Time to “Break It Down!”

And just to be clear, right off the bat, that’s not “G,” as in Gangster, but G as in GOP. OK, perhaps the distinction is fuzzier than most would consider ideal.

I ran across a couple of memes in the past several months that jumped out at me as fodder for a blog post. One re-surfaced today, and not being in the mood to write about another unarmed African American catching a bullet from an overzealous law enforcement officer (Arlington, Texas), or about the fact that Donald Trump continues to simultaneously flout the rules and flummox his GOP opponents, or about Hillary Clinton reversing field, and releasing her e-mail server, or about Bernie Sanders’ next bout with the Black Lives Matter Movement, or about the on-going chess match between President Obama and Congress on the issue of the Iran Deal, I decided I’d take a stab at what I consider at least tangential circumstantial evidence that Republicans are not just anti-intellectual, but also anti-higher education.

Let me begin with Exhibit A. Consider these bona fides of Arizona’s most recent former Governor:

22^nd Governor of Arizona

18^th Secretary of State – Arizona

Member of Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (Where Phoenix is located)

Arizona State Senate

Arizona House of Representatives

Allow me to add Exhibit B. Also consider the bona fides of Utah’s current Governor:

17^th Governor of Utah

Chairman of the National Governors Association

Lieutenant Governor of Utah

Finally, permit me to include Exhibit C. To the items above, consider the bona fides of the Governor of Wisconsin:

45^th Governor of Wisconsin

5^th Milwaukee County Executive

Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly

So let’s keep this real. On the face of it, any one of those three sets of credentials is impressive. Any man or woman who manages to rise to position of Chief Executive Officer of a State’s Government (Governor) has demonstrated substantial political chops. Nothing I write after this point will change that fact.

However, the one thing that connects the dots between and among these three impressive politicians is pretty stunning, at least to me. The single credential none of these well-connected, politically astute, successful men and one woman possesses is an earned college degree.

• Jan Brewer, the most recent former Governor of Arizona is an alumna of Glendale Community College. She did not earn a degree.
• The Honorable Gary Herbert is the Governor of Utah. A Mormon, he is an alumnus of Brigham Young University. He did not graduate.
• The Honorable Scott Walker is the current Governor of Wisconsin. He is an alumnus of Marquette University. He left before graduating.

Obviously, all three of these individuals were able to find and secure gainful employment, and to forge a path to steady and continuous career advancement. They are living breathing manifestations of the American Dream (Coincidentally, the aspiration Donald Trump declared dead). I salute them.

However…Governor Walker has decided to take his talents to the next lever. To clarify, he has defined the White House as the address of his next promotion. While I do not expect him to achieve his desired goal, I am mindful that he is in the discussion. I’m not sure whether to be drawn to my natural inclination to be amused by the Super Seventeen, and by his placement within the group, or to default straight to despair, due to the potential that a major Party would actually consider elevating someone, who does not at a minimum possess a college degree, to the highest office in the land.

Before anyone deigns to school me, I understand, college attendance is not a Constitutional requirement. The baseline for qualifying to become President, aside from securing the requisite votes, is as follows:

Qualifications for the Office of President

• Age and Citizenship requirements – US Constitution, Article II, Section 1
• No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.
• Term limit amendment – US Constitution, Amendment XXII, Section 1 – ratified February 27, 1951
• No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

As you can see, from a Constitutional perspective, this is not a matter of concern. However, in the 227 years since the U.S. Constitution was ratified, a lot has changed. For example, we now have automobiles, trains, and airplanes, not to mention rockets that make space travel possible. It’s fair to say the bar has been raised.  I for one, would like my President to have a college degree, and I don’t think that’s asking too much.

If Governor Walker were to ascend to the Presidency, he would be the first President in more than 60 years without at least a bachelor’s degree. In fact, of America’s 44 Presidents, only 25% (11) didn’t graduate from college, and that number is heavily weighted toward the pre-20^th Century years.

Actually, there was only one, Harry Truman, from the 20^th Century (April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953), and he essentially inherited the job, rising to the office after the death of President Roosevelt. He withdrew from Spalding’s Commercial College in Missouri.

The last non-college graduate President to be elected to the Presidency in his first term was William McKinley…in 1897 (March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901). President McKinley had previously left Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, after one year.

Presidential historian H.W. Brands, of the University of Texas, said, unless you’re someone like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs (both college dropouts), not having a college degree would be “a serious handicap” in running for President. He went on to say:

“Nowadays a college degree has become the entry credential to nearly all jobs requiring any skill at all. A candidate lacking one would have some heavy explaining to do.”

The other former Presidents without a college degree were:

• George Washington (April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797)
• Andrew Jackson (March 4, 1829 – March 4, 1837)
• Martin Van Buren (March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1841)
• William Henry Harrison (March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841)
• Zachary Taylor (March 4, 1849 – July 9, 1850)
• Millard Fillmore (July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853)
• Abraham Lincoln (March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865)
• Andrew Johnson (April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869)
• Grover Cleveland (March 4, 1885 – March 4, 1889)

The meme that drew me to this subject basically asserted that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has a better education than Governor Scott Walker. Without comparing the collegiate rankings of the University of Idaho and Marquette University, the point was that Mrs. Palin, despite her frequent shallow appearance during the 2008 Presidential campaign, actually managed to secure a college degree. Governor Walker, not so much. On some level, even the possibility that Governor Walker could be Governor Palin redux plus, should be a scary proposition.

Alas, the inescapable nugget to which I am attempting to draw your attention is, this anti-education theme appears to be a pervasive element of the way Republicans see the world. Republican-led State legislatures have voted to take much of the history out of American History classes. Policymakers in Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Colorado have agitated to scrap or doctor the AP History course, citing its “liberal bias” and supposed focus on U.S. “blemishes.” Those blemishes include things such as discussions on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and even the fact that Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. Blemishes…really?

To wit, electing Governors without college degrees, and possibly, even a President, in the 21^st Century, no less, is in my view evidence of a clear and dangerous fact-phobia; anti-intellectualism at its unfettered worst. My most fervent desire is that American patriots will rise up and defeat this backward thinking madness. However, clearly, there is an element of our society who thinks differently. If that segment is left to its own devices, we will devolve to… “No Degree, No Problem: It’s a Straight Up G-Thang!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-the-loop-is-a-degree-a-prerequisite-for-the-presidency/2015/02/12/eb11e508-b2d1-11e4-827f-93f454140e2b_story.html

http://time.com/3709341/scott-walker-education-2016/

http://www.presidentsusa.net/qualifications.html

http://www.answers.com/Q/Do_any_states_have_governors_without_college_degrees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Brewer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Herbert

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Walker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-unflattering-history-lesson/2015/02/19/3be9cb0c-b878-11e4-a200-c008a01a6692_story.html

It’s time to “Break It Down!”

