COMMUNITY QUARTERBACKS!
By Lavada Starr
Harold Bell loves to say, “My
heroes were black women. They could not run the 100
meters in 9.0, throw a football 75 yards in the air, hit
a jump shot at the buzzer or hit a homerun 400 feet, but
they were Super Stars in the Game Called Life.”
The heroes; were his grandmother and mother
affectionately known as Grandma Bell and Mommy B, his
presence hero, his wife, Hattie.
December of 2010 will mark forty-two years of marriage
and forty-two years of playing Santa’s Helpers for needy
children, a trend now copied by every community
activist, radio, television and print media outlet in
America. It all started in Washington, DC with the
Christmas Bells, Hattie and Harold.
In the mid sixties Harold worked as a “Neighborhood
Worker” for community oriented United Planning
Organization. His co-workers and partners were the
infamous H. Rap Brown and legendary radio personality
Pete Greene.
In 1967 Petey came up with an idea of giving away
Thanksgiving baskets. He wanted to give them away to
senior citizens. Harold says, “Petey had a white friend
and businessman at the Florida Avenue market in NE
Washington, D. C. He wanted to give away fifty turkeys
for the needy. Giving away Thanksgiving baskets during
the holidays would later become another National Media
tradition. The tradition got its start in the Nation’s
Capitol with Petey and Harold.
On the weekends Harold was a wide receiver for the
Washington Redskins’ minor league football team, the
Virginia Sailors. His teammate, Jim Gray a graduate of
Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina said, “He
could catch a football and raise hell if you didn’t
throw it his way. Harold stayed in hot water with Head
Coach Billy Cox. His talk back attitude got him benched
time and time again but when we needed the clutch catch,
Coach Cox would holler, ‘Harold Bell get the hell in
there.’ They won several Minor League Championships.
In 1967 the DC Recreation Department hired Harold away
from the United Planning Organization for its elite
Roving Leader Program. The Roving Leaders worked the
playgrounds, streets and in schools in the inner city.
Where there were “At-Risk Children” Harold was there.
One of Harold’s assignments was the Cardozo/Shaw
Community where he met Hattie who was teaching at
Cardozo High School.
That same year gun violence at Harold’s alma mater
Spingarn High School got his undivided attention. He
was assigned to the school by the Roving Leader Program
to try to figure out a way to quell any further
violence. His friend and NBA Hall of Fame player and
Spingarn alumnus Dave Bing was a rookie playing in the
1967 NBA All-Star Game in Baltimore. He went to
Baltimore and asked Dave to travel to D. C. after the
game to speak to the Spingarn student body. The day
after the game Dave walked into the Spingarn auditorium
to a standing ovation. His words of wisdom brought the
unrest and violence to a halt. Dave Bing a native
Washingtonian is now the Mayor of his adopted
hometown--Detroit, Michigan.
The summer of 1968 will forever be etched in Harold’s
mind. He remembers exactly where he was when all hell
broke loose after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King. He was standing on the corner of 9th &
U Streets North West with his co-worker NFL Green Bay
Packer Hall of Fame player, Willie Wood. During the
off-season Willie returned home and work as a Roving
Leader. He remembers as soon as the news broke on the
streets about the assassination, Willie said, “I think
we got trouble.” His prognostication would be an
understatement.
During the riots Harold teamed up with his mentor and
friend the late DC Superior Court judge (then U.S.
Marshall) Luke C. Moore. They walked shoulder to
shoulder in Cardozo/Shaw the hardest hit area of the
city. Harold says “I still find it hard to believe
there was only one lost of life during the riots. In
hindsight, he credits the late Mayor Walter Washington
for standing up to FBI Director J. Egar Hoover. Mr.
Hoover wanted to call in the Army Airborne with orders
to shoot on sight. Mayor Washington said, “Not in my
town.”
1968 was a good year for Hattie and Harold, after the
riots they were married and became a “Youth Advocate
Team.” They founded Kids In Trouble and their first
project; “The Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday
Program. The facility was located in the heart of the
riot area. Hillcrest was under the umbrella of
Children’s Hospital and served as a residential
treatment center for emotionally disturbed children
during the week. The facility was equipped with an
indoor swimming pool, and indoor and outdoor basketball
courts. On the weekends the facility was closed down
until Monday morning. There was unrest among
neighborhood children who had no access. They resented
the facility being in their neighborhood and not having
it open to them.
The Hillcrest Children’s Center Director, Dr. Nicholas
Long asked for meeting with Harold who had become a
community legend. Dr. Long suggested that he take over
the facility on weekends and open it to neighborhood
children. Harold for one didn’t think it was a good
idea because he was usually traveling on weekends
playing football. Hattie, the voice of reason and
compromise thought they should think it over before
saying “No.”
In August of 1968 the Hillcrest Children’s Center
Saturday Program opened its doors to neighborhood
children and the rest is Community History.
The first Kids In Trouble toy party was held at
Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program. The site
was chosen because the Shaw/Cardozo community suffered
the most damage during the riots. The only organization
doing anything similar in the community were the United
States Marines. They were giving back toys to the
community they collected from the community! Toy drives
for Needy Children are now a National media tradition.
In an effort to get tutors and mentors for the Saturday
program they reached out to Howard University and D. C.
Teachers College (University of the District of
Columbia) but got no response. They then contacted a
Seven Day Adventist Church in Tacoma Park, Maryland.
White high school students were later bussed into the
inner-city every Saturday to tutor the children. In
2010 high school and college students are now given
class credits for volunteering in the community. It all
started in Washington, D. C.
In 1969 Harold and Hattie found and coordinated the
First City-wide DC Public Elementary Schools
athletic program while working out of Harrison
Elementary located one block away from the Hillcrest
Children’s Center Saturday Program.
In the summer of 1969 something unusual happened right
in front of Harold Bell’s eyes. President Richard Nixon
was touring the riot scarred area of Shaw/Cardozo.
Nixon during his Vice-Presidential days in the fifties
was a “Golf Duffer.” He played on the weekends at the
all-men exclusive Burning Tree Golf Course in Bethesda,
Maryland, a suburb outside of Washington, DC. Harold
was Nixon’s caddy. During those days he was a three
sport athlete at DC’s Spingarn High School, also the
school of choice of NBA of Hall Fame basketball players
Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing. The common denominators
were their coaches, Dave Brown and Rev. William
Roundtree.
President Nixon’s tour caught Harold and the community
by surprise. Nixon’s exposure to black folks and the
inner city were thought to be non-existent. Harold’s
cousin Charlita Billingsley encouraged him to write a
letter to the President reminding him of their weekend
golfing days at Burning Tree Golf Course. He did and
one week later Harold and Hattie received a letter from
the White House inviting them to lunch.
He later accepted a Presidential appointment making him
the first Black to head a Domestic Actions Program for
the Department of Defense. In 1970 he founded the first
Half-Way House in the Nation for juvenile delinquents on
a military installation at Bolling Air Force Base in
South East D. C.
In 1970 the Bells teamed up with Washington Redskin
players, Pittsburg native Larry Brown, Roy Jefferson,
Harold McLinton and Ted Vactor. They invited
the players to join them at the Hillcrest Children’s
Center Program on Saturdays and to work with them at
“Bolling Boys Base.”
The rest is NFL history. Larry, Roy, Harold and Ted
became the “First” NFL players in the league to come
into the community as a “Team” and work to improve the
lives of inner city children. Dave Bing, Willie Wood
and Larry Brown cared long before the NBA and
NFL.
In 1972 Larry Brown led the Redskins to the Super
Bowl and on the way he led the NFL in rushing. He was
named the league’s “Most Valuable Player.” The
legendary comedian Bob Hope on National television
presented Larry with a check for $5,000. The check was
for winning the NFL MVP. Larry donated the check to the
Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program.
The “First” NFL Community service television promo was
taped at Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program.
CBS taped Larry Brown and Harold McLinton
teaching water safety to inner city children.
Lonnie Taylor was a Saturday Program
benefactor went on to become the Chief of Staff for
Congressman Jack Buechner (R-Mo.). This appointment
made him the first black Chief of Staff for a white
politician on Capitol Hill.
Lonnie wrote a letter to Harold after encountering him
at a luncheon on the Hill saying, “Dear Mr. Bell: It
was great seeing you at Secretary’s Jack Kemp’s address
sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. As I stated
then, as a former resident of the 14th and W
Streets area, I owe you many thanks for the things that
you did on behalf of the city’s youth. Believe me;
Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program often
brings back fond memories. You should take pride in the
fact that your example of selflessness continues in so
many of us. Thanks for all you have done and all you
do. Sincerely, Lonnie Taylor.”
Congressman Louis Stokes (D-Ohio)
said, “Harold Bell is exceptional among the youth of his
own generation in his dedication and commitment to the
youth of the present generation. He never forgot who he
is and where he came from.” Complete story was entered
into the Congressional Record 1978.
In 1972 he was invited to co-host a sports talk show on
Saturday afternoons with Pittsburgh native and WOL
Radio DJ legend Bobby Bennett. In 1973 with
Bennett’s blessings Harold went out on his own. His
critically acclaimed sports talk show “Inside Sports”
was heard on W-O-O-K Radio changed the way America
listens, talks and report sports today. He went beyond
giving scores and injury up dates. He played message
music, wrote commentaries and held monthly media
roundtables with local and national sports media
personalities.
Harold gives credit to his wife for coming up with the
unique title of “Inside Sports.” He says “She thought
of the title one night sitting at our dinner table. I
was sitting there writing the format up for my first
show and in a half jokingly manner I asked her what
should I call my new show? She said, “Inside Sports
without looking up from her plate.” I said how did you
come up with that title? Her response was ‘the athletes
are always telling you what is going on behind the
scenes you have information others don’t, Inside Sports
sounds about right to me!’
In 1978 a writer by the name of John Walsh who wrote for
the Style section of the Washington Post hijacked his
title and went to New York City and created the magazine
“Inside Sports.” Now it is “Inside” the NFL, NBA, NHL,
WWF, NASCAR, Tennis, Major League Baseball, Inside
Washington, etc. it all started with Hattie Bell at a
dinner table in DC in 1973. He says, ‘I should have
Trade marked the title as my lawyer had advised.’ John
Walsh parlayed the hijacking into a stellar career with
ESPN television and ESPN Magazine.
Harold’s thirty-five + year career has spanned the DC
radio market his shows were heard also on AM stations
WOL, W-O-O-K, WYCB, WUST, WINX, WPGC and WPFW
89.6 on the FM dial and now the World Wide Internet
(Google Harold Bell Inside Sports.com).
When former Washington Post and Sports Illustrated media
critic William Taaffe heard “Inside Sports” in
1976 he wrote, “Lets say it right at the top: Inside
Sports is a jewel of a program---easily the most
reflective and provocative radio sports show in
Washington. Its guests actually say something. The
other shows are bland in comparison.”
Washington Times sports columnist Dick Heller
says, “Harold Bell is the Godfather of sports talk---the
good kind.”
In 1975 Harold broke sacred ground again when he became
the first black to host and produce his own television
sports special on NBC WRC-TV 4. The show aired in
“Prime Time” 3:30 pm preceding the Washington Redskins
vs. Oakland Raiders NFL game. ‘The Greatest’ Muhammad
Ali was his special guest for the show. Ali said,
‘Harold Bell and I have a lot in common. He to has
persevered and stood fast for the principles in which he
believes.’
He coined the phrase “Every black face you see is not
your brother and every white face you see is not your
enemy.” He credits the support of the all white
students from the Seven Day Adventist Church, and men
like; Red Auerbach, Angelo Dundee, Richard Nixon,
Strom Thurmond, Jimmy Connors, and Bert Sugar
for inspiring that phrase.
The professional athletes, and sports personalities who
have benefited from Harold Bell’s works and words of
wisdom or him standing up for them when they could not
stand up for themselves reads like a Who’s Who.
They include; Jim Brown (NFL), John Thompson
(Georgetown University), Willie Wood (NFL), Earl Lloyd
(NBA), Don King (Boxing), Sugar Ray Leonard (Boxing),
Dave Jacobs (Boxing), Michael Wilbon (ESPN), Adrian
Dantley (NBA), Adrian Branch (NBA/ESPN), Cathy Hughes
(Radio & TV One) and the list goes on.
CBS Sports NFL studio host James Brown once
participated as a guest on Inside Sports and modeled in
Harold Bell’s Celebrity Benefit Fashion Shows. He said
“Harold Bell has always been a voice for people who
don’t have a voice. He has always called them as he saw
it and that was an inspiration and motivation for me and
a lot of other Afro-American broadcasters.”
Harold says, “The sacrifices made by Wendell Smith
and Sherman Hill (confidant of Jackie Robinson)
of the Pittsburg Courier and Sam Lacey of the
Afro-American newspapers has been lost on today’s
writers and sportscasters. Smith, Hill and Lacey
through out their distinguishing careers were denied
their rightful places at Sports Media tables and Press
rooms.”
The slave master mentality is still evident in the black
community when you look at the recent trials and
tribulations
Tiger Woods
and
Gilbert Arenas.
Their acts are the type that keeps our minds in chains.
Despite those who have forgotten, Harold and Hattie
continue their work in the schools and streets with
inner-city children. He says, “We love young people,
and we will not follow the path made by others, but we
will go where there is no path and we will be a light.
One of the easiest things to do is help people when you
have money, try helping someone when you are broke.
That is the real test.”
Muhammad Ali’s business manager
Gene Kilroy recently said, “Harold if you were white
you would be a millionaire.”
Harold says, “There is no shame in being black in
America and there surely is no shame in being poor
anybody can sell out!”
In 1999 Eastern North Carolina had its most devastating
flood in history. The Bells gathered their friends and
Celebrity Sports personalities at historical Union
Station in DC and coordinated a toy and clothing drive
for residents of the hardest hit areas.
He hopes and prays that the tragic earthquake in Haiti
brings us all together as people of the World. We must
remember these are the same Haitian boat people America
turned back from our shores. Harold says former
Presidents George Bush, Jr.
and
Bill Clinton
got it right this time when they agreed, “It is time to
put politics aside and help people.”
Washington Post columnist
Colby King and television political commentator says, “Harold you are
a blessing to us all.” The best way to describe the
contributions made by Harold and Hattie Bell is through
an editorial once written in the now defunct Washington
Star newspaper, it read “No one is indispensable, but
there are some people more necessary than others.
Harold and Hattie Bell are two of those people.”
Photos (From left to right) Photo #1: The Bells and
Santa’s Helper Superbowl MVP Doug Williams, Photo #2:
Muhammad Ali and 3rd wife Veronica with
Harold, Photo #3: The Bells at the Nixon White House.
Lavada Starr is a celebrity
publicist based in Kansas City, Missouri. She also
represents professional athletes. She can be reached
via e-mail at
sportsinadress@yahoo.com.
Read
Washington Post columnist Colbert King's article on
Gilbert Arenas at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/08/AR2010010803378.html
MEDIA COVER-UP: GILBERT THROWS HIMSELF UNDER THE
NBA BUS!
NBA Commissioner David Stern suspended the
Washington Wizards’ star player Gilbert Arenas
indefinitely. In a statement released immediately
after the Wizards defeated the 76ers, he said
“Gilbert Arenas is not fit to play in the NBA.”
The suspension came after Gilbert admitted to
bringing four guns into D. C. from his home in
Virginia. He stored them in his locker in the
Verizon Center.
I am sure the Commissioner was convinced to make a
statement and decision after seeing a picture of
Arenas pretending he was firing guns at his
teammates as they broke the huddle in his last game
in Philly.
Gilbert first claimed the guns were brought into the
city to protect and keep them out of the reach of
his children. The story didn’t hold water and he
then said he brought the guns into play a joke on a
teammate. NBA Commissioner Stern evidently didn’t
find anything funny about his behavior.
The teammate Javaris Crittenton is rumored to
have threatened to shoot Gilbert in his surgically
repaired knee for an unpaid gambling debt. Gilbert
later took the guns out of his locker and laid them
out in front of Javaris’ locker with a note that
read “pick one.”
It could get worst if the Wizards and the
Commissioner decide that Gilbert Arenas is in
violation of the NBA’s Collective
Bargaining Agreement. The agreement has a
clause that prohibits players from bringing guns
into the workplace and if that is the case his
contract worth over 100 million dollars could be
worthless.
In 1997 the NBA Washington Bullets moved from
Landover, Maryland (Capitol Centre) to downtown
Washington, D. C. One of the first things owner
Abe Pollin did was run a contest among fans for
a new name. He thought the name Bullets had a
negative connotation. He detested guns and
violence.
The Nation’s Capitol was ranked near the top for a
city of its size in the country for gun violence.
D. C. was considered one of the most dangerous
places to live and visit during that era. The new
name, Washington Wizards was born.
Gun violence in the Nation’s Capitol in December
2009 was at its lowest in 45 years, according to the
city’s latest stats on violent crime. One death by
gun is one too many.
December 2009 was a tough month for the Wizard’s
organization. First, the November 24th
death of owner Abe Pollin still hung heavy over the
organization. New Coach Flip Saunders and
his staff were trying to find a way to finish off
opponents in the 4th quarter. The
Wizards would play great basketball for three
quarters against the NBA’s best, but would self
destruct in the closing minutes.
The more I watched the Wizards and examined their
personnel I was convinced that they were definitely
play-off contenders. The “Big Four,”
Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamieson, Brendan Haywood
and Caron Butler were a solid foundation that
the organization could build on. The additions of
10 year veteran Mike Miller, Randy Foye and
the late acquisition of up-tempo guard Earl
Boykins made for a strong bench and the
play-offs a reality.
From visual appearances it looked like Gilbert
Arenas, the face of the franchise was making a
successful adjustment after missing the better part
of two years because of injuries. He seemed to
accept the role Coach Saunders had mapped out for
him. When on the bench he became a cheerleader for
his teammates.
The gun issue turned out to be much bigger and more
serious then many thought. Gilbert’s nonchalant
attitude didn’t help and now Javaris’ role has taken
on a life of its own.
There were witnesses during the locker room showdown
between Gilbert and Javaris. According to the
witnesses Javaris pulled his own weapon and added a
clip of ammunition and cocked the gun.
The media’s role I find very puzzling are the
“Beat Reporters” from the daily news
outlets who travel with the team on the road and are
in attendance at every home game, but still some how
missed the gun story. The story broke in the New
York City media!
Michael Lee,
Wizards’ Beat Reporter from the Washington Post
calls himself a “Wizard Insider.” In a
recent column he had to quote a story from Yahoo
Sports.com as it related to Arenas and guns in
the Wizards’ locker room. Mr. Lee needs to shed his
pom-poms and short skirt or join the Wizards
cheerleaders. He gives “Inside” a bad name.
The members of the Comcast television sports crew do
not have a clue and they are the blind leading the
blind.
Columnist Tom Knott covers the Wizards and
writes for the now cancelled sports section of the
Washington Times but he missed the story
completely. He had plenty of company with know it
all columnists like Michael Wilbon (ESPN) and
Dave Aldridge (TNT) who are paid to know it
all but missed the story that was right there under
their noses. It all sounds like a typical “Media
Cover-Up.”
Former Washington Post writer Aldridge was heard on
the Tony Kornheiser (overrated) sports talk radio
show saying, “The Washington Post had the story
but told their writers to sit on it.”
This was a typical response and cover-up mentality
of the Washington Post Sports Department. This knee
jerk response and cover-up dates back to Sports
Editor George Solomon.
I was there when he tried to cover-up the Sugar
Ray Leonard infidelity and drug abuse story of
the legendary fighter. I was there when he tried to
cover-up Georgetown Coach John Thompson’s
under the table financial deals with sports agent
David Falk and slot machine deals in Las Vegas.
I was there when he tried to cover-up Falk’s dipping
into the bank account of NBA Hall of Fame player
Adrian Dantley to the tune of several million
dollars. The more things change the more they
remain the same.
