Reviews

Black Lives Surely Mattered This Year

11/7/2020

What a waste. Nearly four years, over 235,000 lives, untold damage to the environment, friends betrayed, alliances broken. What a waste.
But now we have a chance to start over, and I want to credit one source for the grace and vision and strength behind this chance to recover -- the Black public figures who made such a big difference.

In the same year that a white police officer openly ground a Black man’s life into the pavement, the best and brightest helped elect a centrist who might, just might, pull some disparate parts together again.

The tone of this election year was set by Blacks who have been preparing for years, for decades, for centuries, for this moment. One great part was former President Obama sinking a feathery impromptu shot as he strolled through a gym – one and done – and as he kept moving he said, over his shoulder, “That’s what I do” -- Just as when he sang “Amazing Grace” in a church honoring slain members.

The tone of this election year was set early by Sen. Kamala Harris who began a primary debate by reciting racial injustices to one of her competitors, former Vice President Joe Biden. He blinked and took it, seemed to be listening, and months later he had the grace to select this accomplished lawyer/prosecutor/campaigner as his running partner. Grace under pressure, by both.
* * *
Now I want to praise four others who raised the grace level in this country:

Rep. Elijah Cummings

Rep. Jim Clyburn

Rep. John Lewis.

Stacey Abrams

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland passed last year, after setting a high level of righteousness in Congress. I witnessed him leading some sports/drugs hearings years ago, and ever since I have referred to him as The Prophet. In his final months, he admonished balky witnesses, “We’re better than this.”

Rep. John Lewis also did not make it to this election, but he had been setting an example since the police beat on him back in the ‘60s, at lunch counters and on the Pettus Bridge. He survived that, served in Congress, seeming so innocent but actually a living holy man, tempered in the flame.

Stacey Abrams lost a narrow race for governor in 2018, and soon used her intelligent smile, her knowledge, her persuasiveness, to help register voters – Black voters – in the South, where the desire to vote means standing on line in heat or rain for many hours, by Republican plan. This week, Abrams’ work helped throw two Senate races in Georgia into runoffs, early in January.

Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina changed history by endorsing Joe Biden, who had just gone through two disastrous primaries in the frozen North. Clyburn is one of the most composed of politicians, no bluster, no swagger, just serene confidence. He read the mood of South Carolina perfectly, and gave the nation a Democratic candidate who could balance the disturbed posturing and fatal incompetence of Donald Trump.
* * *
The positive effect on this nation will carry over into the new year, the new regime. Trumpites gloried in their man depicting Philadelphia, any urban setting, as dangerous, but a white President and a Vice President who is part Jamaican and part Indian live up to the professed ideals of this country.

As it happens, my family has some Jamaican and some Indian ancestry, as well as Black American, and Latino, and Asian, all kinds of Europeans, including the lady I live with who can trace herself to William the Conqueror and early New England settlers.
One young man in the family – with some Black ancestry -- called his grandmother in a nearby Atlanta suburb on Saturday to deliver the news that Biden had won.
* * *
And Saturday evening, a joyous, liberated, masked, socially-distanced, horn-honking, all-colors-of-the rainbow-crowd in a parking lot in Delaware greeted the new look of the Biden and Harris camps -- people who seemed to like each other, and love their children and speak comfortably of making this country work for everybody. The mixed racial makeup in that crowd seemed to match the impromptu crowd in the streets of Minneapolis when George Floyd was murdered, only this time not to protest but to cheer, to smile, to breathe,
Maybe, just maybe, things get better.

Tom Schwarz link

11/7/2020 07:08:50 pm

Agreed! oh and that shot that Barrack hit...it was a Fade Away Three! Come on now, degree of difficulty, give it up! And since he already put up a fence/wall, could we just make The White House Trump's correctional Home? Lock the gates and disable the helicopter. Maybe the whole clan could live there...no masks allowed. Finally I can't tell you how great it was to talk to you today! The show will be posted on Sunday https://590thefan.com/radio-shows/stl-united-fc/

George Vecsey

11/8/2020 09:35:59 am

Tom: It's always a pleasure to talk with the Men in Shorts in St. Louis. Thanks for letting me give you my Kid-From-Queens rant. Next time we'll talk soccer best, GV

George Vecsey

11/8/2020 10:52:35 am

Tom, BTW, I have some spies in St. Louis who tell me that you are known to let fly from the same distance as Obama....maybe every time you have the ball. Is that true? GV

Tom Schwarz

11/8/2020 10:55:30 am

I rarely get that close!!! Actually my concession to age is moving in and working on my drop step

ED MARTIN

11/7/2020 07:42:59 pm

AMEN! posted Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful on my Facebook page. Be well.