There are numerous monikers ascribed to the unwieldy array of candidates currently seeking the Republican nomination for President. In its infinite wisdom Fox News (FN), the entity sponsoring tomorrow night’s debate has, for all practical purposes given the group a new name, “Ten.” To be fair, the Republican National Committee did that when it established the rules that would govern the Party’s debates, during the road to selecting the GOP Nominee for the 2016 Presidential Race. FN, based on calculations using five National Polls, simply identified which candidates made it into the Top 10 by 5:00 p.m. yesterday.

This decision was based on collective Party soul-searching after President Obama handed the GOP its second consecutive Presidential loss in the 2012 Race for the White House, all while handily winning a number of key demographics Republicans vowed to do better with in 2016. The Party Leaders concluded that its debates leading to the 2012 Primary Season had been poorly staged, and as such detracted from the GOP’s ability to come out of the debated fortified, unified, and strategically prepared to take on the Democrats.

There are currently 17 declared GOP Candidates. According to FN, in a release after yesterday’s deadline, the candidates qualifying for Thursday’s Prime Time event are Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie and John Kasich. To the continued surprise of most Americans, at least most Americans without Tea Party, and/or ultra-Conservative leanings, Donald Trump leads, comfortably, the cavalcade of proud, mostly pious patriots seeking the GOP’s Holy Grail.

Mr. Trump, an avowed Birther, who seems to regularly admit that his principal qualification for the job is that he, in his own words, is very rich. He has, however, promised to make America “great again,” and that’s got to count for something. The Donald entered the campaign as someone whom most thoughtful Republicans and Democrats alike, figured would have been an afterthought in the dynamics of serious politics, such as claiming a place on the main Debate Stage. That he is not only among tomorrow night’s 10 Prime Time Players, but will claim Center Stage, as the person with the highest cumulative polling numbers is perplexing and frustrating for Republicans, the other candidates at least, and perplexing and amusing to Democrats; candidates and voters.

Most of the other GOP candidates have observed, suggested, or flat out complained that Mr. Trump has taken virtually all the air out of the room, and left little, if any, space, time, and most importantly, media coverage for them to articulate their “genuine/serious” policy initiatives and proposals. Instead, reporters seem consumed with the latest Trump gaffe, e.g., Mexicans are rapists, and Senator McCain is not a war hero, or favorite refrain, “I’m very rich,” or which staffer he will, or will not fire today, or issuing his favorite assertion…that this person or that person is a loser.

He does have a lot of money, and as a result, campaign finance, a key harbinger for most other candidates’ ability to stay in the race is a non-issue for him. A point he reiterates often, and with relish. He is also an unconventional campaigner. When he went to South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham’s home State, to campaign, he not only launched a frontal assault on the Senator on his home turf, he released the Senator’s personal cell phone number. Senator Graham subsequently destroyed the phone, and played it off by using the occasion to upgrade to a Smart Phone. When the blog site Gawker later released Mr. Trump’s cell phone number, he quickly changed the message on his answering machine to a campaign ad. This is just one example of how Trump adroitly takes the negative energy that others, including candidates, attempt to use against him, and transforms it into his advantage.

Conventional wisdom holds that the Trump phenomenon is a mirage, and will eventually dissipate, just as any number of poll leaders did in 2012. It could still happen, but frankly I sense an increasing level of concern among his GOP colleagues. At least one has to feel that he displaced them as a member of tomorrow’s Top 10.

That same erstwhile wisdom held from the outset that Jeb Bush would likely prevail as the eventual GOP nominee. Mr. Bush doesn’t have Trump’s money, but his PAC’s have raised nearly $100 million. Now all he has to do is improve his poll numbers.

In several polls, Mr. Trump leads him significantly, more than doubling his projected numbers in a couple of them. Behind Mr. Trump, and (former) Governor Bush, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is 3^rd, polling at just a shade over 10%. No one else, not even the seven additional candidates appearing at the Prime Time dais tomorrow night, reached double digits. Among the Top 10 finishers, the average poll numbers break out this way, according to REAL CLEAR POLITICS:

• Donald Trump, 23.2 percent
• Jeb Bush, 12.8
• Scott Walker, 10.6
• Ben Carson, 6.6
• Mike Huckabee, 6.6
• Ted Cruz, 6.2
• Marco Rubio, 5.2
• Rand Paul, 4.8
• Chris Christie, 3.4
• John Kasich, 2.8

That leaves Perry and the six other major declared candidates — Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, and Jim Gilmore — to appear together during a debate earlier tomorrow evening.

As for the jayvee, excuse me, I mean the pre-Prime Time players; these seven luminaries include one candidate who polled 2%. Three of them polled 1%, but less than 1.5%. One polled 0.4%, and two did not register on a numerical scale. They fell this way:

• Rick Perry, 2.0
• Rick Santorum, 1.4
• Bobby Jindal, 1.2
• Carly Fiorina, 1.0
• Lindsey Graham, 0.4
• George Pataki, N/A
• Jim Gilmore N/A

In the initial plan, there was going to be one debate. Those who did not make the Top 10 were effectively going to be SOL. However, it became clear that the also-rans would literally be a Who’s Who Among Elected and former Elected Officials, and Business Moguls. Included were former Governor Rick Perry, former Senator Rick Santorum, Governor Bobby Jindal, Senator Lindsey Graham, former Governor George Pataki, and former Governor Jim Gilmore…as well as the field’s only woman, Carly Fiorina, former Chief Executive Officer at Hewlett-Packard, and the first woman to lead one of the Top 20 U.S. companies. At that point, FN blinked, deciding that it could not totally divest the process of that much potential talent (on paper).

I have heard several people say they normally do not watch Republican debates, but admitted they were looking forward to the “Trump Show.” I haven’t decided yet whether I will tune in. I must confess, at this point, I am not leaning in that direction. While my best guess is Mr. Trump will surprise with the degree to which he adheres to a script, I just do not anticipate anything new emanating aside from the standard anti-Obama rant. I get enough of that daily.

So how did FN work it’s magic formula to produce the results above? According to Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti, they used five polls, including:

• Bloomberg
• CBS News
• Fox News
• Monmouth University
• Quinnipiac University

According to Fox, these were the most recent national polls from non-partisan, recognized organizations. As a passing observation, I find it interesting that they included Fox, but not CNN’s poll as a non-partisan tool. IJS!