I will bet you a dime to a donut that Wizards’
television play by play man Steve Buchantz
and color analyst Phil Chenier were aware of
the chaos taking place in the locker room. I would
excuse them because they are family, and loyalty is
expected. I would have a problem if Phil did not
make an effort to take Arenas aside to discuss the
matter. His status as a former player and color
analyst were all the credentials he needed to
qualify him for a word with the Franchise Player.
He had an investment.
The late owner Abe Pollin must be looking
down in disbelief because he drew the line when it
came to this kind of behavior from his employees. I
clearly remember when he owned the Washington
Capitols’ hockey team and several of the players
that included the team’s leading scorer were sent
packing after a wild raunchy night of partying in
Georgetown.
Remember Bullet star players Chris Webber and
Juwan Howard and the wild party they hosted
in the millionaire estate community of Potomac,
Maryland? When the newspaper accounts of the party
had cleared the dust Mr. Pollin had shipped Webber
and Howard out to teams, I have now forgotten.
The Washington Post had all of its available
writers, bloggers and columnist on alert on
Wednesday January 6, 2010. On page one Mike
Wise’s column was titled “Dear Gilbert,
You’ve really blown it now.” On page 2 there is
a guy by the name of Dan Steinberg with a
column titled ‘The Sideline.’ He compares
the statement issued by the law firm hired to
represent Arenas to his tweets on Twitter. On his
twitter page Gilbert puts his foot squarely in his
mouth and makes the case for law-enforcement.
On page 8 Michael Wilbon teams up with
Rev. Al Sharpton who called on NBA Commissioner
David Stern and black leaders to come down hard on
Arenas. Rev. Al’s says, “The NBA needs to stand
up and send a strong message by dealing with this
situation.” He claims there is a culture of
violence being perpetuated in professional sports.
A culture of violence is being perpetuated in
professional sports? What about violence being
perpetuated in our streets and schools?
Rev. Sharpton has his priorities a little twisted
when it comes to violence in America. If violence
is cut-off in our communities the violence will be
automatically cut-off in professional sports. David
Stern does not need advice from Rev. Al on how to
handle violence in his small world of the NBA. He
is in more control of NBA violence then Rev. Al and
black leaders are of violence in our community.
This was nothing more then another “Media Sound
Bite” for Rev. Al and his next political
platform or radio show.
The hypocritical part of this cover-up is Michael
Wilbon and his partner Tony Kornheiser
later that same day on the ESPN PTI comedy
hour. There was Michael asking “Where was
Wizard’s GM Ernie Grunfeld and why didn’t he suspend
Arenas earlier?” I returned to his column and
found there was no mention of Grunfeld’s role!
Ernie Grunfeld
did exactly what was he was suppose to do to protect
the Wizard’s family and his position. He kept it
quiet and hoped things would blow over.
The media is the checks and balances for the
fans and reading and listening public. They depend
on us to keep them up-dated. There is no-way I
could be a “Beat Reporter” and not know that
there was something wrong going down in the Wizard’s
locker room.
John Jenkins
is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Glen
Arden a suburb in Maryland. He is one of the
most respected ministers in the country. Pastor
Jenkins has been the Chaplain for the Washington
Wizards for the past three seasons. He says,
“Professional athletes are under extreme scrutiny
and pressure from their adoring fans and the media.
There are times when they don’t know who to trust.
I have found most to be really engaging and down to
earth and others are hard to get to know. Like most
successful people in society, some handle success
and others let success handle them. My advice, lets
not judge Gilbert Arenas, but let’s pray for him and
his family.” That sounds about right to me.
Photo credit: Jesse D.
Garrabrant/Getty Images
THE BLIND SIDE: THE AMERICA BEAUTIFUL!
By Harold Bell
The Michael Oher story “The Blind Side” is
considered one of the most inspiring motion pictures of
the year. The movie is based on the life story of a
young black high school athlete who is one of twelve
children from a single parent home. He had been in and
out of nine different schools and it looked like he was
going to hell in a hurry. Michael was 6’2 and 350
pounds looking for somewhere to explode.
Tony Henderson
is the story’s unsung hero. He was Michael’s Youth Club
Coach and mentor. He put Michael in place
for success. It was Henderson who noticed that the big
guy was heading for trouble in the mean streets of North
Tennessee.
Michael lived in a housing complex called “Hurt
Village.” Coach Henderson, on a visit to Briancrest
Christian, a private high school to enroll his son,
carried Michael along with them. The school’s coaches
watched as Michael played basketball on the outdoor
court and realized that the 6’2, 350-pounder, with the
nimble feet could be a great athlete with unlimited
potential.
Leigh Anne
and Sean Tuohy are the well to-do white family
who adopted the poor black kid Michael Oher from “The
wrong side of the tracks.”
The Tuohy’s two children attended the school. The
daughter Collin was a cheerleader and she and Michael
became great friends. The movie has so far grossed more
then 150 million dollars with the sky still the limit.
There is also controversy surrounding “The Blind
Side” and the movie “Precious.”
“Precious” is the Oprah Winfrey/Tyler Perry
produced movie based on a black obese young girl who is
abused by her mother and father. She is pregnant with
her father’s second child.
Some blacks are angry because the Tuohy family is white
and are being spotlighted for the role they played in
the rags to riches success of Michael Oher.
Michael was a first round draft pick of the NFL
Baltimore Ravens and is now their starting “Blind
Side” tackle. He received an 8 million dollar
signing bonus.
Blacks are also angry because the movie “Precious”
portrays and spotlights the all too familiar negative
side of the black community.
To some extent I agree. Much too often the negative
side of Black America outshines our positive side in
today’s media.
The recent ESPN 30 on 30 documentary of the
untimely drug overdose death of Maryland University
basketball star Len Bias is a good example. The
documentary was mostly a fabrication surrounding his
life and death. The story was given credibility because
there were interviews with sports media personalities
who never really knew the young man or the mean streets
of D. C. that he played in after dark.
Let us not forget the Rayful Edmonds video
documentary promoted on the front pages of the
Washington Post. Rayful was a notorious drug dealer
whose drug empire resulted in the deaths of too many
young people to count. The silence in media and the
black community as it related to those atrocities was
deafening.
“The Blind Side”
and the ABC TV 20/20 story can claim three
success stories and lives possibly saved. First, there
is Michael Oher, and actor Quinton Aaron
who player Michael in the movie. Last but not least is
17-year old O. C. Brown another North Memphis high
school athlete whose story strongly resembles
Michael’s.
I remember several years ago there was a run on white
folks adopting black children. The outcry that came
from the black community----you would have thought they
were kidnapping the children. Black organizations and
individuals were getting court orders to stop the
adoptions. They didn’t want to adopt the children but
didn’t want them adopted by whites.
We continue to get angry and look for love in all the
wrong places. “The Blind Side” is definitely a
love story in every sense of the word. It should not
make any difference if it is White Love or
Black Love the bottom line is L-O-V-E! We
are in short supply when it comes to love in the black
community we should embrace it when and where we can
find it.
There is something wrong going on in our black
community, we don’t want to reach back and pull along
our own and get angry when others do! When we finally
“Make it” we act like we got there by ourselves.
We always want to hear the truth when it is bad about
someone else but we never want to hear the truth when it
is bad about ourselves.
Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy
and their two children welcomed Michael Oher into
their home. Director John Lee Hancock picked
Quinton for the “Blind Side” lead role and
Memphis family Mike and Billie Ray and their two
children adopted O. C. Brown.
Quinton had been waiting for over a year to hear from
movie Director Hancock about his audition for the part.
His mother who pointed the “Blind Side” audition
out to him on the Internet, died while they waited. He
was out of work and just two days from being evicted
from his apartment in the Bronx in New York City when he
got the call that the role was his.
The people responsible for the success of all three of
these black young men associated with the 20/20
story and the movie are all white. My question:
“Where is the beef?” They should be given a
standing ovation!
When is it okay to watch little children die in our
streets? When is it okay to have our children hungry
and homeless? The Tuohys and Rays put their money where
their mouths were and have saved a child’s life.
The Tuohys could have cared less whether Michael became
a professional football player. They were preparing him
for the most important game being played in the black
community “The Game Called Life.”
When Leigh Anne was asked by the 20/20
commentator why she would take on an awesome task like
Michael, her response was “It had nothing to do with
how big he was or the color of his skin, he was a child
that had a need and that need needed to be filled.”
I know it is difficult for most of us to understand
young men like Michael Oher, Quinton Aaron
and O. C. Brown. You would have had to walk in
their shoes to understand their plights.
I saw one newspaper headline that read “The Blind
Side: Where Would Black People be Without Big Hearted
White People?”
Actress Sandra Bullock plays the role of Leigh
Anne Tuohy, when asked about what she thought of people
saying that the movie points out stereotypes she said,
“Anyone who says something like that obviously has
not walked on the other side. If your money has
religious, culture and color boundaries, you are not
using your money in the right way.”
She is absolutely right there are many color, culture
and money barriers in the black community. There are
black folks who don’t like other blacks and therefore
don’t like themselves. Let me say this again, “White
folks don’t have a copyright on racism in America.”
Country singer Tim McGraw who plays the role of
Sean Tuohy says “This is a great feel good
story and right now in America we need all the feel good
stories that we can get.”
Back in the day I was going to hell in a hurry. My
Brown Middle School Principal William B Stinson
predicted to my mother, I would not live to get out of
high school. Thanks to my Spingarn High School Coach
and mentor Dave Brown I made Mr. Stinson out to
be a liar. I was not Tiger Woods but I am
Michael, I am Quinton and I am O. C. I have been there
and done that.
Michael, Quinton and O. C. are great examples of the
many jewels and rare gems of humanity found in
inner-city housing projects all over America. They are
descendants of Kings and Queens and not hoodlums and
thugs. They are a credit to their race---the human
race.
In the black community if you stand up to be a man and
tell the truth without fear, you are stereotyped as a
“Trouble maker, Agitator and the Last Angry Man.” I
stand accused. If it comes down to choosing between a
movie that inspires and uplifts my community and a movie
that drags my community down, I am choosing the
uplifting movie every time.
I thank Tony Henderson (Dave Brown) for making
the movie and the Tuohys possible. He was the first to
take Michael into his home. He could have easily left
Michael on the mean street corners of Memphis to fend
for himself. Mr. Henderson was on the scene of the
potential crime long before anyone else and we should
not let Michael or anyone forget that. We forget easily
in our community.
We are all in this together. The world is a much better
place when we work together. “Blind Side” 4 stars!
GEORGE MICHAEL: CHRISTMAS 365 DAYS OF THE YEAR!
By Harold Bell
Television sportscaster George Michael literally
took television sports to unparalleled levels with
“The Sports Machine.” The show aired on Sunday
nights and made George a media icon. George
Michael died in Washington, DC on Christmas Eve of
Leukemia. He was 71 years old.
The show was so big it was syndicated in over one
hundred markets and several foreign countries.
When George made his television debut in the 80s as the
sports anchor at NBC WRC TV 4 I was holding court on
Inside Sports on at W-U-S-T Radio. My show
was the number one listened to radio sports talk show in
the metropolitan area.
George Michael
and I met shortly after he arrived in town by the way of
a telephone conversation in the early 80’s. He was one
of the biggest “Homers and Cheerleaders” in local
sports. If you played for one of the local pro teams
you could find George cheering you on during his local 6
pm and 11 pm newscast on NBC WRC TV 4. Frank Herzog
of TV 7 (ABC) was a close second in the cheerleader
category.
One year the Washington Times newspaper ran a poll
asking, “Who was the biggest sports media cheerleader in
local media?” I was asked to participate.
My pick was George and I was quoted saying,
"The only things
missing from George Michael's sports shows are pom-poms
and a short skirt." Several
days later I received a telephone call at W-U-S-T Radio
after I my evening sports report. The General Manager
Lou Hankins stuck his head into the studio with
this big smile on his face and said “You have a fan on
line two.” This was nothing out of the norm. I often
stayed around to take calls after my shows. There were
some folks who could not get through to me on the
weekends because of the backlog on the telephone lines.
The voice on the other end asked, “Is this Harold
Bell?” I said ‘Yes sir.’
The next words out of his mouth were “This is George
Michael. Where do you get off calling me a
cheerleader?” He caught me completely by surprise. I
had to sit down. After several minutes of the back and
forth debate I said, ‘George look up the definition of
cheerleader in the dictionary and you should see your
picture.’ He hung up the phone.
George never made a guest appearance on Inside Sports
and I was never invited to be a guest on “The Sports
Machine.”
George and I had a lot in common, he changed the way
people watched sports on television and I changed the
way people listened to sports talk on radio.
George Michael
unlike other local media types who used Inside Sports
as a springboard to their 15 minutes of media fame
didn’t take my putdown personally. A couple of years
later he mailed me a check for Kids In Trouble, Inc.,
with a note saying, “Harold you are doing a great job in
the community with our young people. Please keep up the
good work I hope this check can help you to help some
child.”
George had surprised me again and proves my theory and
how I closed out my talk shows with the following
reminder: “Every black face I saw was not my BROTHER
and white face I saw was not my ENEMY!”
The death of George Michael allows me to take a
look at Christmases past. He understood that Christmas
in my community has to be celebrated 365 days of the
year and if there is to be progress “Sitting on the
fence playing safe and “Player Hating” does not bring
about change.”
It was just last year around this same time Hattie and I
celebrated 40 years of marriage and 40 years of
Christmas Toy Parties and declared this would our last
toy for tots drive. Evidently, we lied.
On Christmas Eve and all through our house not a
creature was stirring, not even a mouse. My wife Hattie
and I had just arrived home from a night of playing
Santa’s Helpers for the 41st year.
When we started this endeavor after the riots in
December 1968 I never envisioned I would be married 40
years and the toy party would endure for 40. All the
glory and success goes to God and to Hattie T.
For 40 years we averaged 100+ elementary school children
per toy party. The benefactors attended schools in
Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and as far
away as Atlanta, Georgia and North Carolina.
Once safely in our apartment I heard the sounds of my
computer saying “You got mail.” I reluctantly sat down
at the computer to catch up with the day’s e-mails.
I was exhausted but I was energized by the thought of
the parents whose faces lit up when they saw us at their
doors.
The first e-mail I opened said, “Harold, I have a check
from Mike and Sheryl Wilbon for Christmas gifts for the
children….where can I send it? Mike wants to get it to
you as soon as possible.”
Thanks….Happy Holidays!
Amy
I want to thank Mike and Sheryl for the thought but it
was Christmas Eve and we had parked the sleigh and
Reindeer for the year.
Mike Wilbon
is a sports columnist for the Washington Post and now a
star of radio and television sports talk media.
Mike, before becoming a high profile journalist
remembers when the media and the NBA didn’t care. He
remembers the late Harold McLinton, Larry Brown, Roy
Jefferson and Ted Vactor of the Washington
Redskins and Willie Wood and Dave Robinson
of the Green Bay Packers as Santa Helpers. They were
Kids In Trouble and the NFL’s first pro athletes to
reach back.
Super Bowl MVP QB Doug Williams later joined the
team and played Santa Claus for the Kids In Trouble
toy party. Now the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, etc have all
become Santa’s Helpers in every franchised city in
America.
Local radio and television personalities became Santa
Helpers; Jim Vance, Paul Berry, Fred Thomas, Max
Robinson, Bill Raspberry, Petey Greene, Martin Wyatt,
Lark McCarthy, Maureen Bunyan, Renee Poussaint, Donnie
Simpson, Bobby Bennett and John Turk. DC
Superior Court Judges the late Luke C Moore, Harry T.
Alexander, Harold Green, Ted Newman, Eugene Hamilton
and Henry Kennedy Jr. were often seen bringing
toys and joining the festivities at the Foxtrappe Club
and other hot spots around town.
Judge Kennedy’s first date with his now wife of at least
30 years was at a Kids In Trouble toy drive party
at the Foxtrappe.
Mike remembers I was there to protect him from “The
Player Haters and coaches” he would often encounter
during his early years.
His busy schedule has also allowed him to forget. For
example; when I reminded him of a check he promised to
send to Kids In Trouble several years ago he
thought he had mailed it to me!
Mike is not alone in the hectic world of sports media,
James Brown (CBS) remembered and forgot at the
same time. He remembered when he told Washington Times
columnist Dick Heller “Harold has always been a
voice for people who didn’t have a voice. He has always
called them as he saw it. He has been an inspiration
and motivation for me and a lot of other black
broadcasters.”
He forgot when he didn’t keep his WORD during NBA
All-Star weekend in DC and when I asked him why he had
never sent a kid to camp or brought a toy for a needy
child in his long association with Kids In Trouble,
Inc?
His response, “I did make a donation to your program
when I was with Xerox Corporation.” He was with the
Xerox Corporation 30 years ago and even then it never
happened!
Kenny Roy
is a native Washingtonian (Xerox Executive) and former
legendary athlete at DeMatha High School and Maryland
University. Kenny was the only one in the corporate
office who supported Kids In Trouble, Inc.
Maybe it is something in the water or the food that is
served before the game in the pressrooms. It seems most
of these guys exit with a case of amnesia and it seems
to help them maintain “The Plantation Mentality.”
Mike Wise
a columnist and sports talk show host for the Washington
Post sent me and e-mail after I disagreed with a column
he had written on the late great Washington Redskin
Sean Taylor. It said after he disagreed with my
commentary “If you could forward me the address, I’ll
figure out some kind of toy donation or something.”
Famous last words!
One NFL sports columnist e-mailed me and said, “Harold I
want to make a donation to your program this year I need
your address.” Christmas has come and gone, maybe he
meant Christmas 2010?
I called another sports columnist and sports talk show
favorite asking him to make an inquiry for me as it
related to some kids. After several attempts (e-mail,
cell phone) I placed a call to his mother asking her to
let him know I was trying to contact him. His mother
and late dad had been big fans and listeners of
Inside Sports (back in the day). They were also big
Redskin fans and kept plugging and reminding me that
their son was a sports writer in Texas.
During my conversation with his mother she said
something to the effect about how busy her son was and
that struck a nerve. I thought to myself “when I was
the only brother with an on air sports talk radio show
in the 70’s I was never too busy to return a call.” I
was never too busy to have her son on Inside Sports
when he was just a struggling writer. Now that I need a
favor and he is a national media personality “he is too
busy?”
Then there is another local brother who is now a
national columnist and sideline reporter whom I asked to
do me a favor and verify a situation that might help
some kids. I never heard back from him. That in itself
is a sad commentary in this time of technology (e-mail,
text, cell phone, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Come on
Man!
There was also a problem with Nike which I will take an
in-depth look at a later date!
The
unfortunate death of George Michael allows me to
look back at Christmases past! This
year’s Santa Helpers included Richard Evans (DC
Recreation Department), Kevyn Whitaker (DC
Businessman), Nellie Lee (DC Businesswoman)
Christina Henderson (The Little White House) and
friends in spirit but who wish to remain anonymous.
Hattie and I thank you and George Michael for
understanding that, “It really takes a Village,” Happy
New Year.
The Day Jim Crow was thrown for a Lost
In September 1954, the school year opened under a
Supreme Court desegregation decision that found most
D.C. school classrooms still segregated. By December
1954, however, integration had come to the Nation's
Capital in a way the Supreme Court could have never
imagined.
That was the month in which segregation died-not in a
school building- but on the grassy field of Griffith
Stadium on December 4 when the Catholic League champion,
St. John's, played the D.C. Public High All Stars for
the City School Boy Football title.
It was the first time in Washington history that a
racially integrated high school football team had ever
taken the field.
The game was hard fought with outstanding plays and
players on both sides of the ball.
It ended in a way as if the Almighty had written the
script: The winning touchdown was thrown by the best
quarter back from the then-white Interhigh Division I,
Dan Droze of Anacostia High School to the best end from
the then-black Interhigh Division II, Dave Harris of
Cardozo High School. It was salt and pepper; vanilla and
chocolate- a triumph of ability and racial progress over
the artificial barriers of race.
Dec. 4 was also a special day for me because I happened
to be there at Griffith Stadium to witness that electric
moment. It was a day, however, to root not only for the
Interhigh squad, but for fellow Dunbar High school
classmates who were all stars on the team, and who are
being honored today: John Simms, who played end; and
Frank Sullivan who played guard.
