We recruited international players often at Atlantic Christian, and from all over. Two Africans, Elfatih Eltom from Ethiopia, and Sharhabil Humeida of the Sudan were two of the firsts, along with Tony Barreteau, all great soccer players. They were also fine students, and they spoke the “King’s English” beautifully. Quite impressive to anyone in eastern North Carolina, white or black, myself included. We all listened and learned from these wonderful people.
Another person who impressed me similarly was a football coach at Elon, Leo Barker. Coach Barker is the only Panamanian to play in the National Football League. One of eighteen children, he was an All-Pro linebacker playing with Boomer Eliasason and the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl. Coach Barker was an impressive man in any number of ways, not the least of which the influence he wielded with our American Black footballers. I talked a number of times with some of our football players about Coach Barker. The comment that
sticks with me most is the player who stressed, “…Coach Leo don’t go for that victimology crap.”
While I had played high school football, there was no college football at the college I went to. When I changed jobs and began work for Elon in 1985, the football team was ranked number one in preseason NAIA picks. I loved that whole scene, and we had some ballplayers. Football players in general, and at this level, were new to me. They were big strong capable men, and as I got to know them I valued their friendship and their ability. John Bradsher, Russell Evans, Jeff Slade, and Gino McCree were close friends and they adopted me in my learning of Elon and college football. I am grateful to these guys, and they opened the door to my knowing a lot of the other players. Often our kids were smaller than Division I players, but they were just as tough and just as skilled as most of the big timers. The receivers and the defensive backs were predominantly Black kids, and for some reason I hold a special place for them and efforts they
rendered. These guys were quick and would “de-cleat,” you. Several years back I wrote a blog article about football and head injuries.
WHAT REALLY CAUSED IT
POLITICS CONTINUED:
When Billie Jean King courageously “came out of the closet” it was a big deal. At that time in Wilson, North Carolina we sponsored a professional tennis exhibition. At a post play party, one of the local people made an anti-gay slur. One of the pros, Erik Van Dillen, a Californian, simply
stated, “that’s not too unusual where I come from.” Someone has stated that one in eight people
are homosexual. I know a lot of great gay people, and history is full of them. Isn’t equality an all encompassing term in America?
Get over it.
I saw a bumper sticker with “gay colors” (Jesus would slap the shit out of you).
In the impending days before the 2008 election there was at least one agreement. Commonly heard was the statement “… well, no matter who wins things are so bad they won’t be corrected and one term, probably not in two.” True then, true now.
But the “rock throwing” began almost immediately.
No answers, no solutions, just bitching about everything the man did. Worse than that, they followed Rush’s lead (“I hope he fails”). Isn’t that borderline treason?
So what actually has happened? Granted it has been slow-going. How could it be any other way given the negative behavior of Congress? And yet:
• There has been a remarkable recovery in the car industry.
• The housing industry is recovering.
• The Affordable Care Act is working and will continue to work better. April 1 marked the fulfillment of seven million people signing up.
• We have a president who can speak English. Remember: “… fool me, ah, twice, ah…fool me…ah…) and the combined zillion malapropisms of our top spokesman? The Right actually vilified President Obama, “…just because he can make a good speech, Wow.
• Unemployment is down.
• The job situation is much better.
• The President is carrying the flag for increased minimum wage.
• Many poor people or now covered with health insurance.
• The war in Iraq is over.
• He is getting them out of Afghanistan.
• The price of gas has been relatively stable. The stock market is at an all time high.
• Oil production in the United States is booming.
• Researches into “Green” options are yielding attractive alternatives that are essential to the
economy and environment.
• Information on climate change is gathering. Ninety seven percent of acknowledged scientists
agree it is a reality, with mankind a major contributor. This month the United Nation’s panel on climate change concluded that the “…world is warming, ice is melting, water flow is surging, Animals are changing their range and behavior, crop production is failing and once rare and deadly events are occurring with unnatural frequency.” The good news is someone is paying attention and evidence builds.
• The deficit has taken a remarkable downturn recently. More later.