They used standard methodology, live interviews, random digit-dial sampling techniques, and included both landlines and cellphones. Their GOP primary vote question mirrored the ballot by reading all candidates names in random order and without honorifics, according to FN.

As the debate cut-off period neared, several candidates pursued attention-grabbing strategies with the hope of rising into the Top 10. Almost all the candidates used national media appearances, even though most had criticized national polls as having little to do with how they might perform in New Hampshire and Iowa. Well, so much for initial strategies. As Mike Tyson was fond of saying, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

We now know that Donald Trump packs quite a punch. If you intend to watch tomorrow, the prelims start early. However, if you are interested in the Big Boy’s Match, remember… “And Then There Were 10: Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/04/politics/fox-debate-cleveland-announcement/index.html

http://www.richmond.com/news/latest-news/ap/article_d7804208-a95f-58f4-90cd-76ac51bcb163.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/04/gop-debate-buzzer-beater-in-cleveland/

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-gop-fox-debate-20150804-story.html

http://www.cbs19.tv/story/29710361/fox-news-announces-gop-debate-field

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-fox-news-gop-debate-lineup-looks-pretty-set/

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/fox-republican-debate-lowers-threshold-120748.html

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/debate-field-is-set-trump-bush-in-santorum-fiorina-out/2239967

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/21/politics/donald-trump-lindsey-graham-cell-phone/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gawker

It’s time to Break It Down!

Last week I discussed the San Antonio Spurs and their historic association with Becky Hammon. At that moment, it seemed to represent quite a leap for the world of sports. Staying in the realm of athletics, in today’s post I am invading the rarified (for me) air of the NFL.

My close friends and associates know I am a huge basketball fan, and as such, I’ve written about basketball, both college, and professional, on numerous occasions. Alternately, I’ve written sparingly about football.

I wrote about Michael Vick, but it had much more to do with his legal issues than with football. I also wrote about the exigencies of playing Super Bowl XLVIII outdoors in cold weather. That game was played on February 2, 2014, at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey,^‪ the first Super Bowl played outdoors in a cold-weather city.

For the record, the Seahawks defeated the Broncos 43–8, the largest margin of victory for an underdog and the third largest point differential overall (35) in Super Bowl history. It was the first time the winning team scored over 40 points, while holding their opponent to under 10. This became the first Super Bowl victory for the Seahawks and the fifth Super Bowl loss for the Broncos, the most of any team.

Today, for fans of the game, the big story circulating is likely centered around N.F.L. (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell upholding the four-game suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, one of football’s biggest stars, after finding that he destroyed potential evidence as the league investigated his role in the deflation of game balls to gain competitive advantage in the A.F.C. championship matchup last January. The saga is referred to as Deflate-gate.

The League, in a 20-page statement, said yesterday that it based its decision on Brady asking an assistant to destroy a cellphone that he had used before, during, and after the week of the game. According to the League, the destruction of the phone eliminated what investigators believed to be 10,000 texts. This revelation came to light during Brady’s testimony at an appeals hearing in June, several months after investigators had requested text messages and emails.

NFL rules did not require Brady to surrender the materials. However, his failure to do so, compounded by the destruction of the phone, raised the question of obstructing the investigation. It was a compelling factor in leading Commissioner Goodell to uphold the suspension rather than reduce it, as he has often done in past disciplinary cases.

All that is interesting enough, but it’s not my focus. Football has for some time been elevated to the status of “America’s Game.” The game is intricate, complex, even cerebral, to be sure, but the things that often resonate about football are the elements of raw strength, power, and a level of physicality that frequently define the game.

Becky Hammon’s emergence on the scene as a successful basketball coach for the San Antonio Spurs is a rare air kind of development. It was surprising a year ago when she arrived, it was surprising last week when she led her team to the Las Vegas Summer League Championship, and it will certainly be surprising should she ever actually assume the reins of an NBA Head Coaching post.

But that’s basketball, a lofty perch, but a completely different kind of game. This weeks surprise comes from the NFL. On Monday, Jennifer Welter was hired as a training camp and preseason coaching intern for the inside linebackers position for the National Football League’s Arizona Cardinals. The signing made her the first female coach in the NFL. This is her third “first” for men’s football in 2014 and 2015.

On February 12, 2015, the Indoor Football League’s Texas Revolution named Welter their linebackers and special teams coach making her the first woman to coach in a men’s professional football league.

On January 24, 2014, the Revolution announced signing 5-foot-2, 130-pound Jennifer Welter as a running back. This made her the second female player for a position other than kicker or placekick-holder on a men’s professional football team, and the first at running back.

Welter is a veteran of several women’s “semi-pro” football teams (including the Dallas Diamonds and Dallas Dragons). She was a gold medal-winning member of Team USA at the International Federation of American Football’s (IFAF) Women’s World Championship in 2010 and 2013.

Cardinal’s Coach Bruce Arians had this to say about the landmark decision to bring Dr. Welter (that’s right, Dr.; I’ll get to that later) into the organization:

“Coaching is nothing more than teaching. One thing I have learned from players is, ‘How are you going to make me better? If you can make me better, I don’t care if you’re the Green Hornet, man, I’ll listen. I really believe she’ll have a great opportunity with this internship through training camp to open some doors for her. She came for an OTA and I met her, and I thought she was the type of person that could handle this in a very positive way for women and open that door. Welter has earned this.”

For her part, Dr. Welter took to Twitter to express her appreciation:

Dr. Jen Welter @jwelter47

Thank you ‪@AZCardinals & ‪@BruceArians & everyone here in ‪#Phoenix. I am honored to join this amazing ‪#footballfamily

8:26 PM – 27 Jul 2015

Mike Freeman, of Bleacher Report, shared a text he received from a player in the AFC on Welter:

“The truth is, she has more playing experience than some of the coaches who coach me now.”

The NFL may traditionally be a man’s league, but Welter has the background to handle the spotlight. She played football professionally for 14 years and most recently served as an assistant coach for the Indoor Football League’s Texas Revolution. She also entered a game as a running back for the Revolution last year, becoming the first woman to appear in a men’s pro football contest at a contact position.

The Cardinals hiring Welter is fitting for a franchise that has embraced progress and created an exciting brand of football as a result. Adding Welter figures to breed more positive energy and enthusiasm within the organization. The Cardinals have experienced quite a culture change since Arians took the reins in 2013. Arians is known for his vertical passing-based offense, aggressive style and overall confidence, which has evidently rubbed off on his players and earned their respect as they’ve compiled a 21-11 record over the last two seasons.

That bold attitude includes the front office and general manager Steve Keim, who’s been unafraid to take risks in the draft. Defensive back Tyrann Mathieu and wide receiver John Brown were both polarizing third-round picks, but they’ve emerged as playmakers.