Sims and Sullivan were not THE only all stars
participating in the historic Catholic-Interhigh
Championship game.
THEY
were also named to the prestigious All-Metropolitan team
in 1954. That was an exclusive roster of football
players selected from teams not only in Washington but
nearby Maryland and Virginia as well.
And they weren't alone in their distinction as
outstanding Dunbar athletes. They were joined on the All
Interhigh Division II squad by their teammate Alphonso
Brooks who played center at Dunbar.
It would take two years before I made Dunbar's football
team, earning my letter in my senior year, and that was
as much for longevity as for ability.
I was only a player. Today, we are honoring
heroes-genuine trailblazers, and men of enormous
distinction.
They stepped forward in a year and at a time when our
future, the city's future, was uncertain.
And they showed us what could be. Frank Sullivan, John
Simms, and Alphonso Brooks showed the way. John Simms
was a 6'1, 152 lb senior who wore number 38. Dave Harris
weighed all of 170 lbs.
Frank Sullivan, who wore number 40, must have been the
smallest guard to have ever donned a football uniform.
Much the same goes for Alphonso Brooks.
Dunbar's biggest player that year was George Tarrington,
and he weighed about 217 pounds.
But from where I sat in 1954, they were all giants.
They still are today. Congratulations.
Written by Colbert I. King to Harold Bell
in the form of a letter for the Kids In Trouble,
Inc., fundraiser. Mr. King attended Dunbar
High School, Class of 1957 and is the winner of the
2003 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Colbert
noted that he would gladly trade the prize for a spot on
the 1954 All Inter-High team.
A Tiger’s Tale: Par For The Course
By Harold Bell
December 8, 2009
When folks were trying to define Tiger Woods’
race during the early stages of his career, he
denied that he was a black man and said he was
Cabilnasian.
I completely understood his premise of not wanting
to overlook his mother’s Asian heritage. There were
many in the black community who took his denial as a
put down to black people. There is nowhere in his
new identity “Cablinasian” that identified
him as being a black man.
We all understand that he had a black father and
Asian mother. It was not like Tiger had not known
racism during his early years. He clearly remembers
the bigotry he and his father faced while trying to
play on public golf courses around military
installations they lived on.
They were not discriminating because he was “Cablinasian,”
discrimination often surfaced because they were
black men.
I knew he was headed for trouble when he first
announced he was “Cablinasian.” He was
denying he was black despite having a black father.
Tiger had forgotten the unwritten American rule that
says, “One trickle of black blood makes a man or
woman totally black.”
I could not find a definition of “Cablinasian”
in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary but there was
a definition for Nigger. The definition was,
“a member of any dark-skinned race---usually, taken
to be offensive.”
Could this be what Tiger was trying to run away
from? Trying to outrun racism in America is like
trying to outrun the morning sun.
Tigers’ “transgressions” with what now looks like an
army of cocktail and restaurant waitresses around
the world could be the beginning of his end.
There will be no sponsors jumping ship immediately
because Tiger is still their meal ticket.
Golf and chess each are mind games and the mental
toll on Tiger maybe his undoing.
The legendary golfer Arnold Palmer offered
Tiger some sound advice early in his career when he
was just a struggling millionaire. He confessed to
Palmer “I am finding it difficult to deal with all
this adulation, signing autographs, press
conferences and members of the media.”
Arnold’s response was, “Tiger if you find all of
this too difficult to deal with I suggest you give
all the money back and become a weekend golfer with
your friends. No one will notice you then.”
Arnold Palmer
was one of the most accessible legends of golf. He
would sign autographs for fans until the sun went
down and never saw a press conference or reporter he
did not like. He and Muhammad Ali were two
of a kind.
Tiger has let success handle him and he has not
handled success. He has a lot in common with
today’s New Jack City pro athletes. It has
been all about “Me and me!”
Tiger’s “transgressions” have taken on a life of
their very own. He has become welcome comical
relief for every late night comic including CBS host
David Letterman. It was just several weeks
ago that Letterman was walking around in Tiger’s
shoes.
The tabloid newspapers and television entertainment
shows (Access Hollywood, TMZ, Entertainment
Tonight, etc.) are having a field day and can’t
get enough.
When I said it maybe Tiger’s beginning of the end
has nothing to do with his physical attributes while
performing on the world’s pro golf courses. The big
test is how well his mental health holds up.
The bigots will be awaiting his every turn which
should be nothing new to him. He receives more
death threats than any professional athlete. The
haters will be on the golf course testing him with
all kinds of mean shouts and insults as it relates
to his “transgressions.”
The haters will be hard for security to identify
because they will be dressed as normal people
without their hoods and robes.
The question will be, how much can Tiger’s wife and
kids take, especially, the kids?
There are thousands of young people around the world
that idolize Tiger. What kind of message does his
bad behavior send to them? Kids forgive easily, but
adults can be ruthless.
I remember when Sugar Ray Leonard thought he
was coming home to a hero’s welcome after winning
the Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in Montreal,
Canada. His then future wife Juanita was pregnant
and carrying his baby. The Washington media
discovered his transgression and gave him a welcome
home he would never forget.
You would have thought Ray had just been added to
the FBI’s Most Wanted List. The Washington media
crucified him.
Sugar Ray Leonard
refused to leave his house for days. He had lost
all of his self esteem. His trainer, Janks
Morton and my friend the late Melvin Jackson
came to the Anacostia Tennis Courts in Southeast DC
to ask me to try and talk some sense into him. Ray
and I had a unique relationship at that time and I
successfully talked him out of the house.
I convinced him to go to several elementary schools
with me in the DC metropolitan and talk to some kids
about his Olympic boxing experiences (with his Gold
Medal around his neck). On Saturdays he would
co-host Inside Sports, my radio talk show.
He slowly regained his self esteem and the rest is
boxing history. When it came to transgressions
Sugar Ray could give Tiger a run for his money.
Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon
wrote a column last week titled “The Company
Tiger Keeps.” I hope Michael was not trying to
justify Tiger’s behavior because if he were he came
up short.
In the column Wilbon pointed to other famous
American athletes that had traveled the same path as
Tiger, like Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Joe DiMaggio,
Muhammad Ali, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael
Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady and Alex
Rodriguez.
Wilbon wrote, “Whispers and innuendos followed Ruth
and Louis. TMZ and US Magazine
stalked Tiger Woods. So what?
The bottom-line is fans and today’s adults could
care less. TMZ and US Magazine care
because the more sleaze, the more viewers and
readers and sex is still the best seller in
America.
The company Tiger kept was Charles Barkley
and Michael Jordan. It has been said “Birds
of a feather flock together.”
The black caddy has become an endangered species on
the pro tour since the players have to share a
percentage of their winnings with their caddies.
The players now hire members of their family to
carry their bags. The caddy of color has slowly
disappeared.
My high school teammate and college roommate
Richard Hansberry once caddied on the tour and
was the Vice-President of the Black Caddy’s
Association. He said Tiger would not even speak to
the black caddies.
Tiger’s first caddy Fluff was white and when he
fired him he never auditioned or sought a black
caddy to replace him. Did anyone notice that all of
his female “transgressions” looked like his wife
Elin?
Something is wrong with this picture! It would make
sense that if he was going to have an affair he
would have found someone who had as much to lose as
him. Proving again, money does not make one smart.
Charles Barkley
got it right and the monkey off of his back early,
he told the world “I am not your child’s hero or
role model, if I am something is wrong with you.”
Charles knew eventually his life style of women,
booze and gambling, would knock on his door and it
did. NBA legend Michael Jordan was well known for
his transgressions and they eventually cost him his
marriage.
Patrick Ewing’s
former wife Rita was heard on a news talk show
saying the NBA promotes sexual misconduct. She
said, “I attended a seminar for players and their
wives one year and the players were encouraged to
use condoms when having sex! Wives were not
permitted to travel on the road and therefore made
sex a Free Fall for the players.”
Rita told the interviewer, “No pun intended, but
Tiger’s behavior is par for the course.”
If you don’t think Tiger’s behavior is par for the
course you need to take look at this web page:
http://afieldnegro.com/photos.html. I knew we
had a problem but I didn’t think black men had just
given up on black women.
If you think people really care about the sexual
appetite of the rich and famous, let me prove my
point that they don’t.
When DC Mayor for Life Marion Barry claimed
“The Bitch Set Me Up.” He was caught on camera
trying to smoke cocaine through a pipe. A little
birdie warned him he was being set up but he didn’t
listen.
Marion served jail time for his transgressions, and
on his release he rode back into DC with a hero’s
welcome. He won another term as Mayor and is now a
DC City Councilman with more added transgressions.
Let us take it up to another level with President
William Jefferson Clinton. When he was caught
with his pants down in the White House Oval Office
with a female aid under his desk giving him a
massage, folks easily forgot. The former President
now travels the world charging and making millions
of dollars for speaking engagements.
Tiger’s transgressions will not be that easily
forgotten. His road back to respectability will be
difficult because so many of his colleagues have
been waiting for his fall from grace.
His golfing friend who introduced him to his wife
was heard to say “I wish I had never introduced
them. The next time she should use a driver on his
head instead of an iron.” I would love to be a
birdie in a tree when these two meet at the next
tournament. This is one of Tiger’s tales that has
no end in sight.
Footnote: Tiger’s mother-in-law who traveled from
Sweden to comfort her daughter took ill after her
arrival. She was rushed to the hospital and was
released after eleven hours.
Publisher’s Note: The Urban Dictionary defines
“Cablinasian” as follows: A term Tiger
Woods himself made up honoring his mother as well as
his father and all of his cultural heritage. Tiger
is far ahead of his time in asserting that he does
not need to deny any part of who he is or where he
came from to satisfy others need for him to think
and act a certain way just because of the color of
his skin.
The Two Faces Of Abe
By Harold Bell
Abe Pollin
In Washington, DC on Tuesday November 24, 2009, the
sports world lost a sports superstar who never hit a
game winning basket at the buzzer, kicked a winning
field goal as time expired or hit a walk off homerun to
win the World Series. His name was Abe Pollin
and his uniform number was No. 1. He was the owner of
the NBA Washington Wizards.
I became familiar with the name Abe Pollin
when he brought a struggling Baltimore Bullets
franchise in 1964. One of the NBA’s superstars during
that era was a young athlete out of Spingarn High School
in Washington, DC. His name was Elgin Baylor, he
was known to Washingtonians as “Rabbit.” He was the
only excuse we needed to travel to Baltimore to watch a
losing Bullets team.
The one-on-one battle between Elgin and Gus
Johnson of the Bullets made the ride from DC up the
Baltimore/Washington Parkway worthwhile.
My co-worker at the United Planning Organization and
later legendary radio personality Petey Green and
I could not wait for the next home game. The games were
classics, especially after the arrival of Earl
Monroe.
Abe Pollin and Wes Unseld
When Mr. Pollin signed “The Pearl” in 1967 and Wes
Unseld in 1968 to play along side Gus Johnson,
the Bullets became The Original Show Time
of the NBA. The Lakers’ show time with Magic, Kareem
and Worthy were “Second Banana” to these
guys.
Dave Bing (Detroit Pistons) and Earl arrived
on the scene at the same time. I was in NBA Basketball
heaven. They completed my NBA connection.
The “Triangle” of Elgin, Earl and Dave made
destination Baltimore an Easy Rider. Elgin and Dave
were Spingarn alumnus and we shared a special kinship
(we were coached by the same coaches). Earl and I were
alumnus of Winston-Salem State College in North
Carolina. It was there I met him on one his visits to
the campus in 1963. We both played for the late
legendary basketball Hall of Fame coach Clarence
‘Bighouse’ Gaines.
If there was any doubt that Mr. Pollin created
The Original NBA Show Time all one has to see is
a video of Wes Unseld retrieving a rebound and
tossing one of his patent outlet passes to Earl and then
join Gus on a fast break to the basket. The fans would
be standing on their feet holding their breath expecting
the unexpected. Would it be a rim shattering dunk by
Gus or a no-look pass from The Pearl? They were a sight
to behold.
When Mr. Pollin moved the team to Landover, Maryland
in 1974 I was just entering the world of media as a
sports talk show host with “The Original Inside
Sports.”
In many of the stories written in newspapers and the
repeated discussions of Mr. Pollin’s legacy on talk
shows, the one word that seems to dominate the stories
and those discussions---is loyalty.
When I think of loyalty and Mr. Pollin’s, I think of
Landover, Maryland in 1974. The move started a divorce
that was heard around the NBA, Pollin vs. Monroe.
There would be no out of court or on the court
settlement. Earl would take his ball to New York and
Mr. Pollin would take his team to Landover.
Mr. Pollin’s boyhood and close friend Hymie Perlo
once said to me “That was the worst basketball
decision Abe ever made.”
Earl Monroe revolutionized how the guard
position was played in the NBA. He brought showmanship
and moves to the basket never before seen in pro
basketball. When we talk about “Great Athletes”
I define their greatness by how they changed the rules
and the way the game is played. Earl changed the rules
and the game.
Their split was about money, Earl’s contract was up
and he was looking for a long term deal and a raise.
Abe Pollin didn’t think Earl was worth the time or
the money he was asking for and they went their separate
ways.
Earl left for the New York Knickerbockers and
got the money he thought he deserved and a NBA
Championship. In discussions with Earl about his Bullet
departure, loyalty was not one his favorite words. He
would often say, “Going to New York was the best
decision I have ever made.”
The divorced left a bitter taste in Earl’s mouth for
many years. He is still the most popular player in the
history of the franchise.
Mr. Pollin realized he had made a mistake and that
was one of the reasons he summoned him back to Verizon
Center last season. It was there Earl and Mr. Pollin
renewed their vows kissed and made up. The Wizards
retired Earl’s number during a welcome back home
ceremony.
When Mr. Pollin moved the Bullets to Landover in 1974
there was a double standard established at the media
press table. There were some who ignored it and others
who only dared to whisper about it.
When I took my seat at the press table the seating
arrangement made me wonder why was there Brown vs
Board of Education, marches on Washington and Selma
Alabama, assassinations of Martin Luther King and the
Kennedy brothers, three little girls blown up in their
church. Why black and white civil rights workers were
lynched fighting for the civil rights of us all?
I refuse to allow myself to feel like a second class
citizen all over again.
I thought of putting my own life on the line during
the 1968 riots. Here we are in 1974 and white media was
seated to the left of midcourt and black media was
seated to the right of midcourt. Something was wrong
with this picture!
During the 1974 NBA season I established the first
monthly Media Roundtable at WOOK radio where my sports
talk show Inside Sports was aired. The
participants included Dave Dupree, Bill McCaffrey, Ed
Frankovich, George Solomon, Ed Brown, Sonny Hill, Elmer
Smith, Bill Rhoden and a host of other contributors.
It was on one of my shows where the idea was hatched
that Ed Frankovich and I would change seats at
the next Bullets home game.
The next home game was against the Golden State
Warriors. I remember Warrior Coach Al Attles and
I meeting under the basket just before the game
started. I told him what was about to transpire and he
said, “Be careful” and he went back to his seat
on the bench.
The sit-in took place quietly and without fanfare. A
new seating chart was posted a week later and a new era
in media relations had emerged at the Capitol Centre.
Mr. Pollin’s loyalty was tested again in 1975.
Boston Celtic great K. C. Jones was fired after
he coached and led the Washington Bullets into the NBA
finals against The Golden State Warriors. The Warriors
were coached by Al Attles, making this the first
time in NBA history two black coaches had met in a
Championship game. The Warriors swept the Bullets in
four straight games and K C Jones was later
fired. All the blamed should not be laid at the door of
Mr. Pollin. Several of K. C.’s closest backstabbing
friends helped expedite his exit.
I remember former player Carlos Terry who was
destined to be an impact player for the Wizards before a
knee injury ended his career. Carlos was a
Winston-Salem State University grad and played for
Bighouse Gaines. Coach Gaines asked me to keep an eye
on the big fellow and help him navigate the deep water
in DC.
Carlos and I became good friends and he joined the
team of Kids In Trouble, Inc to work with at-risk
children. He was a great young man with a big heart.
His teammate Rick Mahorn was a bad influence.
Mahorn was a country boy who got blinded by the bright
lights and big city and became a NBA bully and a
“City Slicker.”
DC is a small town and my community is even smaller.
It is hard to keep a secret if more then two people know
the secret.
Carlos picked up a couple of bad habits hanging out
with Mahorn, I diplomatically pulled him aside one night
after a game and told him to be careful of his after
hour hangouts. He said “thanks, no problem.”
After his knee injury and cutting his ties with the
Bullets, Carlos became depress and drifted off. I would
wake up one morning to hear the news via radio that he
had been killed in an automobile accident on the
beltway. Reports were that he had fallen asleep at the
wheel.
Coach Gaines called me several days later saying
“Carlos’ family don’t have the money to bury him.” I
asked Coach to let me check around for some resources.
My first call was to the Wizards’ GM Bob Ferry
and explained the family’s dilemma; he said “Harold
let me get back to you.” I am still waiting for him
to get back to me.
Thanks to Coach Gaines and Carlos’ college family and
friends, the funeral proceeded. I traveled to his
hometown, in Lexington, North Carolina to speak on
behalf of Kids In Trouble, Inc., at his
home-going. I don’t recall seeing anyone from the
Bullet’s organization in attendance—loyalty.
Mr. Pollin hired native Washingtonian Eddie Jordan
to coach the Wizards on a handshake. Eddie rescued the
franchise and took them back to what had become
Never-Never Land, the NBA playoffs. The team
excelled for 4 straight seasons. His reward, he was
fired last season--loyalty.
Ironically, Eddie Jordan is now the coach of the
NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and they were in town to play
the Wizard’s on the eve of Mr. Pollin’s death. Eddie
always a class-act said, “I am appreciative of the
opportunity Mr. Pollin gave me to coach in my hometown,
it has been the highlight of my basketball career.”
One year ago Tuesday on the eve of his death Mr.
Pollin raised eyebrows when he sent MJ the man known as
Michael Jordan packing back to North Carolina.
He fired MJ from his duties as Vice-President of
basketball operations. MJ helped turn a financially
down and out franchise into a money making Cash-Cow.
He returned to his “Comfort Zone” the
basketball courts of the NBA to sell out crowds making
ticket scalpers some of the most sought after guys in
Chinatown. On game nights the restaurants were suddenly
full before and after Wizard’s games. Mr. Pollin an
astute businessman and suddenly a magician pulled a
rabbit out of the hat. The rabbit was Michael Jordan.
He later did a Bugs Bunny and said to MJ and his fans
“That’s all folks.”
It is here that I think Mr. Pollin gets a bum rap as
it relates to the dismissal of Michael Jordan. I
blame MJ and his agent David Falk for allowing
Michael to make a business decision with a businessman
without having anything in writing! This was business
and it had nothing to do with friendship.
Mr. Pollin never forgot the put down by Michael at an
owner’s meeting before a threaten strike by the NBA
players. Mr. Pollin questioned the selfish and greedy
motives of the players, Michael’s response, “Mr.
Pollin if you can’t stand the heat get out of the
kitchen.”
I have read the stories and heard the so-called
experts talk and discus the legacy of Mr. Abe Pollin.
The only one that made any sense was Michael Wilbon.
His column in the Washington Post “A man who reached
out to others” was very compelling.
Michael’s column taught me two lessons in one. His
column gave me an inside look of a very complicated man
who reached back and gave unselfishly to others.
Whether, he gave back because of family pain or a guilty
conscience, only he knows. The second lesson was when
Michael challenged this giant of a businessman on two
business decisions that he thought the columnist knew
nothing about. Mr. Pollin thought the columnist should
concentrate on keeping scores of games and batting
averages of athletes----because business was out of his
league.
Mr. Pollin, the multi-millionaire and giant
businessman took out an ad in the local newspapers
including the columnist’s paper saying in so many words
“Mind your damn business.”
