good-bye” to her last month.

Her cancer is finally gone, but she will be with us forever. 

If you haven't seen it yet, or are interested, you can see Susan's CaringBridge page by going here.