Welter has a long way to go to climb the NFL coaching ladder, but she’s already broken new ground. Although she isn’t in the position San Antonio Spurs assistant Becky Hammon was in recently when she led the squad to an NBA Summer League title, Welter’s gig in the desert provides the vital foundation for something greater.

She also brings a full Monty of educational qualifications to the table. Dr. Welter graduated from Boston College and has a master’s degree in Sport psychology and a PhD in psychology from Capella University, a for profit school in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

By the way, this is not the only NFL “first” recently. It’s the second such barrier to be broken this year. The league announced in April that Sarah Thomas would be the first woman to be a full-time NFL official. Just for the record, the NBA has had women Referees since 1997, when Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner entered the League’s pool of Referees. But, be that as it may, today is “Jen’s Turn: Apparently, It’s in the Cards!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Welter

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2532774-jen-welter-hired-by-cardinals-believed-to-be-1st-female-coach-in-nfl

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-arizona-cardinals-hire-jen-welter-first-female-nfl-coach-20150727-story.html

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2015/07/28/arizona-cardinals-hire-woman-to-coach-inside-linebackers-in-training-camp/

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/arizona-cardinals-hire-first-female-coach-nfl-history-n399386

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13328608/jen-welter-hired-arizona-cardinals-assistant-coach

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XLVIII

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/sports/football/tom-bradys-four-game-suspension-is-upheld.html?_r=0

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000504258/article/roger-goodell-upholds-tom-brady-suspension

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/bradys-suspension-upheld-nfl-commissioner-roger-goodell-32739017

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_monty_(phrase)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Thomas_(American_football_official)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Palmer

http://www.alternet.org/story/13647/just_one_female_nba_referee_left/

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ball-dont-lie/nba-added-two-female-referees-leaguewide-crew-144557424–nba.html;_ylt=AwrBTzqTRLhV8YMAAhVXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEycWhzdGs3BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwM1BHZ0aWQDQjA1NzdfMQRzZWMDc3I-

It’s time to Break It Down!

Last August, I wrote a post entitled, “First The Spurs Won The Title: Now They Are Making History!” (http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2014/08/first-spurs-won-title-now-they-are.html) It heralded the introduction of Ms. Becky Hammon to the NBA, after her hiring by the then World Champion San Antonio Spurs.

Coach Gregg Popovich and the Spurts made Ms. Hammon the NBA’s first full-time Regular Season female Assistant Coach on August 5, 2014. It was clear at that time she had cultivated a history with the Spurs, and that she had established a relationship with both Coach Popovich and a number of Spurs’ players. Other women had served in support roles, one as an Assistant during the Summer League, and another as a Volunteer Assistant during the Regular Season. Hammon, however, assumed full coaching responsibilities, and traveled with the team.

The NBA Summer League is a series of off-season competitions designed to bring National Basketball Association teams together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regular season line-ups. Usually, participants include a mix of rookies, second year players, and unsigned free agents. The current summer league consists of three separate leagues: the Las Vegas Summer League, the Utah Jazz Summer League, and the Orlando Pro Summer League.

Summer leagues have existed for decades. Historically, there was not an organized structure, with leagues sometimes overlapping and not officially coordinated. In 2004, the league held the Las Vegas Summer League for the first time; it is by far the largest league, with 23 NBA teams plus an NBA Development League all-star team participating as of 2015.

The Orlando Pro Summer League has been held since 2001. The Utah Jazz Summer League began play in 2015, replacing the Rocky Mountain Revue, an event held from 1984–2008 before going on a lengthy hiatus due to declining participation.

On Monday evening, Ms. Hammon led the Spurs to the Championship of the Vegas Summer League, as the Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns 93-90. By doing so, she became the feature attraction in yet another chapter in the annals of history, after having added one just two weeks ago, when she became the first woman to serve as Head Coach of an NBA Summer League Team. The Spurs lost their first Summer League game to the NY Knicks, but rallied from that point, winning the rest of their games, including in the end, persevering in a hotly contested Title Game.

In describing the experience, Hammon said:

“It was a grind. They’ve been together about 17 days. They really started to kind of gel here these last two or three games. They listened, and they played really hard for me. So I’m just really [appreciative of] their attentiveness and alertness and their desire to win.”

Along the way, Becky Hammon has diffused a number of the lingering concerns about whether her instincts and experience connected effectively with the rigors of the men’s game. The end result of her performance in this highly competitive environment, in which all the actors recognized her unique role, with no place to hide, should silence some of those concerns. It probably won’t, but it should.

A number of Hammon’s players recognize the value of her voice on the bench. Former Tar Heel Danny Green lauded Hammon when the Spurs hired her. At that time he said:

“Everybody here respects her. She’s a really good player and also a good person to have around. She understands the game.”

He had this to say in an interview with NBA TV during Monday’s game:

“She gives another perspective on the sidelines for us. She sees some things that we don’t see. She’s obviously a player, everybody respects her, she’s well respected. She knows the game. She understands the game. She sees it from a point guard perspective, but a female perspective [too], which is very different for us.

She’s one of my favorites … She’s doing very well. I’m happy for her.”

Jonathon Simmons won the Championship’s MVP honors. As he described it, it was “amazing” to have Hammon on the sidelines. He said:

“She’s a real cool coach and she’s a player coach and that’s what guys like my age — we like that. She’s experienced, you can’t take that away from her.”

Simmons later addressed the importance of Hammon’s trailblazing role in the league, when he told Sports Illustrated (SI):

“It’s always good to be a part of history. This day will go down in the books for years to come … I love her. I barely know her and I love her already.”

Hammon, in turn, acknowledged the relationship she’s forged with her players, when she noted, also to SI:

“I’m just thankful that [Popovich] trusted me with the guys in that locker room, and that those guys trusted me back.”

One writer at YAHOO Sports, Kelly Dwyer, (Editor Ball Don’t Lie Blog), has already opined that Ms. Hammon is “ready” to become an NBA Head Coach. Admittedly, I don’t write or follow sports for a living, but I think Mr. Dwyer is wrong about that. Yes, her accomplishments are impressive. She has played the game in college, in Europe, in the WNBA, and in the Olympics. She has the background, skills, and experience that ensure she could be ready in the not too distant future. In fact, I would not be surprised if she becomes the NBA’s first female coach, though not likely in the coming year.

Yesterday, Mr. Dwyer wrote:

“These basketball reasons are why the NBA needs to get the novelty of the first hiring of a female head coach out of the damn way. Becky Hammon can coach your favorite team, and she can coach it well. And when she is hired and when she does coach it well, we can move on to more important things. Like gender equality in jobs that actually matter.”