Several years later the columnist’s advice would
prove him to be right, the story could have ended right
there, but Mr. Pollin swallowed his pride and invited
the columnist to the groundbreaking ceremony for the new
MCI Center. This was the same downtown location that
the columnist had advised Mr. Pollin, “If the Bullets
are going to remain viable they need to move to downtown
DC.”
This gesture along with the move to bring Earl
Monroe back home told me lot about Mr. Pollin. He
was man enough to say “I was wrong.” This is a
lesson that we all can learn from, never be too tall to
say ‘I made a mistake.’
Mr. Pollin made his share of mistakes that included,
Earl Monroe, Red Auerbach, Arnold Heft and others
that we will never know. But he was human and we all
make mistakes.
Winning or losing I must admit Mr. Pollin and I were
like ships passing in the night. We would sometimes nod
our heads at each other and sometimes we would look
right through each other.
I was holding Mr. Pollin responsible for the
inconsiderate acts of a few when he had a full plate.
In the final analyst, Mr. Pollin’s cup was half full and
half empty. We all should live to be so lucky.
I was especially proud to see three young men in
attendance at Tuesday night’s game who have been touched
by Kids In Trouble, Inc. and Inside Sports.
The three are now making their mark and making a
difference as sports journalist on the national scene,
Michael Wilbon, David Aldridge and Kevin
Blackistone.
I discovered that I can still learn from them.
Through them I learned a lesson taught in a great man’s
death that he cared long before Harold Bell and
the NBA.
Mr. Abe Pollin------1923-2009 when two faces
in Washington, DC, was better then one.
Harold Bell is the Godfather of Sports Talk radio
and television. Throughout the mid-sixties, seventies
and eighties, Harold embarked upon a relatively new
medium--sports talk radio with classic interviews with
athletes and sports celebrities. The show and format
became wildly popular. Who better than Harold Bell to
put together classic interviews with his legendary
celebrity friends.
WHEN WE WERE KINGS
GIANT
FOOD and PNC BANK INVITES
YOU TO A KIDS IN TROUBLE, INC., BENEFIT RECEPTION and
SALUTE TO THE 1954 D.C. HIGH SCHOOL ALL-STARS, DC PUBLIC
SCHOOLS and ST. JOHN’S HIGH SCHOOL.
TEAMMATES DAN DROZE and DAVE HARRIS: WHEN SEPARATE
WAS CONSIDERED EQUAL IN AMERICA!
By Harold Bell
In Washington, DC in 1954 there were two important
Supreme Court decisions reached on the same day in
May. The decisions were Bolling vs. Sharpe
and Brown vs. Board of Education. The two
decisions changed how public school education was
practiced in America.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
was the President of the United States and Earl
Warren was the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court.
The lead plaintiff attorney on Bolling vs.
Sharpe was George Edward Hayes. The case was
argued on the 5th Amendment (Equal
Protection Clause), thus setting up the theory of
“reverse incorporation.”
The lead attorney for the plaintiffs in Brown v
Board of Education was future Supreme Court Justice,
the great Thurgood Marshall. Mr. Marshall
graduated first in his class from Howard Law School
in 1933. In 1934 he became the lawyer for the
Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP.
The Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal”
public school education was unconstitutional. The
court ruled that public schools could never be truly
equal with blacks attending one school and whites
attending another. This would be Mr. Marshall’s
battle ground and field of play.
If attorney Thurgood Marshall had been a NFL
quarterback, a three-point shooter in the NBA or a
Designated Hitter in Major League Baseball he would
have no peers. He won 29 of the 32 cases he argued
before the Supreme Court. Mr. Marshall was a
Superstar in “The Game Called Life.” It
is the only game being played in today’s America
where the title of Superstar really counts.
If Black America is looking for a hero and role
model we have to look no further than Thurgood
Marshall, He literally set the bar of how we
should measure our heroes and role models in our
community. We should be able to go to Webster’s
Dictionary and look up the definition of
“unselfishness” and see his picture.
When the Supreme Court finally rendered a decision
in 1954 declaring segregation in America’s schools
unconstitutional, Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle
picked up the ball and ran with it.
The Archbishop played a significant role leading up
to the decision that would set the stage for the
1954 All-Star game. He implemented a follow-up
action plan. He authorized a scrimmage between all
black Armstrong Technical High School and integrated
Archbishop John Carroll High School. Carroll had
ONE black player, but had several black students
enrolled at the school.
The scrimmage took place in August, 1953. The Coach
for Carroll was George Washington University legend
and NFL Hall of Famer Tuffy Leesmans. The
Armstrong High School football coach was the equally
talented Ted McIntye. Willie Wood was
only a sophomore but he was all over the field. His
greatness could not be denied. He would go on to
become an NFL Hall of Fame player for the Green Bay
Packers.
The real star of the scrimmage, however, was “Red
Mike” Hagler who went on to become a star
running back at Iowa. He played in two Rose Bowls
(1956-1958) for legendary Iowa Coach, Forrest
Evashevski. In the second Rose Bowl he scored
two TDs. The second TD was a spectacular weaving 66
yard inside reverse. Mike would end his football
career playing semi-pro football in New Jersey. He
was definitely a legend in his own time.
In 1954 the two All-Star football teams met at old
Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC. The number one
ranked, undefeated and favorite was St. John’s. The
DC Public High School All-Stars were a collection of
black and white players. The white players were
from Division One (Anacostia,
Coolidge, McKinley Tech, Western and Wilson ) and
had 22 players named to the team. The black players
were from Division Two (Armstrong,
Cardozo, Phelps and Spingarn) were represented by 11
players.
There was a joke going around during
preparations for the game that Division One coach
Stewart thought it best to select twice the number
of white players in case trouble broke out. The
fight odds would be 2-1 (separate but equal).
This was the first ever integrated high school
athletic contest played in Washington, DC. There
were close to 9,000 fans in the stadium to witness
this history making athletic event.
Dave Kane
is a native Washingtonian and a 1960 graduate of
DeMatha High School. Dave played wide receiver and
safety for the stags. He was in town recently to
meet with players who played in that game. His
brother John was a running back and scored the only
TD for St. Johns in the 1954 All-Star game. His
father was the team doctor.
Mr. Kane is exploring the possibilities of making a
documentary film of the historical event. During
his visit to DC from his now hometown in Phoenix,
Arizona he met with several players who participated
in that game.
The interested parties met at the home of Chink and
Gladys Hawkins in Upper Marlboro, Maryland a DC
suburb. Gladys is the sister of former Armstrong
High School and NFL Green Bay Packer hall of fame
player Willie Wood.
The DC Public High School All-Stars in attendance
were George Carlos, Olin Robinson and Charlie Queen
(Spingarn), Willie Wood, and Lowell Wheeler
(Armstrong), Frank Sullivan and Alphonso Brooks and
John Simms (Dunbar), Kenny Dunlop (Cardozo) Willie’s
close friend and jump shooting basketball teammate
Frank Smith was also in attendance.
There are so many stories and twist and turns that
came out of this game there is not enough time and
space to list them all.
For example, the lead plaintiff in the 1954
Bolling v Sharpe was Spotswood Bolling. He was
my high school basketball teammate at Spingarn. The
legendary DeMatha High School basketball Hall of
Fame coach Morgan Wooten was an assistant football
coach at St. John’s.
Coaches Sal Hall and Biff Carter, Cardozo and Phelps
respectively, were assistant coaches for the DC
Public Schools. Mr. Hall was one of the greatest
football minds to ever come out of DC. Kermit “Zu
Zu” Stewart of Anacostia was chosen to be the Head
Coach (separate but equal).
The offense installed for that game was the
Single Wing the same offense run by the
Anacostia High School football team. The best way
to describe the Single Wing offense is to
watch today’s NFL’s version of “The Wild Cat
Formation.” It is used by several NFL teams.
The quarterback is missing in action.
The best player on the field that day was Armstrong
QB Willie Wood. He never got a chance to take a
snap from under the center, but his presence was
felt that day. He was all over the field again. He
played defensive back, ran back punts and
kick-offs. The final score 12-7 was misleading.
Everyone to a man (player) says “If Willie had
been the quarterback that day it would have been
no-contest.”
Enter Dan Droze and Dave Harris
forever linked together in Washington, DC sports
history.
Dan grew up in SE and Dave in upper NW, Shaw/Cardozo
(inner-city), they were two players from two
completely different worlds only separated by the
color of their skin (separate but equal). The
All-Star game practices were held at Western High
School in upper NW, DC (Georgetown). They had
exactly one week to install an offense and defense
for their opponent St. John’s.
I recently met with Dan Droze and Dave
Harris the two heroes of the game at DeMatha
High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. This was the
first meeting between the two All-Star teammates
since the game 55 years ago.
Dan and Dave agreed that things went pretty smoothly
and there were no signs of racial tension or envy
and jealousy among the players (Player Hating).
When they walked on the playing field at Griffin
Stadium on December 4, 1954 everyone was on the same
page and they had one goal----beat St. John’s.
The game was a hard fought contest and the outcome
was not decided until the closing minutes of the
fourth quarter. St. John’s had the proverbial
“Home Field Advantage.” The DC All-Stars were
penalized 7 times for 35 yards and according to the
game officials St. John’s played a perfect game
resulting in no penalties (separate but equal).
Dan (first team All-Met) was a starting running back
in the Single Wing offense and Dave (first team
All-Met) was a starter at end. Dave played both
ways on offense and defense. Dave was also a track
star at Cardozo with lightning speed.
There was less then 5 minutes left in the game when
Coach Stewart got smart. He decided to throw the
ball to someone other than his Anacostia receiver Ed
Vincent who had dropped and early TD pass from Droze.
December 4th was Dave Harris’s birthday.
Little did Dave and his teammates know it would a
birthday long remembered in the annals DC high
school sports.
With less then 5 minutes left in the game St. John
was leading 7-6. Dan got the play in from Coach
Stewart to throw a “Down and Out” pass to
Dave Harris. Dan took the snap from center and 30
yards down field he spotted Dave cutting to the left
corner of the end zone. He threw a perfect pass and
with two defenders draped all over him, Dave made
the catch to remember. The final score was 12-7 and
the rest is history.
The black and white players would leave the field
and return to their own little worlds. It would
take 55 years for the stars of the game to meet and
cherish a memory that would be etched forever in
their minds.
Dan would travel down infamous “Tobacco Road”
to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to play for the
legendary football coach Jim Tatum. Dave would
travel to the University of Kansas for a culture
shock. Dave’s first day in class he looked like a
fly in a cup of milk. He would make the adjustment
when he met another Jay Hawk student/athlete ‘The
Greatest’ basketball player ever, Wilt
Chamberlain. Wilt and Dave would go on to
become great friends.
Dan would later become my teammate with the Virginia
Sailors (minor league team for the Washington
Redskins). Dave Harris has been my hero since
“The Catch.” I would follow him to Griffin
Stadium the next year as a freshman receiver for
Spingarn High School. Ironically, we would meet
Cardozo High School for the DC Public High School
Championship. We had upset a great Armstrong team
13-7 with their legendary QB Willie Wood to earn the
right to play in the game.
There would be no fairytale ending for me, because I
was benched for discipline reasons (academic). I
was lucky to be in uniform. My savior Coach Dave
Brown taught me an early lesson, no one is
indispensable.
I watched my teammates tie Cardozo 0-0. Cardozo was
chosen to play in the City Championship game because
of a ruling based on something called
“Penetration.” The Cardozo team crossed our 50
yard line more times than we crossed theirs.
The great players who participated in that that 1954
All-Star game played a role in my spiritual and
mental development as a young athlete. Names like,
Olin Robinson, George Carlos, Bill Mayor, George
‘Nochie’ Green, Jessie Saunders, Charlie Queen
all played for Spingarn. William Peasy Jordan
and Thomas Sumlin played for Phelps.
I would sit on “The Hill” after school and
watch them practice. I attended Brown Middle School
located on the same block as Spingarn and Phelps
High school. These guys were athletes from my own
neighborhood and school community. I grew up in the
same NE housing project (Parkside) as Sumblin and
Saunders. They treated me like a little brother and
they led by example.
I admired Willie Wood, Dave Harris, Frank
Sullivan, Alphonso Brooks, John Simms, Lowell
Wheeler and Kenny Dunlop from the
stands. Dave and Willie would later become loyal
friends and mentors.
Dan went on to have a successful career as a
Financial Investment Banker, and has been
married to his wife Rose Mary for 44 years they are
the proud parents of four, two daughters and two
boys. The daughters are housewives Stasia and Desma
and the boys are Drew (Computer Programmer) and Derk
who graduated from GWU and played pro soccer in
Chile and Denmark.
Dave had a successful career in Pharmaceutical
Sales. He has been married for 50 years to his
lovely wife Theresa and from that union they have 3
boys and a girl and 4 grandchildren. His son Erik
is a graduate of the Naval Academy, David Jr. is a
West Point graduate, Dr. Keith Harris is a graduate
of Brown University and his twin sister Kim is
graduate of Maryland University.
If there are two families in who should write a book
on successfully raising children in America, meet
Mr. and Mrs. Danny Droze and Mr. and Mrs. Dave
Harris.
Despite segregation, the DC Public Schools made a
unique mark in American public high school sports
history. Armstrong and Spingarn High Schools are
the only public school system with bragging rights
of having 4 athletes in the NFL and NBA Hall of
Fames. Armstrong NFL inductees are Len Ford
and Willie Wood and Spingarn NBA inductees
are Elgin Baylor and Detroit Mayor Dave
Bing. This story makes it hard to tell who was
black and who was white, but Dan and Dave proved we
might have been separate but we were equal.
The Bridge: The Lie of A Post
Racial America
By Darryl James
President Barack Obama
did not speak it first nor proclaim it to be in place.
There has
been talk of a “Post-Racial” society, but simply put, it
is not yet here.
And it
can not be here when racist groups are sprouting all
over the nation to oppose President Obama’s very
existence as President and when the right wing
extremists go out of their way to oppose the President
in ways that have simply never been seen before.
We are
not talking about opposition to the President’s
platform, but opposition to things that the President,
frankly, has not even presented.
Are the
times really different from when dumb ass Georgie was
President? No! Is the job of President different? No!
Has the structure of the government been changed? No! Is
Obama acting without the support of the Legislative
branch of government? No!
So, if
there are no real changes in the job of President or in
the structure of government, we have to ask the
question: “Why so much opposition to President Obama?”
The
answer is simple: He is a Black President.
While it
is beautiful that he was elected by a cross-cultural
constituency, it is ugly that there remains a vigilant
element in our society that will not allow anyone to
move beyond race.
I believe
that same element employed the “Post-Racial” argument to
avoid having to deal with the persistent inequities in
both the public and private sectors and to avoid the
fact that we are perhaps more focused on race now than
we have been in a long time. And we are focused so,
simply because many nutty whites in America can not
accept that the leader of the free world is a Black man.
But the
propaganda of the “Post-Racial” lie has been
pervasive—so much so, that many nutty African Americans
believe in the illusion of inclusion, accepting the
false premise that the rise of one man has erased four
hundred years of racial preferences and racism, the
vestiges of which can still be found in every corner of
a society that is hardly “Post Racial.”
The
biggest problem is that some of us who believe that we
have “arrived,” have merely bought into the empty
promise of America—the illusion of the melting pot and
the reward for pretending that there are no racial
barriers and that hard work and education are always
rewarded for everyone.
The
belief in this illusion is the intrinsic barrier between
open and honest communication with the youth, because
they are still wise enough to know that there is a
problem. Some of them embrace that problem as a reason
to work twice as hard, while some of them embrace that
problem as a reason to give up.
We do the
youth a disservice by lying to them about America being
“Post Racial.”
Some of
us lie to them by claiming that there is no real
struggle based on the color of our skin.
We lie by
telling them that the color of our skin never held us
back and never really made a difference at all.
We lie
and tell them that we excelled because we were simply
hearty and smart individuals who embraced the American
dream.
You see,
by embracing the illusion of inclusion in America and
the “Post Racial” lie, we set up a roadblock to
understanding. Without the illusion and the lie, we
could understand ourselves and others better.
Without
the illusion and the lie, we would all be forced to
admit that schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods
remain severely underfunded.
Without
the illusion of inclusion and the “Post Racial” lie, we
would have to admit that the preparation for a better
life is less sturdy than in other neighborhoods.
And by
making these admissions, we would have to say honestly
to our white counterparts over lunch, or golf, or
cosmopolitans, that America is a dirty bitch, which
would make us stand out, God forbid, and have to carry
that damned “troublemaker” badge that our forefathers
and foremothers carried, but that many of us so timidly
shy away from.
You see,
Negroes who promote the “Post Racial” lie are unwilling
to admit that their benefits in life are the direct
result of compromise, which has little to do with those
people on the bottom who face welfare, gang warfare,
drugs, alcohol, racial profiling and hatred from some of
those above them.
The
problem is that after the Civil Rights movement, some
frightened Negroes were deathly afraid of having to do
any real work for the race, having become comfortable
with taking the benefits earned on the backs of many,
while pretending that their progress is all about the
individual.
What we
are dealing with is the same attitude felt by the
country Blacks when intermingling with the city Blacks,
which isn’t really a Black thing, but cuts across all
color lines, as city whites neither have any real desire
to interact with their rural brethren who they view as
less civilized. Part of the inheritance of integration
is that now, many citified Negroes take on that same
attitude about their brethren in impoverished areas of
the same cities.
Because
finally, for the first time since our arrival from
slavery with the empty promise of freedom, a generation
of Negroes has abdicated their responsibility of
breaking through and going back to pull up others.
This
abdication of responsibility is why we see gangs swell,
even following concerted efforts to abate their
activity, as if breathing—in with a breath of swelled
membership, and out with the deflated exhalation of
unsustainable efforts from those around them, but not
many above them.
And, with
such an abandonment of those at the bottom, why wouldn’t
the newly arrived Black intelligentsia feel
uncomfortable dealing with the truth about the first
Black President’s existence?
The truth
is that we have the potential to be harmed as much as
healed.
And, we
can be harmed if we continue to lie about being “Post
Racial” instead of working to actually become
“Post Racial.”
Honestly,
we have a great deal to lose if we fail to act properly
while we have a Black President.
With the
lie of a “Post Racial” America, it is easy for rabid
racists to advocate for the ignoring of need in
impoverished communities.
And with
that Post Racial” lie, it is easy for silly Negroes to
speak for the Black impoverished, claiming that they are
just too lazy, or too weak, or that they only want ipods
and sneakers—using these claims as excuses for refusing
to assist or to even send assistance, which would be a
loud and ringing admission of the true connection that
they are simply ignoring for the benefit of their white
friends who are really unconcerned.
Rather
than doing any real work, or really, rather than
admitting that they are one generation and a few paltry
decades away from such an existence, today’s
disconnected Negroes would rather claim to be “Post
Racial” than to do any real work.
But the
lie of a “Post Racial” America is so damaging that it
will actually prevent us from ever becoming anything but
a nation which deals with much of its domestic affairs
based on race.
Darryl
James is an award-winning author of the powerful new
anthology “Notes From The Edge.” Now, listen to Darryl
live on BlogTalkRadio.com/DarrylJames every Monday from
8-10pm, PST. View previous installments of this column
at
www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at
djames@theblackgendergap.com.
RENAISSANCE MEN: DR. PURVIS J. WILLIAMS AND RALPH
VINCENT CHASE
By
Harold Bell
|
Spingarn High
School the pride of Benning Road in the NE
Washington, DC corridor lost its first
Principal Dr. Purvis J. Williams on
September 5, 2009. Dr. Williams was 102
years old. He was the school's principal
and the heart and soul of Spingarn for two
decades.
During his
tenure as principal he affectionately
singled out his disrupted students as
"Bums and Bummerettes." We
usually heard our names called during the
morning announcements over the school's
public address system. Some of those
Bums and Bummeretts can be
found among the
Who's Who
in education, medicine, law enforcement,
politics, media and professional sports.