• World opinion is has vastly improved during the Obama administration. And yet, unfolding history is rapidly revealing what a gigantic mess the others created.
• And, oh yes, Obama got Bin Laden!!!! Obama got him.
Still, here comes the race card, the tax card, the saber rattlers, the fear mongers. The old ones who send young ones to die for their profit, pride, or reelection. “A war is good for the economy”. Oh yeah? How did that work out this time?
Pete Seeger died this year. Was Pete right when he stated “… the best thing for the economy is no war.”
Take a guess as to who “walks with the money” a war makes? And who pays the bill?
COLIN POWELL
I guess my “signature” course was First Aid. I taught about thirty students each semester for twenty years. I can remember about a dozen cases when people came back told me through artificial respiration, cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), treating wreck victims and a host of other accidents or illnesses, they saved a life.
One interesting case involved a soccer player from Jamaica, Tony Barriteau. Tony was a joy, and volunteered his time teaching the growing number of soccer kids in Wilson.
Greenfield School was the private school in Wilson, and it was typical of the schools built during integration, soccer, no football.
I got a call from George Bell, Greenfield’s headmaster. He wanted to know if I should hire an applicant named Barriteau, who’d listed my name as a reference.
“Why not?” I asked.
George hemmed and hawed until my silence forced him to say it.
“Well, he’s black, you know and our parents……..”
He was still stammering when I advised him “George, hire Tony.”
I’d forgotten it until a call from an excited Tony Barriteau. “Coach, I, I, I thinkI did it right. I remembered all you said, I, I, I…”
“Tony, what happened.”
As he explained that on his first day at Greenfield he was eating lunch with
the faculty and staff. All of a sudden George Bell, choking on his lunch, turned blue and grabbed his throat. Tony had administered the “Heimlich Maneuver” perfectly, popping George’s lunch on the cafeteria floor.”
“Tony”, I said, “go get Mr. Bell on the phone.” A few minutes later George Bell said “Hello”.
I couldn’t resist: “George, how do you feel about hiring Tony Barriteau?”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a white cat or a black cat, as long as it can catch mice,” Colin Powell at Elon University – 2005.
YOU CAN CALL ME RAY, RAY
Serious Stuff: Politics, Religion, Race, Poverty, Education, and War.
A friend of mine suggested that I was politically a “liberal”. Truly I have not thought of myself as political. In my college days, a fine professor, Dan McFarland, said there were really four political parties in America: Liberal Democrats, Conservative Democrats, Liberal Republicans, and Conservative Republicans. My guess is like most Americans, I am a “blend”. If liberal means free, or open, or excepting of individual differences, or generous, then that seems acceptable to me. I do not think one can be “… so open-minded that your brain falls out”. Therefore, caution, respect for tradition, and many conservative approaches are often ideas that appeal to me also. Haste and waste are not conservative in my thinking. .
So, probably I am a” Conservative Democrat”. Okay with me!
It appears to me that politics and religion are a lot alike in that they often “splinter” into different
groups. The current tea party Republicans are certainly different from blueblood Republicans. And it seems each threatens the other more than the opposition. My guess is the tea party will do more damage to Gov. Chris Christie than the Democrats.
I know the North Carolina people and politicians I was proud of were considered either liberal or Progressive (Bill Friday, Terry Sanford, Jim Hunt, and then like). But I also revered Sam Ervin. Jesse Helms was one I felt represented the mean-spirited segment of our state’s people who were frightening and all too real. And often race was the issue.
I know that the” other side” feels just as strongly that I am wrong. Perhaps only the Civil War represented a more divisive time in America.
It appears that the 2000–2008 (Bush 2 administrative years) caused us to “choose sides”. And it seems that feelings were so deep that once committed to their view, very few were willing to listen, much less alter their stance. Winning the argument seems more important than learning the truth of the matter.
•“…you are right from your side and I’m right from mine”. ONE TOO MANY MORNINGS — Dylan.
WARTIME PRESIDENT
“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.“
– Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States, and former General of the Army.
“Who more than self, their country loved” ???