In his blog, he suggested if Jason Kidd can be trusted running a $100-plus million dollar payroll weeks after retiring (Milwaukee Bucks), or Derek Fisher can survive a 17-win season, Hammon deserves a shot. Dwyer noted Steve Kerr is a Gregg Popovich protégé, as is Ms. Hammon. Moreover, absent coaching experience on any level, he led the Warriors to a Title in his first year.

While all of that is true, their disparate records demonstrate wildly different outcomes. At the very least, those results suggest that the potential of the team a coach goes to, any coach, plays a key role in the outcome of the coaching effort. And, as we know, and Mr. Dwyer conceded, Ms. Hammon won’t be coaching the Spurs in the near future.

Let me frame it this way. The Spurs have long since established themselves as a savvy franchise. They have assembled a mixture of veterans, free agents and young skilled players from around the world, all with an abiding willingness to accept “winning” as the preeminent mission. When they hired Becky Hammon, it was fair to presume she was or would become adept at coaching. By all accounts, she is doing just that. After Monday night’s Summer League Title, that factoid is in clearer focus than ever before.

No, she’s not ready to assume the reins of a Franchise when the NBA Season begins in November. But don’t sleep on her; she will be in the foreseeable future. I wrote last August, “Welcome to the NBA Ms. Hammon. “First The Spurs Won The Title: Now They Are Making History!” Today, “The Spurs and Becky Hammon: Another Chapter Added!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2014/08/first-spurs-won-title-now-they-are.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Popovich

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Spurs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becky_Hammon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/07/21/becky-hammon-leads-spurs-to-nba-summer-league-tournament-title/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/becky-hammon-summer-league-championship_55ae3a1ee4b0a9b948526cd8

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/hammon-spurs-las-vegas-summer-league-championship-034206127–nba.html;_ylt=AwrBTzgu5q5VikMAGVJXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyaHJtYTdyBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjAyNDVfMQRzZWMDc2M-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Summer_League

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/becky-hammon-is-ready-to-be-a-head-coach-in-the-nba-154752499.html;_ylt=AwrBTzgu5q5VikMAG1JXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyaHJtYTdyBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjAyNDVfMQRzZWMDc2M-

http://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1s3i7p/i_am_kelly_dwyer_editor_of_yahoo_sports_ball_dont/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Bucks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Kidd

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Knicks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Fisher

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_State_Warriors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Nash

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/05/us/spurs-becky-hammon-coach/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

http://www.nba.com/2014/news/08/05/spurs-becky-hammon.ap/

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/08/spurs-hire-becky-hammon-female-coach

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2014/08/05/spurs-female-assistant-becky-hammon/13623937/

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11312366/becky-hammon-hired-san-antonio-spurs

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24649084/spurs-hire-becky-hammon-nbas-first-female-assistant-coach

http://www.npr.org/2014/08/02/337359843/coaching-the-big-leagues-natalie-nakase-makes-nba-history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Nakase

It’s time to Break It Down!

The United States of America is good at lots of things. In fact, our country is so outstanding at so many things, a number of politicos routinely boast that we are an “exceptional nation.” On occasion, it’s necessary and appropriate to frame a particular concept in its proper context. While there is a tendency to think of “Exceptionalism” as a desirable construct, a state to be admired and aspired to, that is not necessarily the case.

An example of one such counterintuitive instance is the incarceration rate. Long a point of contention for ethicists and other people of good will who care about the fair and equitable treatment of human beings all over the planet, the issue is drawing special attention this week in the United States. President Obama commuted the sentences of 46 nonviolent offenders earlier this week, and is set to go to prison tomorrow.

Oh wait, you thought… OK, he’s not really “going” to prison, he’s going to visit a prison. Sorry GOP partisans.

Yes, for the first time in the history of the world, a sitting President of Exceptional America, the shining light on the hill, will visit a Federal Prison. On tomorrow, President Obama is scheduled to visit El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma.

The facility is a medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice, and currently holds 1,000 inmates, 265 of whom are in prison camp.

Perhaps the most notable inmate currently residing at the facility is Kwame Kilpatrick, Register Number 44678-039, former Mayor of Detroit, (2002-2008). He was convicted of racketeering conspiracy and other charges in 2013 for using his office to commit extortion, bribery and fraud. Mr. Kilpatrick is serving a 28-year sentence, and is scheduled for release in 2037.

Two days ago the White House announced that President Obama had commuted the sentences of several dozen offenders, most convicted for nonviolent drug offenses. Officials say this move illustrates the President’s commitment to criminal justice reform. In a video posted to the White House’s Facebook page, President Obama said:

“These men and women were not hardened criminals. Their punishments didn’t fit the crime.”

Interestingly, while the President’s move commuted a number of sentences, he did not grant any Pardons. On many occasion, Mr. Obama has eloquently addressed notions of grace and redemption. However, he has been MIA (Missing In Action) when it comes to the issue of Pardons. His paucity in that area is so severe; one has to go all the way back to President James Garfield to find a President who granted fewer Pardons than the 64 that President Obama has. This is even more noteworthy when you consider President Garfield died from an assassin’s bullet in 1881, just over six months after he had been sworn in. President Obama, of course, has been in office over six years.

Doug Berman, an Ohio State University law professor, who has studied Presidential Pardons, says of President Obama:

“He’s been unusually stingy – he’s a clemency Grinch.”

A number of critics, and some current and former officials say the President’s lack of activism in this area reflects his determination to avoid the type of controversies that followed President Clinton, such as the uproar that ensued when President Clinton Pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich on his last day in office.

P.S. Ruckman, Jr., a political science professor who writes a blog, “Pardon Power,” says:

“It’s just not something he’s interested in.”

He ranks President Obama as “the seventh least merciful” President in history.

The President, in his own defense, blamed the Office of Pardons Attorney, whose Chief, Ronald Rodgers, resigned last year amid disclosures that he had misrepresented a commutation applicant’s record to the White House. A former journalist, Deborah Leff, now heads the Office. Of the situation, the President said:

“I noticed that what I was getting [from the Pardon Office] was mostly small-time crimes from very long ago.”

He vowed to be more aggressive on petitions during his remaining time in office.

It was important to note the President’s differentiation between commutations and pardons in order to view his move to push for judicial reform in a balanced light. It is refreshing that this President is moving to address a system that has treated black and brown people specifically, and the poor in general, in a way that can rightly be called ruthlessly. By the same token, it’s worth noting that three-quarters of the way through his tenure, this President, who has done many remarkable things, has been an underwhelming player in addressing some areas of judicial inequity. The good news is, there are 18 months left in this Presidency, and lots of people will be focused on the 2016 Presidential Election. That may allow the President some oxygen and space to continue to expand the areas in which he leaves an indelible and positive mark on the American landscape.