The Who's
Who include, teachers, principals,
University President, Police Chief, medical
doctors, a Mayor, radio and television talk
show host.
Dr.
Williams is the only public high school
principal in America who could have claimed
two of his student/athletes in the NBA Hall
of Fame (Elgin Baylor and Dave
Bing).
From 1952
until 1972 Dr. Williams called the plays and
was the undisputed leader at Spingarn High
School. He made sure his students had the
best teachers the system had to offer. He
hired only professionals with Master
Degrees.
Each
teacher was a role model who was respected
by the student body. The support team of
nurses, janitors, school cafeteria workers,
volunteers and beat cops were all respected
and important part of his team. They saved
many lives---including mine.
Dr.
Williams was a man of integrity and had
great pride in being a black man in
America.
He refused
to serve as
"Colored Superintendent
of Schools" in Washington, DC.
He was nobody's token negro.
He was born
and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. He
received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of
Arts Degrees from Howard University.
He cared
deeply about the welfare of every student
attending Spingarn. I had problems my
senior year and went astray after
being kicked off the basketball team. Dr.
Williams, Officer Ray Dixon and Assistant
Principal William T. Davis tried to
talk this
"Bum" out
of transferring to another school. I
transferred anyway.
Three high
schools and Twenty years later I coordinated
and hosted a thank you tribute to Dr.
Williams and the Spingarn faculty. The
tribute was held at
Mingles
Restaurant in downtown Washington,
DC. During the festivities Dr. Williams
came up to me with his hand out and said
"Thank you Mr. Bell I was worried
about you there for minute." He
had not forgotten and neither had I.
He made my
day! I was happy that I had not turned out
to be a real
"Bum" and I
think he was to.
On October
4, 2009 one month later a student/athlete by
the name Ralph Chase followed his principal
in death. Ralph was a native Washingtonian
and a Spingarn graduate. He grew up in the
NE Benning Road corridor in a unique public
school setting. In his neighborhood there
were 4 schools that sit on a hill. They
were Charles Young Elementary school, Brown
Middle school, Phelps Vocational
and Spingarn High Schools, all located on
the same NE street and corridor. There is no
other school setting like it in this city
and probably no other like it in America.
I met Ralph
in 1956 my freshman year and his senior year
on the Spingarn football team. He was the
starting center on a very talented team. I
looked up to him because he was a little guy
like myself. All my friends made a big deal
about my size when I decided to try out for
varsity.
Ralph
played one of the most demanding positions
on the team, nothing started until he
snapped the ball. He was the center of
attention and a quiet leader, he led by
example and always with a smile.
He helped
lead Spingarn past Armstrong High School and
its star quarterback and future NFL Hall of
Fame player, Willie Wood. We beat them 13-7
and the victory earned us a berth in the DC
Public High School Championship game. The
title game would be against Cardozo
High School at RFK Stadium. We tied them.
0-0 but
lost the game because they crossed our 50
yard line more times then we did theirs. I
thought, what away to start out your
freshman year in high school. I really
enjoyed the ride.
After
graduation Ralph moved North on up the
Baltimore/Washington Parkway to attend
Morgan State University on a football
scholarship. His new teammates looked at him
like he was joking when he told them he
played center. Their mistake, they judged
him by his size without knowing his heart.
His warrior mentality would carry him
through 4 years of college as the Morgan
State Bears' leader by example.
That same
warrior mentality would later make him a
legend on the streets of Baltimore.
Ralph was
hired by the Baltimore City Bureau of
Recreation and Parks after his graduation
and honorable discharge from the United
States Army. He worked his way up the ranks
with hard work and dedication. He started
out with the position of Recreation Leader
he was soon to become a Street Club Worker
(similar to the Roving Leader Program for
the DC Recreation Department).
He was
renowned for for his ability to communicate
with and positively influence young men in
the communities of Baltimore. His
interventions prevented many from becoming
involved with gangs and negative
lifestyles. We often talked shop when we
encountered each other in Baltimore or
alumni functions in DC.
Ralph lived
in Baltimore for 50+ years but he never
forgot his Washington roots and we never
forgot him.
On Saturday
October 10, 2009 many of us drove to
Baltimore to say goodbye and pay our last
respects to a friend, student, classmate,
teammate and neighbor.
In
attendance was his Spingarn homeroom
teacher, Dr. Theodore Hudson, his neighbor,
friend and teammate, Andrew Johnson, friends
and classmates, Leonard Mills, Charles
Evans, Chuck Cephas, Bobby and Adelaide
Thompson, George "Dee" Williams, Arthur
Davis, Claudett Elder and Johnny Morgan.
Dr.
Purvis J. Williams and
Ralph Vincent Chase were
Renaissance Men. They
really tried during their lifetime
to make children first. They must be
turning over in their graves as their
beloved high school is almost half empty
and run by a principal who speaks very
little english. Add the spectacle created
by Mayor Andrian Fenty when he hired a
Korean female to oversee a predominantly
black school system with no credentials and
background to do so. The recent firing of
229 teachers and staff by school Chancellor
Michelle Rhee has disrupted the entire
system. The bottom-line who really cares,
"They are just children and don't
vote" according to NFL Legend Jim
Brown. Thanks, Dr. Williams and Ralph for
caring.
Ralph V. Chase Sr., Stadium Manager
By Frederick N. Rasmussen
October 10, 2009
Ralph Vincent Chase Sr., a former Baltimore
City Recreation and Parks official who had
been manager of the old Memorial Stadium,
died Sunday of heart failure at Sinai
Hospital.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bal-md.ob.ci.chase10oct10,0,6789549.story
Visit
http://www.baltimoresun.com. |
Rep. Charles Rangel and Radio One COO
Alfred Liggins
CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS WEEKEND: SIGHTS and
SOUNDS OF BLACK FOLKS IN TROUBLE!
By Harold Bell
First, there was the public National Town Hall
Meeting on Thursday September 26th
titled, “Economic Recovery & Opportunity”
The Private Sector Panel and The Public
Sector Panel participants were too many dubious
characters for me. For example, the notorious
Alfred C. Liggins III, Chief Operating
Officer/President of Radio One, Inc. was a
member of The Private Sector Panel.
In May 2007 the Washington Post in a front page
story and in a column in the Business section read
(on the same page) “Losses and Static For Radio
One and A Payoff That’s Off the Dial.” The
stories exposed the mother and son team of
Cathy Hughes and Alfred Liggins running a
Ponzi scheme on Radio & TV One shareholders (owned
by Comcast).
The story reported Radio One had lost $18.3
million in the first three months of the year. The
company’s stock price closed at 86 cents. In the
meantime, Radio One’s Board of Directors was
awarding Cathy and Alfred compensation packages.
According to the Washington Post, Cathy, as Chairman
of the Board had no clear defined executive
responsibilities, but would still receive an annual
base salary of $750,000, along with a potential
bonus of $250,000. Compare that with a 2006 salary
and bonus of $560,000.
Alfred had a base salary of $573,370. In 2006, he
earned a bonus of $468, 720 for turning in the worst
financial performance in company history. The board
determined that Alfred was so valuable and essential
that his base salary had to be increased to $980,000
with a potential bonus of another $980,000.
Moving to The Public Sector, we find
ranking Black Caucus member Congressman Charlie
Rangel (D-NY). He is serving his 19th
term in office. Mr. Rangel is the first African
American chairman of the powerful House Ways and
Means Committee. The committee has jurisdiction
over taxes, social security, pensions, international
trade and medicare. Guess who is in tax trouble
with the IRS and exposed for running a rent scam out
of his Harlem district with hidden off shore bank
accounts? The Town Hall Meeting should have been
titled “How to Steal from black folks and get
away with it!” Bernie Madoff is in some
jail cell smiling.
Someone reminded me not to miss the One-on-One
commercial free interview with Radio One’s Joe
Madison and NFL Legend Jim Brown. My
response, “If I wanted to hear and see a
cheerleader and a ego tripping running back I would
go out to FEDEX Field on Sundays and watch the
Redskins.”
Then there is Michael Baisden known as
“The Bad Boy” of talk radio’s evening drive
heard in 173 cities across America (WHUR Radio in
DC). His talk show format is similar to the format
of the late great talk show pioneer, Petey Green
and The Original Inside Sports. Petey was my
mentor and partner in the community.
Mr. Baisden was in D.C. to promote his radio program
by sponsoring a boat ride on the Potomac and a
Ladies Only Tennis Tournament at Watkin’s Park
in Prince George’s County Maryland.
Brenda Gilmore
and Derek Colbert, President and
Vice-President of the USPTR respectively are
legendary for their work with youth. They
coordinated the event for Mr. Baisden. Derek is a
certified instructor for the Prince George’s
Tennis & Education Foundation. He has coached
and taught tennis all over the Washington metro
area, using tennis as a vehicle for young people.
Derek and Brenda have touched hundreds young
athletes giving them an opportunity to take their
games to the next levels (high school and college).
Derek considers me as a mentor.
When I received the call from Derek saying
“Harold, Michael Baisden the radio personality is
hosting a tennis tournament for Ladies Only
here at the park, if you are not doing anything come
on out and give us some play.”
I very seldom if ever listen to talk radio but I
have caught Mr. Baisden’s show while riding with my
video/photographer Michael Lucas who seems to enjoy
his format.
To me talk radio no longer has the spontaneity.
Every show seems to be rehearsed. The host has a
producer that takes his calls and screens them (what
is your name, where are you calling from and what is
the topic?). I took calls on the fly and enjoyed
not knowing who was calling or their comments or
questions.
I never hung the telephone up on a listener because
they disagreed with me as I hear some talk show host
do. I would say, “You got 60 seconds and I have
to take the next caller.”
Mr. Baisden is known as the “Bad Boy” of talk
radio. I was known as ‘The Bad Boy’
of sports talk radio during 80s and 90s and I still
don’t have a cut card when it comes to community
fraud. With that common denominator, there have
been segments of Mr. Baisden’s show that have held
my interest. He does not seem to duck the issues.
Sometimes it is best to listen to people from a
distance than to see them up close and personal.
What you hear and what you see can be totally
different. Too often they become
disappointments---meet Michael Baisden.
Like most radio personalities with talk shows he is
a know it all and has a BIG MOUTH (the kettle
calling the pot black). The difference, I was a
community personality long before I became a radio
personality.
One of my “pet peeves,” are media and sports talk
show personalities who become experts on the
community after they become
“on-air” personalities. Check their track records
in the community before they got on the air.
Jonetta Rose Barras,
is a columnist for the Washington Examiner
newspaper. Ms. Barras wrote a column on Monday
September 21, 2009 leading into Caucus Weekend
titled “Mission Accomplished,” as it related
to DC Mayor Adrian Fenty. I challenged her
observation with “Accomplished for whom?” I
wanted to know when she became an expert on politics
in the DC community. Her response, “I have been
covering D.C. politics for over 20 years and I
started two non-profit organizations.” WOW!
I said to her, “I have never heard of you. When
did you become an expert, before or after you became
a media personality?” She responded in kind,
“I have never heard of you.” I immediately
e-mailed her the link to my web page. She e-mailed
me back saying “It is time for me to move, I have
no time for ego-trips.” I think that was her
way of saying “I surrender.” Mayor Fenty’s
disapproval rating in the black community along with
his school Chancellor Michelle Rhee is close to
60%. Ms. Rhee just fired 229 teachers. The
students have taken to the streets and said,
“Enough is enough.” Mission Accomplished?
Back to “The Bad Boy,” while the teams of
women were being picked to play Mr. Baisden I picked
up a racket to help warm him up. I introduced
myself as a member of the press (Inside Sports
with business card). He claimed he knew all
about my show and enjoyed the segments.
I was also wearing my Congressional Black Caucus
issued press credential. I made it clear that I
would like to interview him at the conclusion of the
day’s matches, he said no problem. I then moved to
the net to referee.
Michael Baisden’s tennis game is mediocre at best
but he has only been playing 6 months so I gave him
some slack. When the players finally took the court
I noticed his partner was a young man and definitely
not a woman. His tennis partner was one of the
center’s best young players, Temple University grad
Gary Tobias (a ringer).
Mr. Baisden made it perfectly clear “I did not
come out here to lose.” I have seen his kind
they will win at any cost.
When Brenda tried to throw former pro tennis great
Zina Garrison (wearing high heels) into the
mix Mr. Baisden and his young partner beat her and
her partner in a tie-breaker (9-7). It was all in
fun. Zina was a good sport.
As the program closed out Brenda relieved me of my
referee duties so that I could get in a few licks
with Mr. Baisden. We played a 6 game set and my
partner and I lost 4-2. I missed a couple easy
volleys at the net that could have made us a
winner. I was satisfied with my performance after
such a long layoff.
I then followed-up my request for an interview and
his response “Let’s do it on the way out.”
No problem. Once outside he pretends to be in a
hurry and changes his mind. He says ‘I don’t do
impromptu interviews’ and then directs me
to make an appointment with one of his gofers.
I am standing there looking at this brother who
seems to think he is the late great Ed Bradley
(60 Minutes) but he is really nothing more then a
black man with a talk radio show in black America.
Michael Baisden
is one of the best examples, why Black America still
finds itself slowly moving to the back of the bus.
We continue to be our own worst enemy. When I was
the outspoken voice of sports talk radio I gave
everyone an opportunity to interview me and an
opportunity to be a guest on my show. That guest
list now reads like a Who’s Who in radio and
television media.
What Mr. Baisden is doing someone else has already
done. I paved the road for media in the community
that he now travels.
The following Monday I am riding with Michael
Lucas and I remind him to not forget to turn on
the Michael Baisden show. I am interested in
his update for the caucus weekend.
He opens the show blasting the Redskins for losing
to the hapless Detroit Lions (rightfully so). He
continues his tirade on how the DC area had a bad
weekend that included him beating tennis pro and
legend Zina Garrison. He goes on to brag
about how many people he has helped and how much
money he has!!!
On his flight out of Washington he claims to have
encountered former Dallas Cowboy running back
Emmitt Smith and his wife on the plane. Emmitt
looks to be asleep as he passes by but his wife
waves a hello. He goes on to tell his audience that
Emmitt was only pretending to be asleep because he
saw him talking to his wife after he was seated.
Mr. Baisden then trashes Emmitt and says “I hate
the Dallas Cowgirls and I hope they lose
every game.” Sounds like hurt feelings to me!
During his show he calls a brother in Memphis,
Tennessee who has been perched on a rooftop for
close to a week trying to raise $30,000 to help
at-risk children in his community and school. Mr.
Baisden pretends to be outraged and surprised that
the brother had been up on the roof for a week and
had not been able to raise the end of the needed
monies ($700). He then pledged the $700 to get the
brother off the rooftop, but someone beat him to
it. He then promised the brother he would be
booking a flight to Memphis to speak to the kids at
his school. Something did not sound right to me
about the broadcast. It sounded like a set-up!
I decided to check this brother out and see if I
could uncover the real Michael Baisden.
First, I checked with the folks who helped
coordinate the tennis outing at Watkins Park
to see if he had made a contribution to their
non-profit Tennis and Education Foundation.
He left D.C. without making a donation but promised
to comeback and help with a fundraiser! If he has
so much money as he bragged about on his show, why
not write a check for $50,000 to the Tennis &
Education Foundation? The program is a tax
deductible non-profit 501c3 organization, making it
a tax write off for a rich brother like him.
Something is wrong with this radio show and
picture!
I then decided to check him out further in his
hometown of Chicago. The Black Star Project
is a Chicago based organization that is doing great
works with trying to save our children. The CEO
Phillip Jackson and I started to NETWORK
about three years ago. Last year Mr. Jackson
invited me to participate in a Media Roundtable
Conference Call to give statistics on youth
violence here in the DC Metropolitan area.
Mr. Jackson has challenged the powers-to-be from
“Homeboy” President Barack Obama, Oprah,
Mayor Daley, Jesse Jackson, etc to help stop the
flow of our children’s blood in the streets of
Chicago. Mr. Baisden along with the other so-called
concerned powers-to-be have acted like “The Three
Little Monkeys,” hear no evil, speak no evil, see no
evil and read no evil.
The Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago
Tribune have published several timely articles
on the plight of the Black Star Project and
its courageous CEO Phillip Jackson. One
recent column questioned the priorities of President
Obama and his wife Michelle a native of Chicago.
They boarded a plane along with Oprah and a cast of
stars to travel to Sweden to make a bid to bring the
Olympic Games to Chicago in 2016.
In the meantime young people’s blood is flowing in
the streets like water!!! Michael Baisden
didn’t make the trip but was still missing in
action. When I asked Mr. Jackson about “The Bad
Boy’s” contributions to The Black Star
Project, he said, “He mentioned the Million
Father March on his program once.”
The good news is that after returning home from
Sweden and losing the bid to bring the 20016 Olympic
Games to Chicago, President Obama is sending his
Attorney General Eric Holder and others to
Chicago to meet with Mayor Daley to discuss youth
violence in the streets of Chicago. Mr. Jackson
should be at the table.
Mr. Baisden was heard to say on his nationally
syndicated radio show “I had no idea all this
violence was going on!” The blind continues to
lead the blind.
The Bridge: The Obama Conundrum
By Darryl James
I said it during the presidential campaign and I
said it when Barack Obama was elected.
His election will be used to polarize a nation,
rather than unite it.
Although more of us are smarter and beyond racism
than we used to be, there are still corners of
racism that will hold on with tooth and nail to a
world they are comfortable with.
That world is a world where Blacks and whites are
bifurcated in language, culture and living quarters.
And the conundrum Obama represents is both good and
bad.
It’s good because Obama’s existence is forcing
racism to be played out in the most public manner
possible on the world stage, which means that more
people with open minds and hearts can see how
ignorant and ugly racism is and so move away from
pretending that it does not exist.
It’s bad because all of the venom held by the
confused angry racists is beginning to boil to the
surface once again.
Those of us who paid attention and who have working
brains understood the schism between the young
progressive whites who supported change and the
backwoods redneck dirt farmers who refuse to move
beyond outdated ideas of Black people.
And the dirty, dirty media plays a great role in
fanning the flames by overemphasizing and beating
discussions to death.
But what all of those things create is an atmosphere
where the entire world can see that America is still
very much focused on race and racism. No matter who
denies it or pretends that it isn’t a major issue,
America is not “Post-Racial.”
This nation has made a major symbolic move, but it
is still sullied by the angry jackasses who are
driven by their hatred.
Most of the anger stems from the same place that
always provides anger—the pain of lower and middle
class white America.
The recession hit the nation hard, but was taken
more to heart by whites than any other group. This
group traditionally holds the belief that they are
more American than anyone else, and accordingly,
should benefit more and suffer less.
Unfortunately for them, the current tide of change
did not discriminate and ravaged communities all
across racial lines. That ravaging has left many
whites angry, feeling desperate and looking for
someone to blame.
Ushered into the White House on a tide of desired
change that followed changes in society,
particularly the nation’s demographics, President
Obama is now the icon for change, and for many
angry, frightened whites, the icon for all that is
wrong with America.
His iconic existence facilitates the anger of those
angry whites who ignored the eight years of wanton
warfare and economic depravity waged by George W and
facilitates singular focus on the rapid changes
sought by the nation’s first Black president.
Hiding behind Obama’s pursuit of health-care reform,
frothing racists claim that Obama will usher in
socialism and dictatorship and so liken him to
Adolph Hitler, of all people.
But anyone with a working brain can see the
opposition is more directed at Obama the Black man,
and not really at any policy.
A cursory examination of Obama’s health care policy
pursuits reveal distortions and outright lies by
opponents who clearly oppose the man and not the
policies.
These same people show up to rally against health
care plans as well as Obama’s bailout programs,
which curiously extend on the bailouts Bush
initiated.
After all, where were these people when Bush was
grinding the nation and the world economy into the
ground?
Curiously silent.
So, it confuses me when I hear anyone—Black, white
or otherwise—refer to America as “Post-Racial.”
From what I can see, race and racism are in the
forefront like never before.
And really, that’s part and parcel of the Obama
Conundrum.