George Vecsey

11/8/2020 09:37:52 am

Ed: You mean the one where he sings, "America...sweet America...?"
Oh, yeah,

Chris Vecsey

11/7/2020 07:58:14 pm

Amen, Brother.
By the way, 97% of Navajos voted for Biden-Harris in this election, buoying the Arizona count. Wisconsin Ojibways and Menominees also made a big difference in that state.
Love,
Chris

George Vecsey

11/8/2020 09:24:54 am

Yes, Chris is my kid brother -- our mother called him "The Educated One." He is otherwise known as Christopher Vecsey, Harry Emerson Fosdick Professor of the Humanities and Native American Studies in the Department of Religion, Colgate University. -- GV

ED MARTIN

11/9/2020 03:18:20 pm

You and Chris share a common spiritual humanism, it seems. In the late 50s a “genius” mentor—I use that word rarely- who was developing a unique theory of therapy for communication disorders, began to read religious leaders. We were surprised a psychologist, would go there and she told us, “There are at least 4000 years of religious experience, there are lessons to be learned.” We began reading, Paul Tillich’s “Shaking the Foundations” and the sermons of Harry Emerson Fosdick, as highlights in my memory.

bruce

11/7/2020 08:47:20 pm

george,

i hope you're right.

however, there are still 10 1/2 weeks left for trump to do damage.

i'm sure he's aleady got the papers ready to pardon himself and his group of fellow cretins.

hope the southern district of ny and others have the necessary papers ready to take down the man who did so much damage to your country.....and they serve the papers around 1201 pm january 20, 2021.

jail to the thief.

bruce

George Vecsey

11/8/2020 09:40:47 am

Bruce: I have two words for him:
Letitia James.
See you on the afternoon of Jan. 20, Mr. Trump.
GV

Gene Palumbo

11/7/2020 10:42:25 pm

How sweet it would be if, as a tribute to John Lewis, people in Georgia voted for the Democrats in the two runoffs for Senate seats there in January. That would make the Senate 50-50, with Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes.

If that doesn't happen, it's going to be a long four years; true, without Trump, but also true, with Biden's legislative agenda meeting the same fate as Merrick Garland.

bruce

11/7/2020 11:55:36 pm

gene,

it's going to be interesting given the fact biden won.

don't know if it'll motivate the dems and depress the republicans or have the opposite effect or make no difference at all.

either result will have a yuge difference for good or ill..

George Vecsey

11/8/2020 09:43:21 am

Gene: As Scarlett O'Hara said, "I'll think about that tomorrow."

Alan Rubin link

11/8/2020 11:33:57 am

It is poetic justice that Whimpey Trumpy was undone by African Americans led by the women. Granted, Biden’s rise began with Jim Clyburn’s comment that “Joe Biden knows us”, but it was the tireless effort of Stacy Abrams and other black women supporters that made the difference.

One of the many mentors in my life was a black man from rural North Carolina. Raymond Harden began working in my father’s Manhattan retail appliance store when he was twenty-two and stayed until retirement at sixty-five.

I was Ray’s helper Weekends and summers when in high school.

Years later when I joined my father, I became Ray’s boss. However, I never stopped learning from him as he continued to be my mentor.

I learned about his life as a young black man is the segregated south, that his grandmother had been a slave, that although it was better for a black in the north, you knew where you stood better in the south.

Ray was very likable with an easy smile. He told about being stopped as a teenager by the local sheriff for driving at night without a license. In the morning, the sheriff took Ray to get his license so that he could drive legally.

However, I was most impressed by Ray’s humanity, common sense and moral decency. He could instantly see a customer’s problem in the light of what made sense.

In the early days of NY Metro area’s TV reception problems, it was very difficult to receive clear signals from both Channel 5 and Channel 13. The fact that signals bouncing off the George Washington Bridge often made ghosting a problem in many Upper West Side apartments.

One solution was to put up a roof antenna.

I was fifteen at the time I went on a service call with Ray to deal with the Channel 5 and Channel 13 problem. I was on the roof with the instructions to touch nothing regardless what he instructed me to do over the phone line we had dropped to talk.

After about twenty minutes of being told to inch the antenna a bit to the right or back a bit to the left, Ray said to tighten the bracket and come down.

The man was thrilled and we received a nice tip. I was puzzled since I had not done anything to the antenna.

Ray explained that the customer would never accept that fact that we could not improve the reception. Ray had slowly de-focused the image and the customer joyfully say “that’s it” when the focus returned to its original position.

Another time a customer called the store at 5:45 pm on a Saturday just as we were preparing to close. The phono on TV-Phono console did not have any sound and he had company coming soon for a party.