Judicial reform is certainly an area of opportunity, and incarceration policy and practices make great targets. America is to incarceration, what CNN claims to be to news, the Worldwide Leader. So altogether now, let’s hear the cheer…”We’re Number 1!” What a dubious distinction.

The United States accounts for roughly 4 percent of the world’s population. Contrast that to the fact we account for 22 percent of the world’s prison population, and as you can see, we are vastly overrepresented in that category. In 1970, there were approximately 200,000 incarcerated Americans. By 1990, that number had increased to nearly a million. By 2008, at its peak, the number was around 1,600,000.

In the ‘70’s, America transitioned from the Sex, Drugs, and Rock-N-Roll era of the ‘60’s to a Law and Order society. To that end, the Prison industrial complex was born, and incarceration ceased being the primary purview of bureaucrats, and became principally a functioning for profit enterprise. Partly as a result, an ugly dichotomy emerged.

The crime rate peaked in the ‘80’s. Yet when President Bill Clinton became President in 1992, expanding crime fighting by increasing incarceration levels was still the favored prescription. To wit, President Clinton enacted tougher sentencing laws that not only sent more people to prison, but applied longer sentences. Factor in vastly disparate sentencing for crack (principal urban drug choice) and powdered cocaine (principal suburban drug choice), and the deluge of imprisoned people of color was a fait accompli.

As we approach the midpoint of the second decade of the 21st Century, politicians on both sides of the aisle are beginning to recognize the enormous ill effects of this questionable policy gone totally wrong. The deleterious economic consequences of subtracting hundreds of thousands of able bodied potential employees for the workforce deprives both business and families at a time critical to individuals, companies, and the nation.

I look forward to hearing what the President has to say about reforming the criminal justice system while he is at El Reno tomorrow. He will be interviewed for the HBO newsmagazine series “Vice” on the issue. The segment will air this fall. However, he likely previewed the theme when he spoke at the 2015 NAACP Convention last night in Philadelphia. There he raised the topic and argued it is one America can’t afford to ignore. In laying out his vision for fixing the criminal justice system, he noted a need to focus on communities, courtrooms, and cellblocks. He announced a federal review of the use of solitary confinement, and urged Congress to pass a sentencing reform bill by the end of the year. He also called for voting rights restoration to felons who have served their sentences, and suggested employers eliminate the box asking job candidates about their past convictions. In a nod to his commutations earlier this week, he said long mandatory minimum sentences now in place should be reduced – or discarded entirely.

Taken in total, tomorrow should be an exciting day for Oklahomans, in general, and for the inhabitants and employees of the El Reno Prison. The word is out; “President Obama is Going to Jail: A Presidential First!” But remember, he’s just visiting.

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Correctional_Institution,_El_Reno

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-obama-criminal-justice-20150714-story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/07/10/obama-to-visit-federal-prison-in-oklahoma-on-thursday/

http://newsok.com/obamas-visit-to-prison-in-el-reno-will-focus-on-reform/article/5433521

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/07/12/president-obama-to-be-first-sitting-president-to-visit-federal-prison/

http://on.aol.com/video/obamas-prison-visit-highlights-shift-in-drug-policy-518939715

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obama-prison-visit-20150710-story.html

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/ken-walshs-washington/2015/07/13/obama-to-visit-federal-prison

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-to-visit-federal-prison/

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/obama-to-visit-federal-prison-oklahoma-119962.html

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/07/11/obama-to-visit-oklahoma-prison/21208165/

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0711/Why-Obama-will-be-the-first-president-to-visit-a-federal-prison-video

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8913297/mass-incarceration-maps-charts

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/president-obama-extends-clemency-to-46-prisoners/

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/poised-to-commute-dozens-of-sentences-obama-123815558936.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWJ_HOxMw7k

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate

It’s time to “Break It Down!”

Three weeks ago, 21-year-old, self-confessed, Dylann Roof carried out a mass shooting, killing nine people at historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The dead included the church’s senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney.  Mr. Roof is being held on $1 million bond.  At least one report claims supporters have raised $4 million in donations to pay for his legal fees, and possibly his bond.  Just an FYI!

Two weeks ago, I blogged about the incident in a post entitled: Carnage in a Charleston Church: Another Mass Murder (https://thesphinxofcharlotte.com/2015/06/24/carnage-in-a-charleston-church-another-mass-murder/). A portion of that blog was devoted to the virtually spontaneously combusted movement to take down the Confederate Battle Flag, which flies at the State Capitol in Columbia, South Carolina. I noted then that the movement, which interestingly, was essentially nonexistent three weeks ago, seemed to materialize almost from thin air, after Mr. Roof’s heinous crime. Moreover, while the flag was prominently displayed by Mr. Roof, to paraphrase an expression the NRA is fond of offering as a defense, “Flags don’t kill people.”

Surely, in this instance, the Flag did not murder nine people. In fact, Mr. Roof did not use a flag to kill them; he used a gun. But not one of these new found anti-flag zealots has suggested enhanced background checks as a pre-action for acquiring a fire arm, and they certainly have not offered any ideas on strengthening legislation tied to fire arms purchases. I felt the flag initiative was a diversionary tactic designed to preempt any action on firearms when it was unveiled; I continue to think so now. I’m just saying.

Be that as it may, the South Carolina Legislature is moving apace to construct and consider legislation to remove the flag from the Statehouse Grounds. While I was dubious two weeks ago, as to the eventual outcome of the various initiatives to remove the flag, the effort has taken on an almost inexorable quality. Since that time, a number of States have joined the fray, and one courageous black woman, Ms. Brittany “AKA Bree” Newsome, actually scaled the flagpole and removed the flag on June 27, 2015. Her act drew additional national and international attention to a righteous cause. Others have referred to her as an activist; she calls herself a freedom fighter. Whatever you choose to call her, she is an American patriot and hero…a shero, if you will.

This week, over the past two days, the State Legislature of South Carolina has held a series of votes on the issue. The movement on the matter may culminate today, when the State House is expected to take up the measure. There may be a series of votes, due to a number of amendments opponents of efforts to remove the flag are expected to offer, in an attempt to derail the move to bring down the flag.

As I mentioned in the post two weeks ago, Governor Haley (now) supports removing the flag. Based on votes taken yesterday, 92% of State Senators support the measure; 82% of State House Members voted to send the Flag Bill directly to the floor and bypass committee. Hundreds of thousands of petitioners want the flag down. The debate is set to resume at 10:00 a.m. this morning when the measure will go the House floor for a second vote.