While the first African American President
represents change, to some Americans, he also
represents everything that is wrong and ugly about
America.
He represents change because a great deal of people
of all colors had to come together to get him
elected. Frankly, many of us never thought we would
see the day.
But he also represents everything wrong and ugly,
for the throngs of stupid Americans who have begun
to raise him as a scapegoat for all that has gone
awry, using his image to fill the rosters of hate
groups and to fuel hateful racist activities, while
claiming that there is no more racism because of his
election.
As for the Blacks who are raging against Obama, they
are no different than the bonehead Negroes who
opposed Dr. King and who supported Reagan and both
Bushes. These self hating ignorant Negroes come out
of the woodwork in order to disagree with things
that frankly, don’t exist.
However, it should come as no surprise to anyone
that whites at the lower end of the economic strata
would start to show their racist stripes. These are
the same people who have traditionally promulgated
racial strife.
And, if we take a look at who voted for Obama
(younger whites) and who now believe that they are
under siege (older whites), we begin to understand
why racial strife is re-emerging.
Our current economic climate has been harsh to older
white men who have seen their unemployment rate hit
nearly twice that of the national average, while
Blacks and Hispanics have not even come close to
setting records.
To the frightened, angry white man, people of color
are to blame, particularly those Black people who
“took their jobs.”
Of course no person of color has literally taken the
jobs of older white men. This is simply the code of
the racists who want to lead the white brigades
against the men of color who now have the potential
to make them the real minority and, in their minds,
take over the country with the election of a Black
president.
And of course they are speaking and acting in code.
The strongest taboo in America is to admit to
racism. America has spent more than forty years
denying that the vestiges of racism have a strong
toehold on pockets of the nation.
But what else would explain the upsurge in hate
groups and the sudden widespread interest by older
whites in the minutia of national policy?
It’s like watching a sporting event where one team
scores, yet the announcer says that the other team
is playing hard and leading the game.
We saw this with the beating of Rodney King, where
an entire nation and a jury refused to see the
beating of a Black man by a group of white men.
It’s an ugly game of smoke and mirrors.
The nation is being polarized and the first Black
president is being stuck right in the middle of
controversy that he did not create and is not
addressing.
The same groups of people who coalesced around Obama
to put him in office will have to continue to stand
together even as they are being pulled in many
directions by fractured interest groups.
They must deal with some confounding puzzles.
In order for the nation to become truly
“Post-Racial,” it must finally deal with its racist
legacy.
That’s a major part of the Obama Conundrum.
Darryl James is an award-winning author of
the powerful new anthology “Notes From The Edge.”
Now, listen to Darryl live on BlogTalkRadio.com/DarrylJames
every Monday from 8-10pm, PST. View previous
installments of this column at
www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. You
can reach James at
djames@theblackgendergap.com.
Inside Scoop: The Real
Barack Obama Revealed!
By John F. Wasik
Socialist. Communist.
Hitler. Racist. The Joker. Has any president in recent
memory been called so many names so quickly in
his tenure?
It took a second term for
George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon to
achieve pariah status among their detractors. President
Obama is getting the primary-schoolyard name-calling
treatment in his first eight months.
Yet I predict President
Obama will defy all of these malicious and ridiculously
undeserved labels to achieve something few maligned
chief executives have been able to accomplish: He will
establish social capitalism as a new guiding
political philosophy for the world’s largest economy.
If Obama succeeds – and I
believe he will – he may be able to diffuse the tired
old monikers of liberal, socialist and centrist. Put
those stickers in a drawer. They don’t precisely
describe Barack Obama.
As I discovered in
researching my book The Audacity of Help: Obama’s
Economic Plan and the Remaking of America (www.audacityofhelp.net),
President Obama has espoused a hybrid political
philosophy. As a student of history, I’d say he’s closer
to Teddy Roosevelt than Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yet
he’s got a “Green Deal” working instead of a “Square” or
“New” deal.
Like Teddy and Franklin
Roosevelt, President Obama is keenly aware of history
and is a man of his times. Unlike his Square and New
Deal predecessors, though, Obama has professed no desire
to break up corporations or take them to court – even
when you can make a strong argument for reducing the
size of the largest financial service companies.
Inheriting the worst
debacle since the Great Depression, Obama has chosen the
path of a social capitalist. He has laid the
groundwork for government being a responsible steward.
Not interested in nationalizing anything, he wants to
bolster banks to make them healthy then move onto other
national priorities.
As part of his Green Deal
philosophy, clearly economic growth is more important
than controlling boardrooms and executive compensation.
This is his University of Chicago intellectual
background speaking.
President Obama told CNBC
he has a “strong inclination” against a second stimulus
package, although he’s hoping that the first stimulus
plan can spur private-sector jobs in roadbuilding, green
energy, broadband, electrical grid modernization,
high-speed rail, medical research and thousands of other
projects throughout the country. Some of those promises
have come to fruition, but a long-range plan on
infrastructure repair and development is necessary if
we’re going to compete with China and the rest of the
global economy.
If anything, the Obama
stimulus and budget plans have provided significant but
not overly generous seed money for all of these areas in
the hope that private industry will replace the nearly 7
million jobs lost since the recession began in December,
2007. As such, in terms of sheer dollars, the Obama
Administration (particularly the Department of Energy)
has become the largest venture capital entity in the
country.
If Obama was a true socialist,
he would have broken up the strangleholds that major
insurers have in most state and local markets in health
insurance and reduced the size of the largest banks – or
taken them over. Even his financial services reform
proposal pretty much leaves powerful insurance companies
alone, even though their abuses in health-insurance
claims, annuity and securities sales have been
profligate.
Refocusing on the
economy, Obama is hewing close to his blueprint for
financial reforms to save capitalism from itself.
Keep in mind that other
than the disappearance of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers,
Merrill Lynch, Countrywide Financial, Washington Mutual,
Wachovia Securities and dozens of smaller banks, little
has changed on Wall Street.
The biggest banks got
bigger (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, et al). The
government has veer from the “too big to fail”
philosophy, which means we could have another global
meltdown again. Nevertheless, Wall Street likes the
deregulated status quo and is lobbying intensely to kill
financial reform.
“I don’t think they’re
going to succeed in killing it,” Obama said bravely of
his effort to push through financial reforms. “I’m going
to stop them from killing it.”
Yet Obama’s social
capitalism will prevail because wiser global financial
forces will demand it. We’ve already seen the
devastation of unfettered free-market capitalism. Just
look at the 1870s, 1890s, 1929-41, 1974, 1999-2002 and
the disaster last year. The next global iceberg
collision will make 1930 look like a Disney musical.
While I’m not sure booms,
busts and bubbles can be managed, we can certainly
devise better warning systems and investor safeguards.
No matter what you call Obama, here’s his most
boiled-down mantra: Protect the weak from the ravages of
greed. In the words of T.R, “bully” to that.
Author Bio
John F. Wasik, author
of The Audacity of Help: Obama's Economic Plan and
the Remaking of America, is the author of twelve
books, including The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome and The
Merchant of Power. He speaks widely and writes a
weekly Bloomberg News column that reaches readers of
five continents and which earned him the 2009 Peter
Lisagor award for journalism. He lives in Chicago.
For more information
please visit www.audacityofhelp.net.
Click here to
read Gary Johnson's book review of The
Audacity of Help: Obama's Economic Plan and the Remaking
of America.
RACISM IS A SPORT IN AMERICA:
EVERYBODY PLAYS!
By Harold Bell
Congressman Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) recent
outburst on the House floor is just the tip of the
iceberg of racism in America. He yelled “You lie”
during a speech by President Barack Obama as he tried to
explain his position on health care reform to Congress.
Former President Jimmy Carter said, “The
outburst by Joe was based on racism and rooted in the
fears of a Black President.”
I totally agree some white folks in America just
won’t get over the fact that a black man is the
President of the United States.
The white media is leading the charge. You can count
on one hand the Talking Heads on cable television
when discussing the President of the United States who
will use words like “Mr. or President.” You would
think they were talking about one of their drinking
buddies at the local bar.
Racism is a lot like alcohol, people can usually hide
their true feelings until they have had one too many
drinks. The alcohol gives them a comfort zone to be who
they really are and the truth comes to light. Racism
has that same intoxicating effect.
For example; friends and family defending the actions
of Joe Wilson were heard to say “There is not
a racist bone in my dad’s body he does not even laugh at
distasteful jokes.” Alan Wilson is an Iraq veteran
and is running for the office of State’s Attorney.
Former South Carolina Democratic Chairman and long
time friend Dick Harpootlian said, “I think
Joe’s conduct was asinine, but I think it would be
asinine no matter what color of the President. I don’t
think that Joe’s outburst was caused by President Obama
being African-American. I think it was caused by no
filter being between his mouth and his brain” that
is the effect racism has on a true racist.
I would like to make one think perfectly clear about
racism in America white folks don’t have a patent on it,
some of the biggest racist in America are black. The
list is too long for me to name all of them.
In many cases we are our own worst enemy. This is
true of those who are black and think they have made it
in America because they have two-dollars more than their
brothers and sisters. They often refuse to reach back
and pull someone else along. They are too busy being
“Exclusive instead of Inclusive.”
Essence Magazine in its August 2009 issue
published a story titled “Black Women behaving
badly.” The story revealed the back stabbing and
petty envy and jealousy taking place in the Boardrooms
of Corporate America, Hollywood studios, on Capitol
Hill, beauty parlors and in black families among sisters
and brothers. It is no different among black men. It
is an all too familiar story.
Where do our black children look for their heroes and
role models in a Racist and Player Hating
America?
NBA pioneer and superstar Spencer Haywood once
told me “If a child has to look beyond his dinner
table for his heroes, they are in trouble.”
NBA Hall of fame player Charles Barkley once
shouted for everyone to hear “I am not your child’s
hero and if I am you as parents are doing a piss poor
job in raising them.”
This column was inspired not only by a guy named Joe,
but by a recent e-mail I received from a friend.
Attached to the e-mail was a video of a young man making
a presentation during Black History Month 2008.
Johnathan McCoy looks to be 10 years old.
His presentation was related to the black community’s
disparaging use of the N-word. He reminds the
audience that they are descendants of Kings and Queens
and they are not economically, politically or socially
disenfranchised as some would have us to believe.
He closed the program by singing his
version of the Negro National anthem, “Lift Every
Voice and Sing.” My friend was really and truly
inspired by little Jonathan’s presentation and
performance and I was also.
She said, “This young man is awesome. He keeps
hope alive.” I thought to myself ‘One out of two
ain’t bad.’
It should not be some LITTLE Jonathan’s
responsibility to keep hope alive it should be some
BIG Jonathan's keeping hope alive.
In 2009 our children are looking for us to lead them
and not for them to lead us.
There are blacks in positions of leadership who are
making it very difficult for our children to see blacks
in leadership roles. For example: The Nation’s Capitol
is the SEAT of power in America.
We have a Black President and Black Mayor sitting in
those seats but DC still has one the worst public school
systems in America. A black President may be new to the
landscape, but we have had black Mayors and a non-voting
representative in Congress for decades and nothing has
changed for our children.
Washington, DC has one of the worst public school
systems in America. What makes it even more difficult
is that black children across the country are dropping
out of school at alarming rates (50%).
The Black President and Black Mayor see their kids
off to the best schools Monday through Friday. In the
meantime inner-city children whose parents are not the
President of the United States and Mayor of the Nation’s
Capitol attend the worst schools.
Leaders
must lead by example!
How many times have you heard a politician use the
sound bite while running for office “Children First?”
To make sure our children continue to fail the Black
Mayor hires an Asian woman by the name of Michelle Rhee
to head a predominantly black school system.
Ms. Rhee had no administrative background experience
on her resume. The Mayor tries to hide her lack of
experience and skills by naming her to a newly created
position titled “Chancellor.”
The Chancellor’s duties, reminds many of the duties
of “The Turk” one the most feared men in the NFL
during the pre-season. He receives the names of the
players cut by the coach and hand carries them the pink
slip. Players are often found hiding in their closets
and under their beds when he knocks on the door. Ms.
Rhee strikes that same kind of fear among DC school
teachers. She is known as “The Hachett Woman” of
the DC government (closing schools and firing teachers).
Ms. Rhee recently passed the pink slip and removed
the black Principal at all black historical landmark
Spingarn High School (total enrollment 2 Hispanics).
She replaced him with a Hispanic principal who can
barely speak English.
We at (Spingarn alumni) sit on the sidelines and act
like the “Three Little Monkeys.” Hear no evil, see
no evil and speak no evil.
I wondered where the Spingarn Alumni was during this
upheaval. Probably some where having a party over here
and picnic over there!
Historical Langston Golf Course sits directly
across the street from Spingarn. As a youngster growing
up and going to school on the 24th Street
Benning Road NE corridor I watched Legendary black
athletes like boxing champions Joe Louis and
Sugar Ray Robinson play golf at this historical
landmark. Pro golfers like Charlie Sifford, Lee
Elder, Jim Thorpe and Jim Dent made the
course their home away from home. Jim Dent still
stops by when he is in town to give golf clinics for the
children.
Long time black residents and golfers have
successfully segregated themselves from the golf
course. They can be found hanging out there Monday
through Friday but disappear as the weekend approaches!
Asians, Hispanics and white golfers take over the course
on the weekends, is this Volunteered Slavery?
In my life time I have been an eyewitness to the
march across the Selma bridge, three little girls blown
up in church, the lynching of Emmett Till, civil
rights activist Medgar Evers shot down in his
driveway, the bodies of three civil rights workers found
in a Mississippi swamp, the assassinations of a
President and his brother, Martin Luther King,
and Malcom X. And we are still singing We
Shall Overcome and trying to keep hope alive?
Did those brave men and women sacrifice their lives
to watch a black Mayor hire a white female police chief
and her second in command a white female. He hired a
Hispanic to lead the DC Recreation Department with an
interpreter by her side--"No speak English!"
Mayor Fenty does not have one black woman or man
heading any department in his administration. What was
once “Chocolate City” is going vanilla in a
hurry.
The new
flavor of the Fenty administration is vanilla.
The DC City Council is the worst I have ever
seen, it is the blind leading the blind. They can’t
even see the Washington Metro Rail system needing an
overdue overhaul from top to bottom. Instead of them
saving lives before the accidents and crashes, they are
seen at the crash sites pulling the bodies out after the
fact, over and over again.
GM John
Catoe and the Metro Board allow bus drivers to have
three major accidents a year before they are
suspended!!!
In Prince George's County, Maryland, County
Executive Jack Johnson and State’s Attorney Glenn
Ivey are just as bad or worst. They recently
claimed they could not find the murder of a young black
man who was executed KKK style (broken neck) in
an Upper Marlboro jail cell. His cell was in a secured
part of the facility with guards and cameras. There
is something is wrong with this picture!
Last but not least are “The Pimps in the Pulpits”
of our churches. They are like roaches, once they gain
entry they are hard to get rid of.
Churches are the NEW liquor stores in the
black community. There is now one on every corner
and business is so good some pimping preachers have two
churches.
Have you checked out your church lately, I checked
out my church?
My great-grandfather laid the first brick to build
Mt. Airy Baptist Church in 1893. The historical
landmark is located at North Capitol and L Streets in NW
Washington, DC.
The Bell family is no longer involved in the
day-to-day activities of the church. Bell
family discord is the primary reason. When my
great-uncle the Rev. Earl Tyler died we allowed
one pimp after another to take over.
Several years ago one preacher and several deacons
were seen on the television evening news being led out
of the church in handcuffs.
I recently attended Mt. Airy for a funeral and
discovered little has changed. The church has a new
pastor by the name of Rev. Larry B. West. He is
a slick talking pimp in the making. Someone needs to
tell him, “It is best to be thought a fool than to
open his mouth and remove all doubt.”
There are still too many of us talking Godly but not
acting Godly---meet Rev. West.
Black folks are still looking for love and God in all
the wrong places.
Racism, Joe and the man in the mirror continue to be
our biggest enemies.
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those
who do evil, but because of those who look on and do and
say nothing.--Albert Einstein
About the Author
Harold Bell is the Godfather of Sports Talk radio
and television. He is a sixth generation Washingtonian,
youth advocate and pioneer in radio and television
sports talk shows in DC. Harold was the first black to
host and produce a sports special in prime time (1975)
on NBC WRC TV-4 (The Original Inside Sports). Harold has
dedicated the last several decades to securing the
rights of citizens and protecting children through his
organization Kids In Trouble, Inc.
THE LUCK OF THE IRISH: ALI A FREE MAN IN
IRELAND?
By Harold Bell
Muhammad Ali with his wife Lonnie
Ali (right) and daughter Hana (left)
in Ennis Co.Clare Ireland.
Many Black Americans have traced their ancestry roots back to
Africa
and millions more don’t have a clue who they are and
where they came from. Ali is now saying, “Top this
one.”
History will record this visit and you can take your pick whether
it was Black History or White History that discovered
that Abe Grady settled in
Kentucky in the
1860’s. He married a free slave and one of the
grandchildren was Ali’s mother Odessa Lee Grady Clay.
Mrs. Clay gave birth to “The Greatest” aka Cassius in
1942.
Genealogists (people who trace or study the descent of persons or
families) discovered Ali’s ancestry links in 2002, but
this was Ali’s first visit to
Ireland
since he fought and knocked out Alvin Lewis in July
1972.
During his visit in the town of
Ennis
he met distant relatives at celebrations held at a local
town hall and a Castle. I can imagine the thrill of
meeting for the first time the most famous and
recognizable athlete in the world. He is a man held in
high esteem and seen as a hero all over the world.
People traveled hundreds of miles from across
Ireland
to see the former three time heavyweight champion, among
them veteran Irish boxers who sparred with Ali in
New York training decades ago.
Former Irish national champ Jim O'Sullivan recalled
sparring with Ali and his trainer Angelo Dundee during a
U.S.
tour by Irish boxers in 1978 -- and wished he'd known
then that "The Greatest" was "just a Paddy like us."
"We'd have dearly loved to have known he was that wee
bit Irish. We'd have given him some stick," O'Sullivan
said, using an Irish expression for good-natured
ribbing.
It is estimated there were 15,000 people (population 23,000) on the
parade route waving red, white and blue flags on the
streets of Ennis. The town is located in western,
Ireland. The streets
were decorated with red and white flags and the shops
along the parade route competed to display the most
impressive posters honoring the champ. There was one
display that sure didn’t make one local politician
happy. The poster showed Ali getting ready to knockout
the unpopular Irish politician. Then again he probably
has the poster now mounted on his home wall.
Along the parade route Ali offered a few playful jabs to cameras
but made no public comments. He steered clear of
throngs of autograph-seekers, among them hundreds of
kids whose schools closed early for the event. Police
blocked off roads and kept crowds in line with railings.
Mayor Frankie Neylon presented Ali with a scroll and
proclaimed him Ennis’s first “Freeman,” and honor
conveying him special privileges in the
County
Clare town of 23,000. The
mayor said the most valuable privilege would be free
parking.
The privilege would be worth something if Ali could have the
parking privileges transferred to
New York City
and Washington,
DC.
I know the most painful part his visit was when he had to bypass
the children. He loves inter-acting with children.
During his career pretty women often had to take a back
seat when there were little children present. I would
not have believed it but I saw it with my own eyes. His
love of children is clearly defined in a television
interview I produced and hosted on NBC TV-4 here in
Washington, DC in 1974 (now on video at
www.hbsportslegends.com).
Lonnie, Ali's wife and traveling companion said, “Ali’s Irish blood
might help explain his legendary ability to bludgeon his
opponents with blarney as well as punches. When you
look at Muhammad's pugilistic skills and his loquacious
ways, I am sure if his great-grandfather was alive, he
would swear it came from him. If he were alive today I
bet he would be in every pub talking about it too."
My last encounter with Ali was here in
Washington,
DC, in 2005. His daughter Laila Ali
fought on the undercard of Mike Tyson vs. Kevin
McBride. This was Mike’s ill fated comeback try at the
Verizon
Center. He pulled a Roberto
Duran “No Mas” and quit sitting on his stool in the
sixth round.