Again, Ray did his magic. He took the back of the set off, tapped some tubes for about fifteen minutes and sound miraculously reappeared. I knew that Ray had not fixed anything wrong, but his explanation was not a surprise.

The man had left the switch in the TV position, but Ray could not tell him that.

Whenever I hear black politicians, usually ones from the south, speak common sense; I know that they are the latest in a long line of Ray’s.

ED MARTIN

11/8/2020 01:03:09 pm

Love this string. Here is a story Alan just told, updated a bit. My younger son Bruce, a talented musician, worked in a Manhattan recording studio, playing, helping produce, records and television commercials. The ad execs would often come and order changes, re-takes, etc. One highly frustrating and long series of repeat takes was ordered, despite the fact that the ad guy had “no clue.” Finally he was satisfied. The studio boss asked Bruce, how he did it. Bruce said, I played him the last one we did, and just made it louder.

Alan Rubin link

11/8/2020 04:45:12 pm

Ed, you are so right. It is amazing how far a little common sense goes.

Gene Palumbo

11/8/2020 02:18:26 pm

Alan,
Wonderful post. Ed: fine follow-up.

George Vecsey

11/8/2020 06:04:07 pm

While we're talking about wise elders, we had one in my childhood in bucolic Queens (Half a mile east of Trumpland.) My friends played hardball in a large lot, 6 on 6 or 7 on 7....and if we had a dispute we would go across 188th St, to the Mobil Station and get Bill to arbitrate.
Bill (he had a charming ornate anglo name) was a Black guy from, I think, Virgina, tall and opinionated. He knew Willie Mays was the best CF in NYC, or the world, and proclaimed it. He smoked cigars and took no crap from anybody.
If we were arguing over whether a batter had broken his wrists on an aborted swing, we would demonstrate, pro and con, to Bill, who would somehow make a decision. I've seen worse in MLB. We all knew Bill was cool. Later, when I was college age, we talked politics, race in the late 50s. Once he helped me choose a used car...as a friend. I lost track of him sometime in the 60s, but when I think of a free spirit, with his own mind and octaves, I think of Bill. All the activists I've met as a journalist were no more convinced and committed than Bill.

Alan Rubin link

11/9/2020 10:21:17 am

Anyone growing up with a Dutch Uncle like "Mobil Station Bill" was very fortunate.

Growing up in Washington Heights we did not have any grass fields to play our games. Home turf was the cement school yard of P.S. 187 on Ft. Washington Avenue between 187th and 190th Streets.

We received our instruction from the high school and college students as well as the men who would watch our games. It felt like divine guidance as their word was gospel.

The few times that we played on a regular baseball diamond was on the field under the George Washington Bridge, which was next to the the Little Red Lighthouse. I think that both my kids did not believe me when I read them the story and said that I played ball next to it.

Anything near the GWB was considered out of the neighborhood, so it was special to play there right next to the Hudson River.

George Vecsey

11/9/2020 01:10:20 pm

Alan: How did we segue from BLM to childhood memories....but to paraphrase that lefty shooter at the top of the blog: "That's what we DO!"
My memories of the empty lot took place literally 10 blocks from Midland Parkway where the Trumps festered. The subway was extended to 179 St. around 1949 or 1950. Not that Trump used it much. He had his daddy's chauffeur.
In our neighborhood, the empty lot suited 10-year-olds....No LF and 3B if a lefty hitter was up. etc.
We had a neighborhood team. Our pitcher was a fast lefty who lived in the apt. building behind CF. Our Koufax -- David Schwartz.
About 5 years ago I was hustling my book on Long Island and who pops in but David Schwartz. I had been a catcher -- and I told him my hands still stung from catching him.
After I started junior high in Rego Park, I went by in the bus one day and saw them building a funeral parlor on our ball field. So it goes.
I forgot to say about Bill at the Mobil Station: when I was in college, I was getting gas and Bill introduced me to his daughter -- lovely young woman, who was in college somewhere local. He was very proud of her. GV

Alan Rubin link

11/10/2020 10:10:30 am

George, we both had positive educational experiences with an African-American man when we were young. It seemed perfectly natural then as it does now.

The positive difference today is that African-American women have found their voice and are having an impact.

Stacy Abrams has about two months to work her magic in Georgia.

Trump is not going quietly, BUT he is going.

George Vecsey

11/10/2020 11:29:25 am

The bully has been stopped. This is all reflex motion.
Beyond that, I have two words for him:
"Letitia" and "James."
Oh, and "Hold out your wrists, Mr. President."
GV

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Black Lives Surely Mattered This Year

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