Based on a survey of lawmakers by The Charleston Post and Courier, South Carolina lawmakers have the votes necessary to remove the flag from the Statehouse Grounds. Many Republicans in the House have not said how they will vote. It’s also important to note that opponents may add amendments to the bill with a three-fifths majority vote.

If discrepancies emerge from the votes taken by the two Houses, they would need to be worked out in committee. The outcome is still unclear, for sure. But we know it won’t be long before that outcome, whatever it may be, is revealed.

There are, of course, still supporters of the flag. The State newspaper, in Columbia, reported that pro-Confederate Flag robocalls urged voters last week to call their legislators and tell them to “not stand with the leftist fanatics who want to destroy the South we love. What’s next? This attack on our values is sick and un-American, and it has to stop right here and right now in South Carolina.”

Imagine that: Nikki Haley, Lindsey Graham, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and Rick Perry on a list of leftist fanatics. Who knew? They are all among a growing list of notable Conservatives, with extensive bona fides when it comes to Southern roots, who have loudly and repeatedly called for taking down the Confederate Battle Flag, since June 18^th.

There is also recent research that suggests a majority of Americans view the flag more as a symbol of Southern Pride than of racism. For example, according to a new CNN/ORC poll, U.S. public opinion regarding the flag remains about where it was 15 years ago. In 2000, 59% said they viewed it as a symbol of pride; that number was 57% in recent polling. Not surprisingly, opinions are sharply divided by race, and among whites, by education.

Not to be outflanked, MoveOn members presented a petition to officials at the Statehouse yesterday. More than 570,000 signatures have been collected. In articulating the organization’s position, they made the following statement:

“The Confederate Flag is not a symbol of Southern pride, but rather a symbol of rebellion and racism. On the heels of the brutal killing of nine black people in a South Carolina church by a racist terrorist, it’s time to put that symbol of rebellion and racism behind us and move toward a better United States of America!”

When Kate Bolduan, on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront,” interviewed Bree Newsome, a filmmaker and activist from Charlotte, she told Bolduan that she accepts potential jail time as “part of my calling as a freedom fighter.” Ms. Newsome and fellow activist James Tyson were charged with defacing state property after she scaled a 30-foot pole and removed the flag. The pair face three years in prison on the misdemeanor and/or a fine of up to $5,000.

In her interview with Ms. Bolduan, she said she wanted to highlight an unjust situation. She referred to the flag as ”this symbol of hate, this symbol of treason.” When Kate Bolduan asked her about the recent poll that suggested most people see the flag as a symbol of Southern pride, Ms. Newsome said it shows people need to be better educated about the history of the Civil War. (Ain’t that the truth?)

So here we are…“D-Day: Will the Flag Come Down?” I think there will be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, but the South Carolina House of Representatives will find the necessary two-thirds majority to remove the flag. Now, about that national debate on those guns!

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/07/politics/sc-confederate-flag-future/index.html

http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhfB27b8ziEN6x4fTr

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bree_Newsome

https://www.videoup.net/v/hee93a33x-bree-newsome-takes-down-the-confederate-flag-in-south-carolina/

https://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=aaplw&p=bree+newsome+take+down+flag

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/7/3/this_flag_comes_down_today_bree

http://blackamericaweb.com/2015/07/01/bree-newsome-on-why-she-decided-to-take-down-south-carolinas-confederate-flag/

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/06/bree_newsome_opens_up_about_taking_down_confederate_flag_on_sc_state_capitol.html

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/07/06/south-carolina-confederate-flag

http://www.wsj.com/articles/south-carolina-house-to-debate-removal-of-confederate-flag-1436299766?mod=rss_US_News

http://abcnews.go.com/US/south-carolina-lawmakers-launch-debate-confederate-flag-removal/story?id=32248254

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/07/06/bill-to-remove-confederate-flag-advances-by-37-3-vote-in-south-carolina-senate/

https://newswatch33.com/news/charleston-church-shooter-dylann-roof-receives-4-million-in-donations-from-supporters/

It’s time to Break It Down!

As a nation, we are headed toward one of the signature weekends of the summer, if not the year. Saturday will be the Fourth of July, or, as it’s officially known in the U.S., Independence Day. It’s a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, when the country declared independence from Great Britain.

Independence Day is commonly a time for fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, and political speeches and ceremonies, in addition there are a number of other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States.

This year we will add a little extra spice to the celebratory fireworks. In a reversal of 55 years of varying degrees of less than neighborly hostilities, more than 54 of those years without diplomatic relations, the United States and Cuba plan to announce an agreement today to officially seal the renewal of diplomatic ties. The two countries will reopen embassies in Washington and Havana for the first time since January 3, 1961, the climax of deteriorating relations between the United States and Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower closed the American Embassy in Havana and severed all diplomatic connections. This action signaled the willingness of the U.S. to take extreme measures to oppose the Castro Regime, which officials in this country believed was transforming into a beachhead of communism in the Western Hemisphere. The stated reason for the dissolution of relations was, ostensibly, Castro’s demand that the U.S. reduce its embassy staff, based upon his assertion that the staff was being used as a base for spying. With that action, the Cold War became an active intra-continental political sport in the Western Hemisphere.

Back on Wednesday, December 17, 2014, President Obama ordered the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Cuba and the opening of an embassy in Havana. He vowed to “cut loose the shackles of the past” and sweep aside one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.

The announcement, a surprise at the time, followed the end of 18 months of secret talks that produced a prisoner swap negotiated with the help of Pope Francis, and concluded by a telephone call between Presidents Obama and Raúl Castro. The unexpected and historic deal broke a prolonged stalemate between two countries separated by just 90 miles of water, but oceans of mistrust and hostility that go back to the days of Theodore Roosevelt’s charge up San Juan Hill, and the nuclear brinksmanship of the Cuban missile crisis.

In revealing the deal to the American public, President Obama said:

“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries. The deal will begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas and move beyond a rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.”

In taking this avant-garde step in diplomacy, President Obama proved once again, as he had with healthcare reform that he dared tread where those who came before him opted to sidestep. Ten Presidents that preceded Mr. Obama had refused to go there. In fact Republicans, along with at least one senior Democrat, characterized the action as appeasement of the hemisphere’s leading dictatorship. Republicans, who were slated to control both houses of Congress, beginning in January, promised to resist lifting the 54-year-old trade embargo.

Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida and son of Cuban immigrants, said:

“All this is going to do is give the Castro Regime, which controls every aspect of Cuban life, the opportunity to manipulate these changes to perpetuate itself in power.”