PRICING COWS, CARS, AND HUMANS
Someone just mailed me a rough e-mail post that seemed over the top by any standard. To classify Al Gore and everyone who believes in climate change as a “bunch of turds” seems wrong to even type.
I read AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH when it came out in 2006. Saw the film. The one stunning fact that most impressed me was the graph that showed the abrupt spike in the earth’s warming years 1980–2006. The spike was almost straight up, while the combined years before cars were almost dead even. Today the Raleigh News and Observer stated this year was the warmest ever in North Carolina.
Someone has suggested cow farts as the cause of the earth’s warming. I was reminded in last night’s poker game that that the earth itself has been here billions of years. Humans a lot less.
If cow farts are the villains, and many fear mankind’s extinction without change,–does that mean farmer Jones has got to gun down Daisy?
Gore’s book and realization are worth revisiting. The whole book lays it out. I cite one paragraph:
“The truth about global warming is especially inconvenient and unwelcome to some powerful people and companies making enormous sums of money from activities they know full well will have to change dramatically in order to ensure the planet’s viability.”
Viability? (“the ability to live or survive successfully”). Would you give up hamburger, milk, dairy products if cow farts will kill us all?
Here it is: And it ain’t cow farts. Candidate Gore couldn’t come right out in 2006. Now we know. It is gas. Petroleum, Petrol. The oil industry.
Why would anyone argue against the evidence? To save their industry? I don’t know. Other than money.
In the south cars are sacred. Give up my mustang? “Out of my cold dead hands” again. Without change it’ll be dead hands for everybody.
What would be the price of changing all gas driven machines to another harmless source. Think back, would you give up those two old cars you traded in 15 years ago to save your family, mankind, that grandchild?
Think Americans can’t build you an electric car or such as good as Old Betsy? They are here now. Price to change what we drive? Turn in Betsy? What in the world will that cost?
It doesn’t matter.
NEW PARTY
Eastern North Carolina has spawned a new party, The SHIT-HEELS. These are a group that believe we are going to transform hog shit to gasoline, yet deny climate change.
COACHING THE ECONOMY
From my friend, Alan: The head football coach was about to send a rookie college football coach on his first recruiting trip. The prior season had yielded no wins, eight losses, and two ties.
Old coach’s instructions. 1. If they ask you what our team record was last year, pretend you didn’t understand them. 2. They will likely respond, “…what was your record last season?” 3. You can then say “Oh! EIGHT AND TWO”.
(It is not whether you win or lose, but how you place the blame. Or CLAIM THE FAME!)
(“It’s the economy, Stupid”!)
Here is a quote of my own. Almost always the coach being fired is a better person than those firing him/her.
I hated to fire a coach. Like shooting your dog.
Historically team wins dictate employment. 2-8, 1-9, 2-8, adios. Most recoveries look hopefully like this—first year (3/5) , second year -5/5, third–7/3 and almost everybody is happy. Can’t please em all no matter what.
There are a lot of different things going on now. Historically judgement on football coaches was about four years. A lot like politics. “Give him four years to build his program” to “he better win next year or he’s gone.” Like politics? Similarly “…if he gets it done in four years, we’ll give him four more!”
The previous Presidents, Clinton, W, Obama had eight years.
There is currently a lot of chest thumping over the economy. And, in fact, the current crowd began to brag about this being totally to their credit very early on. A little quick for football.
CLINTON from 1992-2000 ended with a surplus budget. (“It happened during my administration!”–POGO, AND BILL.) Economy record? 9/1.
2000-2008: The “W” (give cheney and rusmfeld plenty of credit). Iraq and hedge funds. The term “trillions” at the end of this eight. Economy record, 0-10.
Obama (2008 – 2016) . The good news on the street is that we have been in the longest bull stock bull market ever. About 8/9 years. Hmm, that puts its beginning about 2008.
JET JOB (definition). In the sports world when a team improves rapidly, skeptics arise. Why? Because to do it right takes time. When a team goes from 2/8 to 8/2 in the first year of a coach’s tenure, eyes roll. Pundits ponder.