Due to my late arrival I had no idea Ali and Laila’s mother
Veronica were ringside.
Immediately after Tyson quit I spotted Ali’s brother Rachman making
his way to the exit. We had not seen each other in at
least 20 years. We hugged and shook hands. It was then
he told me that the champ was in the house.
Rachman and I shared a special bond during the glory days of his
brother. He was my eyes and ears and kept me in touch
with Ali. On this night he would take up where he had
left off. He directed me to a black Cadillac Escalade
in the parking garage. He told me to wait there for the
champion.
The five minute wait seem like five hours but sudden around the
corner I spotted this crowd of people headed toward the
Cadillac. It was Ali and Veronica and a throng of fans
trying to get Ali’s attention. His security had their
hands full, but when spotted me he pushed everyone aside
and embraced me like a long lost friend.
I had pictures of us together with Veronica when they were courting
in the 70’s and Laila was just a thought. I brought the
pictures to surprise Laila after the fight, but I was
the one surprised by “The Greatest.”
Muhammad Ali, ex-wife Veronica and Harold Bell
When Ali saw the pictures his eyes got so big and he motioned for
someone to give him a pen. He wanted to autograph the
pictures for me and I told him “Champ you don’t have to
sign these pictures” it was then I heard Rachman yell
‘Harold he wants to.’
I knew it would be a difficult task because of the Parkinson, but
he managed to sign them anyway. He never forgot.
In 2006, Ali sold the rights to his name and likeness for $50
million dollars and 20% of the net. The venture is
operated by a company called G.O.A.T. LLC, an acronym
for the “The Greatest of All Time.”
Ali and Lonnie were expected to work with CKX, Inc., to market his
interest around the world. The deal includes trademarks
owned by the boxing great. The inside word is that
Lonnie and the champ have had little or no input since
they signed the deal. Money does not buy peace of mind
peace of mind is not for sale.
I can imagine the trip to
Ireland
was a refreshing and an eye-opening once in a lifetime
experience.
Ali is now 67 years old and he is in the biggest fight of his
life. The fight is against the dreaded Parkinson
disease. The disease has robbed him of most of his
physical attributes but his mind is still sharp.
Despite the discovery of his Irish roots, don’t look for Ali to
disown or change his African roots and status and become
an Ire-blac like other black athletes of mixed
heritage.
He understands the rules have not changed and that one drop of
black blood still makes him a full blooded
African/Nigger/Negro/black man in
America
(all four words are found and defined in Webster’s New
Collegiate Dictionary). In
America
he is still addressed by some with any of the four names
found in the dictionary.
Ali is a Free Man in Ireland
but still an African/Nigger/Negro/black man in
America. Some things
change but others remain the same. Barack Obama the
first African/Nigger/Negro/black President of the
United States is the best
example, some white folks just won’t get over it.
Michael Vick: Right Owner, Right Coach, Right
Team, WRONG CITY!
By Harold Bell
Click here to check
out Harold Bell's blazing hot commentary on
our syndicated blog.
BLACK LIFE IN AMERICA: THERE IS NEVER AN
EVEN PLAYING FIELD!
By Harold Bell
Some of the Worlds’ greatest playground basketball
players have come out of New York City. Hoop stars
like Connie Hawkins, Nate “Tiny” Archibald, Pop
Gates, Jack DeFares, John Isaacs, Carl Green,
etc. There was another playground basketball player
visiting their city recently.
President Barack Obama
was there to address the NAACP on their 100th
Anniversary. He didn’t bring back memories of those
great players. The left-handed jump shooter’s
cross-over move to the podium in the ‘Big Apple’
made Earl Monroe’s move look mediocre.
President Obama made it clear from the very
beginning of his 37 minute speech, that his recent
historical move into the White House proves there
have been some improvements in race relations in
America. He also reminded us there is still plenty
of work to be done.
He clearly understands in 2009 that when “White
America” catches a cold, ‘Black America catches
pneumonia.’
We are the most murdered; most incarcerated and
suffer more unemployment then any other group of
people in America. We are the victims of all of
these things in a country that we help build.
The day after his speech a front page story in the
Washington Post read, “Obama addresses the
Race Issue in America for the first time.” Where is
a better time and place to address race relations
then in front of an organization that has spent the
last 100 years fighting racism? Maybe he should
have waited until his next trip to Ben’s Chili
Bowl and discussed the race issue while eating a
hamburger.
It was in 1947 in New York City that the great
Jackie Robinson kicked racism in the butt. He kicked
in doors of America’s number one past time, Major
League Baseball. Brooklyn Dodger owner Branch Rickey
pleaded with Jackie to “Turn the other cheek” until
white folks were comfortable seeing him on their
‘Field of Dreams.’"
He had baseballs thrown at his head, players would
slide into second base with spikes high, fans yelled
“Nigger go home,” they spit on him, and released
black cats on the field to dishonor him and Black
America. Some of his teammates got into the act.
He kept his word and held his temper and made all of
us proud. He died at the young age of 53 of a
broken heart. He held in his anger too long.
The Jackie Robinson Foundation
recently held an awards ceremony at George
Washington University in Washington, DC. They
presented Washington Post sports writer Michael
Wilbon and WJLA TV 7 anchorwoman
Maureen Bunyan awards in his name. I wondered
how and why? Jackie Robinson was a man of
integrity and kept his word!
Jackie must be turning over in his grave to see the
state of Major League Baseball in 2009. Black
Americans on the field play have become an
“Endangered Species.” Their numbers have dwindled
to a precious few.
He would not recognize the billion-dollar stadiums.
Where there were once signs reading “Whites only”
water fountains, a bottle of water would now cost
him $5.00 and a cup of beer $8.00.
With his salary in the 1950s he could not afford to
buy a beer and bag of peanuts in today’s ball parks.
Today Major League Baseball players are the highest
paid professional athletes in American sports.
Fifty-two years after Jackie Robinson, there
are still no Black owners in Major League Baseball.
Frank Robinson,
the one player who had all the fire, skills and
characteristics of Jackie has been banished to the
front office of Major League Baseball. The reason,
he refused to “Turn the other cheek.” The same
cheek Jackie Robinson turned 52 years ago.
The Washington Nationals are now the laughing stock
and worst team in Major League Baseball since his
departure.
I applaud Frank for not allowing the Washington
Nationals team owners to throw him a bone after
firing him. They wanted to give him a day in his
honor at the stadium. He politely told them to stick
their day where the sun didn't shine.
There are still no "Even Playing Fields" in Major
League Baseball. Baseball’s “Field of Dreams” has
become the nightmares of Black Americans.
Black men were the first professional athletes in
America. They carried the colors on the plantations
during slavery. The slave owners became fat, rich
and bored. Some decided they needed some leisure
time and felt there was a need to be entertained.
The slave owners organized competition between the
plantations. There were boxing matches (fights to
death), track and field events, horse racing, etc.
Money and sometimes plantations and slaves were a
part of the wager process. Some outstanding
performances won some slaves their freedom and cost
others their lives.
The Kentucky Derby is the showcase of the racing
world, a former slave Isaac Murphy won the
first three. He is now in the Horse Racing Hall of
Fame.
Black jockeys once dominated the sport, much like
baseball an American black jockey is a rare sight in
the saddle in the world of racing today. There are
no “Even Playing Fields or race tracks.”
Thanks to the late Red Auerbach and Boston
Celtic owner Walter Brown, the NBA is the
most integrated team sports’ franchise in America.
Despite that fact, the “Plantation Mentality”
still exists among the owners and Commissioner
David Stern.
This is the pro sports league that came up with the
slogan “The NBA Cares.” They can’t prove it by me.
Last month I had a group of children located here in
Prince George’s County who earned the right to
travel to Florida to play in the Regional Basketball
Finals. The lack of finances put their travel plans
on hold.
I encountered their coach, Felix Wood in a
Safeway Food Store parking lot in Bowie, Maryland.
Felix was once a Kid In Trouble and was a benefactor
of my community youth programs. We had not seen each
other in at least 30 years.
He told me he was now working with youth as I once
did with young men like him. He made feel proud when
he said "Mr. Bell I am only following your lead.”
I called on several organizations (NBA) and
associates (benefactors of Kids In Trouble, Inc. and
Inside Sports) hoping they would help finance the
trip for the youth.
I was not surprised by the response that came from
the NBA, what really surprised me was the feeble
excuse they gave for not helping.
The e-mail response came from the office of Brian
McIntyre. He is the Vice-President of Media
Relations for the NBA. Brian is not a bad guy in his
role as the PR man but it has made him a part of the
problem. He is just a product of his time. There are
times when white folks don’t know that they are
being racist. It is often an honest mistake, the
simple fact and reason, they have never been black.
So how can they know?
For example; the NBA pick and choose who "The Good
Guys and Bad Guys" are in our community is based on
information they receive from there ‘In House
Negroes.’
Brian does not know me and neither does David
Stern know me. He based his decision on not
helping those kids on “He says, she says.” That is
the system and I understand it, but I don’t agree
with it.
The NBA for example; is a multi-billion dollar
corporation, Brian's e-mail response said, "Harold I
hate to be the bearer of bad news but the recession
has hit us to. I am sorry we can't be of some help.
I will contact the Wizards' and see if they can help
out."
I didn’t hold my breath waiting for a response. The
kids would have had a better opportunity for success
if he had contacted David Duke.
He did even try to fake it by writing his own check
for $2.00 to help a child. He has the mind set of
most he thinks he is helping Harold Bell.
The NFL is also misguided,
American dog lovers want to continue to punish QB
Michael Vick for being stupid. His conviction
on cruelty to animals (dogs) was little over the top
(NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell re-instates
Vick).
Black men in America are being
murdered by rogue policemen every day and they never
see the inside of a jail. Guess who brought dog
fighting to America and the sports has not missed a
beat? White men in America!
Back to the NFL, the Colts WR Marvin Harrison
was once a suspect in using a firearm in an assault
in his hometown of Philadelphia. You would have
thought he was “The Son of Sam” the way the media
and the NFL came down on him. The gun case of Giant
WR Plaxico Burress was also overkill and now
they are trying to black ball him out of the
league.
Ben Roethlisberger
a two time Super Bowl winning QB was recently
accused of rape by a 31 year old VIP casino host at
Lake Tahoe, Nevada in July 2008. The big story here
is that ESPN the leader in sports in America tried
to suppress the story. I wonder why? I hope it had
nothing to do with his blue eyes and blond hair.
Movie producer and actor Tyler Perry was
right on the money with his anger in a letter
directed at a swim club outside of Philadelphia. The
incident in Philly involving inner-city black youth
at the all white Valley Swimming Club plays out in
cities all over America each and everyday (National
media made them changed their position).
We all need to put ourselves in a position to do
what Tyler Perry did recently for those
children from "The City of Brotherly Love." Show
some REAL love!
He stepped up to the plate when he heard the racist
news reports and actions taken by the all- white
Valley Swim Club barring black children from the
swimming pool. The decision was made after the swim
club signed a contract to accommodate the group.
Tyler grabbed the bull by the horn and contacted the
inner-city organization and gave all involved an all
expenses paid trip to Disney World.
Unlike some black men in America Tyler understands
that when you help others you help yourself and he
understands there is no such thing as an “Even
Playing Field.”
Swimming is much like golf and tennis a country club
sport. The country club scene in America has always
catered to a predominantly white clientele. These
clubs are use to develop the Michael Phelps
of the swimming World.
The fathers of Venus and Serena Williams
(Tennis) and Tiger Woods (Golf) are a clear
indication of the type of athletes that are waiting
in the wings in the black community. The Williams
sisters and Tiger dominate their sports and never
belonged to a country club. All they needed was an
opportunity. Their fathers saw that they got it.
The Valley Swim Club was just making sure that the
children from Philadelphia were not given an
opportunity on their watch. There are no “Even
Playing fields.”
President Obama was right on the money as it related
to the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis
Gates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This was
"Racial Profiling" at its worst.
There are some folks up in arms because the
President used the word "Stupid" in describing the
racist re-actions of Sgt. James Crowley the cop. The
act was stupid and beyond.
Please don't get President Obama mixed up with
Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Michael Wilbon, Sugar
Ray Leonard, John Thompson, James Brown, etc.
You will never hear President Obama deny that he is
anything other then black. He understands the
unwritten rule of one drop of black blood makes you
a full blooded Negro in America. No one has
mentioned any rule changes since he took over the
White House.
The others are the ones who share complimentary
tickets with other black folks to Wizards and Mystic
basketball games and Nationals and Orioles baseball
games. This is their claim to community service.
There are intelligent black folks who are accepting
their misguided and safe acts as community
involvement.
They have a built in excuse when you ask them why
they don’t get actively involved in the community,
“I don’t think there is a need to let everyone know
what I am doing.” Translation; ‘I don’t want
white folks to know I am helping to pull my brothers
and sisters up by their bootstraps.'"
I recently saw Sugar Ray Leonard on the Fox
television show “Are You Smarter then a Fifth
Grader?” I knew immediately he was in over his head
and he didn’t disappoint me. I was there up close
and personal during his boxing career and watched
his financial transactions with his agent Mike
Trainer.
Trainer took him to the bank and the cleaners (his
own). He walked away just before the Hector
Camacho fight never to look back. I knew Sugar
Ray was definitely not smarter then a fifth grader.
The good news is, Sugar Ray made so much money
Trainer could not steal it all.
James Brown
(CBS Sports) says, “I am no longer friends with
Clifford Alexander (former Secretary of the
Army) because he tried to tell me how to spend my
money.” Cliff remembered when he didn't have any
money.
Clifford Alexander
was responsible for getting him into Harvard and the
business he is in now. How soon we forget!
Back to Professor Gates had and “Stupid” in
Cambridge. He had every right to be agitated and
upset after he identified who he was (my house).
The Public Servant Sgt. Crowley should
have removed himself from the property owed by Mr.
Gates. It made no difference whether Mr. Gates
talked about his mommy and grandma and screamed from
the top of his lungs.
I think I need to mail Sgt. Crowley a recording of
Oscar Brown’s music classic “Signifying
Monkey.” He would then better understand Mr. Gates
and exactly where he was coming from!
All that was required of The Public Servant
was to walk away, but his gun and badge gave him a
false sense of security and power. Plus, his “Gang”
was only a cell phone call away. This type of
Plantation Mentally is still prevalent in black
communities all over America. Sgt. Crowley’s act of
racism undermines all the great works and sacrifices
made by both black and white Americans in the Civil
Rights Movement.
The show of force by the Cambridge Chief of Police
and the Police Union should have never influenced
the President’s decision to even give a half-ass
apologize to one of the worst organized “Gangs” in
the United States of America. The history of police
departments around the country proves they have been
nothing but ‘Bully Pits for racist and power hungry
cops.’
They have waged war on the black community through
out our history. I live in one of the worst police
jurisdictions in the history of law enforcement
(Prince George’s County).
President Obama’s about-face and diplomatic
invitation to Mr. Gates and Sgt. Crowley to meet at
the White House for a beer is really rewarding the
officer’s racist act.
They claimed that Sgt. Crowley is one of the
cities’ most decorated officers and had taught a
class on “Police Profiling” for the past five years.
This proves that President Obama’s assessment was
right on the ONE. He never learned anything
from his own class. This proves you can take the
hood and robe from the Klansman, but you can’t take
the Klan out of the man.
The 911 tapes prove that the
Cambridge police have big racial problems. The
dispatcher is heard asking the caller who reports
the alleged break-in "Are they Hispanic or black?"
The caller response was 'I can't really tell, but
one looks Hispanic and the other one I can't see
clearly.'
My question is: “Why would
the Cambridge dispatcher ask "Are they Hispanic or
black?" Why couldn't the intruders be white?
Sgt. Crowley is heard telling
the dispatcher, "This guy is being uncooperative,
keep the cars rolling."
This conversation takes place
after Professor Gates identifies himself as the
house owner.
I am familiar with his kind I have worked with and
around his type for over 40 years in the inner-city.
I had two brothers in law-enforcement (DC MPD and
U.S. Marshall Service). I have been there and done
that!
I made sure my brothers understood they were
Public Servants and not Overseers!
In Chicago President Barack Obama's hometown,
40+ young people have been gunned down in the
streets this summer---all black. We need to be
apologizing to those parents and inviting them to
the White House.
A white child and a black child born on the same day
in the same hospital, the white child will outlive
the black child by 8 years. A black child is five
times as likely to see the inside of a jail then a
white child his age. I said earlier, we are the
most unemployed, murdered and incarcerated people in
America. Professor Henry Louis Gates and
President Barack Obama are angry and I
understand exactly why.
I recently, reminded an Attorney associate, the
reason for my anger and why he needs to take a look
in the mirror. I told him in so many words "Brother
if you are not angry about the state of Black
America, you need to see a psychiatrist." He is
another one of those fake brothers who think he has
it made in America and all is well.
With the cop in Cambridge and brothers like the ones
mentioned above, there will never be an even playing
field in “The Game Called Life” in our
lifetime. Black life will always be an uphill
battle.
We are often asked by misguided white folks “When
are you going to get over slavery?” Thanks to Sgt.
Crowley and his kind, we are finding it very
difficult.
Barack Obama’s
historical move to the White House proves “That
every black face you see is not your brother and
every white you see is not your enemy.” Despite
that fact, there is a lot of work to be done in race
relations in America.
FOXTRAPPE: GREAT MEN—BETTER WOMEN!
By Harold Bell
On Sunday July 13, 2009 the original
Foxtrappe Town Club of Washington, DC
reopened its doors at 16 & R Streets, NW
for only a brief minute. The outing was
short on time but long on history.
The occasion was a fundraiser for the
National Association for Colored Women’s
Clubs.
The flier for the event read “Remember
this, the logo, the brand known the
World over, often imitated, but never
duplicated. It was an epic-center
considered by many to have been the
venue for the most educated and culture
generation of that time. More than
one-million people from all over the
World passed through the Mansion to
fellowship, network commercially,
politically and socially.”
According to one of DC’s most eligible
bachelors, Dr. Ruppert Clark, Jr., “This
place had the right name ‘Foxtrappe’ it
was where all the foxes hung out. We
thought we were hunting them but we were
really the hunted. It was definitely a
great time in Black History.” Dr. Clark
had a reputation for pulling more than
teeth at the Foxtrappe.
The founders of the club were Bill
Lindsey, Malcolm Beech and Claude
Roxborough.
Bill Lindsey was the glue that held the
club together. He is a native
Washingtonian. He was a student/athlete
and graduate of Spingarn HS in Northeast
DC. He had the personality, charisma
and the suave good looks of a playboy
the ladies loved. The Foxtrappe was
really “The Play Boy Mansion” without
the bunnies and Hugh Heffner.
It was the hang out for the movers and
shakers of Washington, DC and beyond.
The late radio personality Petey Green
use to say “The Foxtrappe is where all
those ‘Bourgeoisie Negroes’ hangout.
For those of you who knew Petey, that
was not the operative word he used to
describe Foxtrappe patrons.
The in -crowd included DC Superior Court
Judges Harry T. Alexander, Luke C.
Moore, Theodore Newman and Henry Kennedy
Jr. You could see Judge Alexander on
the dance floor on any given night doing
his favorite dance step (The Hustle).
Judge Kennedy (now a Federal Judge)
likes to tell the story “My first date
with my wife was at The Foxtrappe during
a Christmas Toy Party gathering for
Harold Bell’s Kids In Trouble
organization.
The politicians, entertainers, athletes
and media personalities met their
clients and friends at the Foxtrappe.
One of Bill Lindsey’s favorite stories
was when “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali
dropped in unexpectedly one late Monday
night in a taxicab with his second wife
Veronica. He hung out until the 2:00 am
closing time and decided he wanted
something to eat. Marie’s Restaurant
near Connecticut Avenue, NW. was
recommended by Bill Lindsey. The
restaurant stayed open until 4:00 am.
Bill suggested that Ali and Veronica
ride with him and several others, but
the champ insisted on catching a cab.