It can happen quickly. One team we had pulled 2/8 to 8/2. I’ve got to say that coach was a really good one and we brought in two all time players at QB and wide receiver. After another 2/8 was about to be terminated, one staffer seemed concerned: “I’m not sure. This guy has recruited a great group for next year, plus he had the courage to properly red shirt some that will really help.” Still he was replaced and the new coach went 8/2.
“You can’t make chicken salad until you have the chicken.” (Buddy Bedgood).
MAYBE JUDGEMENT (CREDIT) ON THIS POLITICAL GROUP SHOULD WAIT UNTIL 2024. OR 2020?
THE BORDER CONUNDRUM
PBS featured a show on the Blue Ridge Parkway last night. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) film showed a remarkable performance of men who needed a job. And I was unaware of the nifty bargain between a North Carolina politician and FDR that wound with Tar Heels gaining both the lions share of the tourism yielded, and social security.
We have a current similar situation. Illegal Immigration. And a wall that won’t happen is all that we have as a solution. And a common knowledge that something has to be done that honors the law of the land.
The CCC was all about labor. Is there labor now capable of solving the border problem?
Sources? How about the military, both active and retired. Are there not those who could provide the skills needed such as helicopter pilots, officers who need arms and policing skills, those who have injuries yet can and want to help. Are we not already paying many of these heroes. How about a certain kind of prisoner, a trustee-like person who would serve rather than sit. How about a program for illegals themselves. We may be able have them serve a time period of volunteer aid that creates a legal pathway for them.
Is there data that could make this prediction: Surely significantly trained personnel would be more mobil than a wall. Technology and personnel could surely cut the number crossing illegally. What would a cost analogy of using the above sources (and others) predict, compared to the cost of construction and management of the wall and what it would accomplish.
“…all a fourteen foot wall does is create a market for an eighteen foot ladder.”
PS—Various forms of the legalization of marijuana are growing. Will this be worse that the ungodly number of young people who are in jail for minor pot offenses. Or those who have been branded evil for a little weed? And even more to the above issue, wouldn’t this shift the tons of money from the drug cartels who force their citizens to risk flight, to taxation accrued in our own country?
We are going to have drugs. What could be worse than what we have?
Anyone? Bueller?
FOX NEWS VS CNN ALL STARS -PAY FOR VIEW
The CNN ALL STARS VS “FAIR AND BALANCED” FOX
Anyone else fed up with panels of all the same ilk trashing the absent opponents?
How about the admonishments of “…don’t anyone say anything about politics!”
NO CONVERSATION OR DISCUSSION, EQUALS NO COMPROMISE, EQUALS STAGNATION, EQUALS “DO NOTHING” POLITICIANS DO NOTHING.
Our 17 year “longest war”seems to have no ending? It had a beginning! It got vitriolic
when ‘W”and his gang burned up a budget surplus by writing their war “off the books”.
Speaking of admonishments, how about “…don’t go in there (the mid-east.) You will own it!” —PoppaBush and Scocroft.
Six trillion in deficit spending jump started the hemorrhaging of cash that is now 22 trillion of national debt. (no blood mentioned).
Soon the lines were drawn.
Being from the sports world, we settled it head on. Coaching tennis for forty years, the format we used was 6-3. Six singles matches, three doubles matches. Match wins count one point. Lineups in order of ability.
Example: One head to head would look something like this:
Singles:
FOX TEAM VS CNN
#1 male player from Fox vs #1male player from CNN
#1 woman player from Fox vs #1woman player from CNN
#2 Male Fox VS # 2 male player from CNN
#2 WOMAN VS #2 WOMAN
#3 Males
#3 Women
These are your six singles matches or points. now
DOUBLES–
#1 twosome men from fox vs #1 twosome men from CNN.
#1 or best women’s doubles from fox, vs same from CNN
Note the next match often determines the winner in tight matches.
This match then will be a mixed doubles match (one man plays with one woman).
This could get messy. Mixed doubles is a lot like warfare. So be it.
George Carlin on changing the rules of football: LEAVE THE WOUNDED ON THE FIELD.
The Little Green Book of Tennis 