Bill called a cab, and when the cab
arrived he instructed the cab driver to
take his passengers to Marie’s on
Connecticut Avenue NW. He paid Ali’s
fare up front. He never told the cab
driver who his passengers were.
Ali and Veronica got in the cab and two
blocks from the club with Bill and his
friends following closely. The cab
driver suddenly hits his brakes in the
middle of 17th Street and
jumps out of his cab yelling “Muhammad
Ali, Muhammad Ali!” It took several
minutes for Bill to calm the cab driver
down before he finally returned to his
cab to finish the journey to Marie’s.
When they arrived at the restaurant Bill
went in to get a table away from the
maddening crowd and he thought they were
sneaking Ali in when a busboy looking
down on them spotted the champ. He
began yelling “Ali, Ali, Ali.” The
champ took it all in strive because he
really loved the attention.
Bill remembered, Muhammad Ali was a
class act and gentleman. We all do.
I also remember the “Kids In Trouble”
fashion shows with Earl Monroe, Sugar
Ray Leonard, James Brown, Sonny Hill,
Jim Vance, Robert Hooks, and Roy
Jefferson. They modeled everything from
fur coats to swim wear.
Some of the former Foxtrappe members in
attendance for the fundraiser included,
Artist, Donald Willis (DeMatha and GT),
Don Baker (Foxtrappe DJ), Roscoe Dellums
of the Congressional Black Caucus
(wives), Ted Holmes, Calvin Baltimore,
Butch McAdams (radio personality) Betty
Turner, Dennis Jarman, Robert “Skip”
Adams, Carla Labat, Dave Bass, Walter
Jordan, Joe Saffell, Darryl Hill
(pioneering athlete and businessman) and
a host of others who had been a part of
this great ground breaking history.
Mark Downs, a manager at the club during
the late 70s, calls himself a “Johnny
come lately” but still he says ‘I was
honored to be a part of this great
history. The friends I met here have
been forever.’
The real stars of the evening were the
ladies of “The National Association of
Colored Women’s Clubs.
According to Foxtrappe founder Bill
Lindsey the credit for the emergence and
success of the club they owe to the
National Association of Color Women’s
Clubs.
The club came to him and his partners
and offered the use of their building to
start the Foxtrappe and the rest is
history.
Who are these women? The President is
Dr. Marie Wright Tolliver but I had the
opportunity to talk with the past
President of the organization Mrs.
Margret Cooper and this is their story.
The National Association of Colored
Women’s Clubs, Inc. is the oldest black
women’s club in America. It was founded
in Washington, DC in July 1896 by Mrs.
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin.
The club then merged with the National
Federation of Afro-American Women, the
Women’s era Club of Boston, and the
colored Women’s League of Washington,
DC. The Association became and has
remained a significant voice in national
affairs and has contributed to the
uplifting of the American way of life.
Membership includes women in 32 states
dedicated to the rising to the highest
plane the home life, moral standards,
and civil life of our race.” As we
continue in the mainstream of economic
progression, we, the colored women of
the United States of America, stand
United for service to humanity.
I posed the question to Mrs. Cooper,
“With blacks being the most murdered and
incarcerated people in America how do
you overcome those tremendous odds?”
Mrs. Cooper’s response, “Mr. Bell we
have to pray and network with
organizations like Kids In Trouble, Inc.
to overcome these obstacles. Our
commitment continues to be to women and
youth, they are our priority because
they are our future.”
Roscoe Dellums, is a former Foxtrappe
member and the ex spouse of founding
Congressional Black Caucus Member
Congressman Ron Dellums. Her
grandmother Esther Jones Lee started her
association with the National
Association of Colored Women’s Clubs in
1913 in Oakland, California.
Mrs. Jones served three terms as
President of the club. The tireless
Mrs. Jones was appointed to the
anti-lynching committee to work to
outlaw lynching in California. She also
founded the Linda A. Branch YMCA and the
Fanny Wall Children’s Home in Oakland
(Mrs. Jones’ amazing story is documented
in the Congressional Record February 27,
2003).
The month of July finds the NAACP
celebrating 100 years of fighting for
equal rights for blacks. The National
Association of Color Women’s Clubs is
the Foot Print in the Sand and the
standard bearer for the fight for Civil
Rights in America. If the walls of the
Foxtrappe could talk the stories they
would tell of colored women in America.
Photo Credit: Don Baker
of
Don Baker Digital.
METRO CHANGES AT THE TOP NEEDED IN: FIVE TO ZERO IN 10
SECONDS FLAT!
By Harold Bell
On Monday June 22, 2009 a Metro train crashed on the
RED LINE in Washington, DC. The crash took the
lives of nine that included train operator Jeanice
McMillan and injured 80 more. This could have been
avoided, the problem, was poor or no leadership,
starting at the top.
The crash was the worst in the history of Metro. The
sad part of this story is that Metro leadership had been
forewarned.
The National Transportation Safety Board had criticized
the transit agency as it related to “The crash
worthiness” of its 1000 Series rail cars, years before
the fatal crash. But leadership looked the other way,
and cried “We don't have the money.”
John Cato the General Manager of Metro took the
leadership helm in 2007. Mr. Cato is a native
Washingtonian and had worked for the Los Angeles Metro
Authority. Hometown boy makes good. His credentials
were in order or so we thought.
The Chairman of the Metro Board is Ward 4 DC City
Councilman Jim Graham. Mr. Graham has no background as
an engineer or former train operator. His hands are
full trying to control crime in the Wild, Wild West
section of Columbia Heights. Where a crime it seems is
committed every hour on the hour. Gangs have the last
word.
Mr. Graham spends so much time in front of television
news cameras with Police Chief Cathy Lanier that you
would think he was a television news anchorman. He is
also a well known member of the gay community. He
spends much of his time defending gay rights, fighting
bigotry, defending gay marriage and supporting health
insurance for gay partners. He recently had another
distraction when a member of his staff was recently
arrested for shooting and wounding a man in his NW
neighborhood. Mr. Graham has a full plate and his cup
runneth over. When does he have time for Metro safety?
Alexandria Virginia Mayor Bill Euell is another Metro
Board Member who lacks credentials and should not be a
sitting member. His Metro contribution is, he sometimes
rides the train from Alexandria into DC for Metro Board
meetings. Mayor Euell, was a successful business
entrepreneur in the city before he ran for political
office. Those are definitely not credentials to qualify
him to be a member of the Metro Board.
Mr. Catoe, the General Manager is nothing more then a
rubber stamp and takes his marching orders directly from
the Board who don't have a clue. It is the blind
leading the blind with fatal results.
I have been a frequent rider of the Metro transit since
it was first launched. The system has been called one
of the cleanest in the World, but the question now is,
how safe is the system?
The RED LINE has always been a trouble spot.
There always seem to be an alert on the RED LINE.
The day of the accident I took the GREEN LINE
from East Capitol Street and Benning Rd. (Shrimp Boat)
to the Stadium/Armory and transferred to the ORANGE
LINE to New Carrollton. As I exited the train, I
noticed there was another alert on the RED LINE.
I never thought twice about the alert until I arrived
home and my wife Hattie hit me with the news about the
tragic crash. She was relieved, because she was not
sure in which direction on the subway system I was
traveling.
Soon after the crash there were underlying suspicions by
leadership that maybe the train operator Jeanice
McMillan might be at fault. There were whispers coming
from anonymous sources that maybe she was distracted by
her cell phone. Wishful thinking!
Ms. McMillan was cleared of any neglect or wrongdoing
when the investigation showed she had engaged the brakes
some 300-400 feet before impact and the brakes had been
manually applied as required by the operator.
The investigation uncovered the real culprits were the
Metro Board and its token leader John Catoe.
Federal Investigators found what they called “anomalies”
in the equipment that senses trains and transmits speed
commands in the area of the track near where the
accident occurred.
The 744-foot-long circuit was along a section of the
RED LINE repaired last month, according to National
Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman. She
called it vital to providing and transmitting
information from the control systems and the train
itself. The circuit helps to stop the trains when they
get too close together. The system failed the 9 dead
and 80 hurt.
What really killed the 9 victims and injured 80 others
was the transit agency Board Members ignoring the
findings of the NTBS saying, “The 1000 Series rail cars
were not CRASH WORTHY and they
should be eliminated from the system.” The crash might
not have been as deadly had the lead 1000 Series car not
crunched down to one-third of its original size.
I spoke with a veteran transit employee while riding on
the ORANGE LINE (New Carrolton) on Tuesday June
30, 2009. He was riding in a rail car in the middle of
the pack it was the safest car in the system. He also
confirmed my findings. He said, “leadership has
definitely been out of touch. We have been extremely
lucky these past 30 years. This system was not built to
run like the New York City or Los Angeles systems. The
DC system was built to run from 6:00 am until 9:00 pm.
The plan was to transport people to and from work. The
folks who were out there partying and looking for
transportation after 11:00 pm were not an element we
were looking to service.
Old timers leaving the system also told management there
was trouble ahead, but no one was listening.
The system was built to run trains every 6 to 10
minutes. This allowed us to keep track and know where
every train was located. But the know it alls wanted to
run the trains every 3 minutes like New York City, but
Washington, DC is not New York City. It was then our
troubles began. On any given run, sometimes we would
have 800 passengers and other times we would have only 8
passengers. You can't run a system like this guessing.
I am still shook-up from this senseless mishap.”
A deal with the notorious AIG could be the other
culprit and may be responsible for the deaths. The
Metro transit system had a hidden tax shelter deal with
AIG with money in 16 banks, one as far away as
Belgium. The money held in those banks could have been
used to buy new rail cars. The attempt to withdraw
money from those accounts before 20014--would have cost
the transit system to pay a stiff penalty. We now know
the real penalty, 9 dead and 80 hurt.
It makes one wonder what is the price of life? Remember
the television automobile transmission commercial, “Pay
Me Now or Pay Me Later?” Meet the Metro Transit
System.
Further investigations uncovered that metro train
operators were given a total of five opportunities to
make mistakes that might cost lives before they were
considered for dismissal. Mr. Catoe recently announced
there is now zero tolerance.
In October 2007 I had a twilight zone experience on the
ORANGE LINE. I was traveling from the New
Carrolton Station to Potomac Avenue in Northeast DC. As
I was exiting the train, I spotted a young girl lying
prostrate across the tracks. I immediately ran to her
and started to jump on to the tracks to rescue her, but
another man was already there. He was lying flat on his
stomach on the platform reaching out to the child. I
followed his lead. We both reached out to her and
begged her to give us her hands but she did not
respond.
The twilight experience really kicked-in when I looked
down and saw the platform lights flicking on and off
meaning a train was approaching the station. My eyes
met with the other rescuer and we both yelled to the
girl to give us her hands and she finally responded. We
tried to pull her up to the platform and discovered she
was heavier then we first thought.
I then yelled to the other man (Metro worker Adrian
Avant) to grab her under her bottom and we flung her on
to the platform, seconds later the train arrived. That
was a Priceless life saving moment!
The cover-up of the rescue that followed was typical
Metro. Metro officials tried their best not to
interview me. The worker in charge of the station was
nowhere to be found. When he finally arrived on the
scene he was giving the other metro worker Michael Banks
the blues for pulling the emergency signal. He was
under the impression Mr. Banks had pulled the signal to
retrieve my hat and bag that had fallen on to the
tracks.
I would later find out that the young girl was 15 years
old and autistic. The child's chaperon was found
talking on the telephone with two other autistic
children. She had lost sight of the victim. The
children were students at the Coletta School for the
autistic located at 19th and Independence
Avenue, NE (relocating from Virginia).
WRC-CHANNEL TV 4 got wind of the rescue and asked me to
do a re-enactment. The Metro Board had no choice but to
recognize the effort.
We were invited to attend a Metro Board meeting. It was
there I observed for three and a half hours what looked
like the Howdy Doody Show with Catoe as Clara Bell the
clown. It was not time well spent.
Mr. Catoe apologized to the three of us for making us
wait and offered to take us to lunch at a later date. I
could have cared less about lunch I was interested in
one thing and one thing only. What was the status of
the child that we rescued?
My suspicions of a cover-up were confirmed the following
week during the make-up lunch at a posh restaurant on
Connecticut Avenue NW. After lunch away from the Metro
workers, Adrian Avant and Michael Banks and their wives
I asked Mr. Catoe about the status of the rescued
child. You would have thought I had asked him for
permission to date his wife. He went nose to nose with
me until his assistant got between us. I was caught
completely off-guard. He later composed himself and
apologized. He blamed his outburst on stress and a lack
of sleep, but to me he revealed his true colors on that
day.
This was an example of leadership of our Metro system.
It is understandable why the Metro train system has
become one of the most dangerous ways to travel in the
Nation's Capitol.
If you believe Metro GM John Catoe, “Metro is the safest
way to travel” I have some land I want to sell you at
Arlington Cemetery.
Mr. Catoe spoke at the funeral of train operator Jeanice
McMillan and called her a “Hero” and he received a
standing ovation. We are still standing for all the
wrong reasons and for all the wrong people. He was the
one leading the chorus to check Ms. McMillan's cell
phone shortly after the crash.
I recently rode the Metro during the middle of the day
(off-hours) and I found the lead and rear passengers
cars empty. Riders were jammed and packed in the middle
cars. I am not the only one who believes that system is
headed for another crash unless some changes are made at
the top. DC City Councilman Jim Graham has already
started to point fingers in the direction of John Catoe.
Footnote:
The 16 year old autistic child has not been seen or
heard from since. This proves a Hero ain't nothing but
a sandwich.
COACH BUTCH McADAMS: HE NEVER CRIED FOUL!
By Harold Bell
Coach McAdams with mentor and friend the late legendary
softball pitcher Joe Lewis Abney
Butch McAdams
is a native Washingtonian. He lived and grew up at the
corner of 14th and T Streets NW right in the
middle of the historical U and 14th Street
corridors. He was raised in the Catholic faith and educated
at St. Augustine and Mackin High Schools in NW Washington,
DC.
Priest and Co-Pastors of St. Augustine were Fathers Raymond
Kemp and Andre Bouchard. In 1967 I was working as a Roving
Leader for the DC Department of Recreation and one of my
assigned work sites was Harrison Playground. The Rectory
was located at 14th and V Streets, NW and the
playground was one block away. My travels often brought me
to the front doorsteps of the Rectory of St. Paul and
Augustine Church. Fathers Kemp and Bouchard were icons in
the community and I usually stopped by and kissed their
rings when I was in the neighborhood (smile).
The historical landmarks in Butch’s community were all in
walking distance of his home. The landmarks were the
Bohemian Caverns, 12TH Street YMCA and
the Dunbar Hotel. The Lincoln and Republic
theatres were the community’s main movie outlets. The
live entertainment seen at the Howard Theatre and
Turners Arena was off the charts. Black Washington
dined and hung out at the Florida Ave Grill, Keys,
Hollywood, Faces and Cecilia’s
Restaurants and last but not least, Ben’s Chilli Bowl.
There are some landmarks still standing and others are long
gone. The neighborhood has changed and so have the people,
for better or worst is all in the eye of the beholder.
There were other landmarks like Cardozo High School,
Harrison Playground, Harrison Elementary and the Hillcrest
Children’s Center Saturday Program. They helped shape
Butch McAdam’s life and connected the two of us.
Harrison playground was where most of the neighborhood
playground basketball legends gathered in the evenings after
work and on the weekends. Harrison was the home playground
of the Scott family. Rip and Bo Scott were basketball
legends. Butch was one of the many young spectators who
watched and learned from the legends of Harrison Playground.
I have spent the last decade writing and talking about the
benefactors of Kids In Trouble, Inc., and Inside
Sports who have forgotten. I had completely overlooked
the ONE who had not. This is one of the best
examples; “Not being able to see the forest for the trees.”
On Friday June 5, 2009, Maret High School will host a
retirement party for Butch. He is retiring after thirty-one
years as a teacher of Physical Education and the school’s
Head Basketball Coach.
Growing up in the U and 14th Street corridors
helped prepare him as a coach and teacher. He has touched
thousands of young people in his thirty-one years at Maret.
His most important lesson had nothing to do with sports. He
taught his students the most important game being played in
the world today: “The Game Called Life.”
My experiences as a Roving Leader and the founder of
Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program caused me many
“Excedrin” headaches. Butch was never a headache or Kid In
Trouble. Thanks to his parents and St. Paul & Augustine he
was always a little gentleman. He understood early it was
okay to be seen and not heard.
In 1992, he became a one of a kind radio sports talk show
personality at WOL Radio. Unlike others in the media
who became experts on the black community after getting
their own talk shows or newspaper columns, Butch brought
community credentials with him (U Street, Harrison
Playground, Hillcrest Children Center Saturday Program, Kids
In Trouble, Inc. etc). He used his radio talk show to
broaden his community base to help make children First.
The lessons learned at St. Paul & Augustine, Harrison and
Hillcrest were helpful when he became an all in one teacher,
coach and radio talk show host. Butch understood the
importance of role models. First they came from the home.
He never forgot hearing NBA Legend Spencer Haywood say “If
you have got to look beyond your dinner table for your
heroes and role models you are in trouble.”
Butch never gave it a second thought when sporting
personalities visited the Saturday Program like Spencer,
Larry Brown, Roy Jefferson, Harold McLinton, Ted Vactor,
Dave Bing, Jim Brown, Red Auerbach, Earl Monroe, Fatty
Taylor, John Thompson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Chuck Hinton, Fred
Valentine, Willie Wood, Petey Greene, Bill Raspberry and
a host of others.
I remember Butch asking me after he became a well known
radio personality, “Harold where and how did you come up
with the saying ‘Every black face you see is not your
brother and every white face you see is not your enemy?’
This was a popular phrase I used to close my sports talk
show ‘Inside Sports.’ I had to take him back to the
Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday program. I reminded
him of the 1968 riots and when I first opened the doors to
the Saturday Program. I tried to recruit black students at
Howard University to volunteer and take a 10 minute walk
from the campus to Hillcrest to tutor elementary school
students. There were none to be found.
The Director of Hillcrest Children’s Center Dr. Nicholas
Long introduced me to the Principal of the Seven Day
Adventist School in Takoma Park, Maryland. The rest is
community history. On Saturdays a group of white teenagers
were bussed into the inner-city to tutor black children
(joining Redskins Larry Brown, Roy Jefferson, Harold
McLinton and Ted Vactor). Today all over America
college students are given credits for volunteering. I also
reminded him of my unique relationship with NBA Legendary
coach Red Auerbach and the benefactors of Kids In
Trouble and Inside Sports all who were black.
They all forgot who they were and where they came from.
They inspired the phrase, “Every black face I see is not my
brother and every white face I see is not my enemy.”
Butch would often close his show with my phrase and remind
everyone that I coined it. This is unheard of in this
business where everyone takes someone else’s idea and uses
it as if it were theirs (Inside Sports). It reminds me of
the story of Christopher Columbus discovering America with
Native Indians already occupying the land.
Butch is very unique. There were times when I would
question his response and observations as it related to his
sports talk show. He never took it personal. A very unique
quality not often found in Black Men in America. We take
everything personal and when we do take a stand it is
usually for all the wrong reasons.
Butch McAdams, you are a unique COACH in “The Game Called
Life.”
More @
www.HBSportsLegends.com,
www.BlackMenInAmerica.com/talkback.htm and
www.Studiovee.com/HaroldBellInside Sports.com.
TOP LEFT / NFL HALL OF FAMER
WILLIE WOOD & FRIENDS
MEMORIAL DAY: WHEN DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY!
By Harold Bell
On Memorial Day America took time out to
honor its dead. There were parades,
tributes and salutes to our fallen heroes of
war. Family, friends and loved ones
traveled from all over the country to
Washington, DC. In his first Memorial Day
address at Arlington National Cemetery as
Commander-in-Chief, President Barack
Obama vowed to support soldiers at War
and at home.
The Greenbelt Regional Park is located in Prince Georges
County, Maryland just off of the Baltimore/Washington
Park