There are still hurdles to overcome. For the moment, there remains a Cuba travel ban in place on U.S. citizens, and Cuba is still subject to a U.S. arms embargo, in place since 1962, though President Obama has urged Congress to lift it.

Despite the hardcore GOP bravado, the wheels of change roll on. The two countries have operated diplomatic missions called “interest sections” in each other’s capitals since 1977 under the legal protection of Switzerland. However, they do not enjoy the same status as full embassies. It appears that will change in a matter of weeks.

This past April, President Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, met for the first formal talks between the two countries in more than half a century. In May, the U.S. moved Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. The nations also announced plans to resume ferry and air service between the U.S. and Cuba.

The President has long viewed ending the U.S. freeze with Cuba as central to his foreign policy legacy. It has taken the country more than five decades, and it has taken this President more than six years, but today is the day the U.S. announces a reset for Cuban relations, and with it an extension of the great week he had last week. A White House spokesman said President Obama would deliver a statement on Cuba this morning from the Rose Garden. Secretary of State Kerry is expected to speak from Vienna, about embassy openings, which are anticipated to occur in July.

The Secretary would likely travel to Cuba for an embassy opening. In Havana, the American Embassy will likely occupy the same building where the “interest section” currently operates. That is the same structure, situated on the Havana waterfront, which housed the American Embassy prior to the severing of diplomatic ties after the Cuban Revolution. Much has changed, yet some things do remain the same.

As you prepare to observe the upcoming Independence Day holiday, whether it be by eating too much, drinking too liberally, engaging friends and family at home, or taking on a travel expedition, under the shade of Old Glory, or in the surreal backdrop of the Southern Cross (Rebel Flag…in case you don’t know), feel free to kick it off, beginning today, as the amity of the Americas gets a little more genuine, because of…”Rapprochement: The United States and Cuba Resume Diplomatic Relations!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/30/politics/u-s-cuba-embassy-relationship/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ap-source-us-cuba-to-announce-embassy-openings-wednesday/2015/06/30/77da4282-1f6f-11e5-a135-935065bc30d0_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/world/americas/us-and-cuba-to-announce-plan-to-reopen-embassies.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/06/30/cuba-us-embassy-openings-wednesday/29532743/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/13/politics/us-cuba-embassies-open/index.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-33335342

http://www.wsj.com/articles/cuba-u-s-to-resume-talks-to-restore-diplomatic-ties-1426281496

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/08/us-cuba-to-hold-diplomatic-talks-alan-gross-migration

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html?_r=0

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/21/us-cuba-talks_n_7348560.html

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-severs-diplomatic-relations-with-cuba

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(United_States)

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-severs-diplomatic-relations-with-cuba

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/july-1-1898-the-battle-of-san-juan-hill/?_r=0

It’s time to “Break It Down!”

Once again, an act of senseless violence has pierced our nation’s consciousness. Based upon a tally by CBS News reporter and unofficial White House historian, Mark Knoller, last Thursday marked the fourteenth time President Obama issued a statement on a shooting attack. In his seven-and-a-half minute statement, the President was visibly frustrated, and in fact he admitted a range of emotions, including, heart-ache, sadness, and anger.

President Obama’s sense of frustration is undoubtedly heightened due to his fruitless efforts to move Congress to enact legislation to limit access to firearms, which many people believe is a key arbiter to how easy it is to facilitate an attack, such as the one carried out at (Mother) Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. As many of his supporters ruefully note, forget gun control, Congress has refused to even adopt new gun registration laws. Moreover, despite the recent tragedy in Charleston, the prospects of new firearms’ legislation seems no brighter today than at any point in the last six-and-a-half years.

That stark reality moved President Obama to say:

“Now is a time for mourning and for healing, but let’s be clear: at some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence doesn’t happen in other advanced countries.”

As he reflected upon the nine lives taken last Wednesday, the President noted:

“Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.” And so we must!

Unlike most of the preceding acts of gun violence during the President’s tenure, this one, by almost all accounts, unless you view this matter through a Fox News-like lens, has a racial catalyst and component. While there is a segment of our society dedicated to refusing to admit that any white person’s action, no matter how much compelling residual evidence exists, is predicated upon racial animus, this is one of those instances in which, there is no clear reasonable option.

Last Wednesday night, Dylann Roof, 21, entered historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. Wednesday evening is traditionally Prayer Meeting or Bible Study night in the Black Church, and so it was last week at Mother Emanuel.

Near the end of a 2,000-word Manifesto, titled “An Explanation,” Mr. Roof reveals what authorities may eventually deem to be the impetus for his actions:

“I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is the most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the Internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”

The text which appeared on a website, called “The Last Rhodesian,” is registered to Mr. Roof and lists him as its administrator. In an image tweeted by South Carolina authorities this week, Roof is seen wearing a jacket with the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and nearby Rhodesia, a former British colony that a white minority ruled until it became independent in 1980 and its name was changed to Zimbabwe. His Social Media also portray him brandishing a Confederate Flag, and burning an American Flag.

According to Police Chief Greg Mullen, Mr. Roof spent about an hour at the Bible Study/Prayer Meeting before rising to open fire. Witnesses told investigators the gunman stood up and said he was there “to shoot black people,” a law enforcement official said.

He answered one man’s plea to stop by shooting him, said Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of the church’s slain pastor who has talked to a survivor.

“‘No, you’ve raped our women, and you are taking over the country,” he said, according to Johnson. “… I have to do what I have to do.”

All the victims were shot multiple times, according to Roof’s arrest warrant.

“Prior to leaving the Bible Study room he stood over a witness … and uttered a racially inflammatory statement,” the warrant said. He told one witness, whom he spared, “I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to spare you so you can tell them what happened.”

Roof shot and killed six females, and three males, including:

• The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41, the Church’s Pastor
• M Tywanza Sanders, 26
• Ms. Cynthia Hurd, 54
• The Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45
• Myra Thompson, 59
• Ethel Lee Lance, 70
• The Rev. Daniel Simmons, 74
• The Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49
• Susie Jackson, 87.

Approximately fourteen hours after the shootings, police caught Roof in Shelby, North Carolina, about 245 miles away from the carnage in Charleston. He was armed, but surrendered without offering resistance.

Roof confessed to the shootings in interviews with the Charleston police and FBI, two law enforcement officials told Evan Perez and Wesley Bruer of CNN, the first network to report this development. He also told investigators he wanted to start a race war, one of those officials said.

Investigators are looking into whether Roof had links to white supremacist or other hate groups, a law enforcement official said. There’s no indication, so far, that law enforcement officials who focus on hate groups knew of him. Roof is being held under one million dollars bond.

A peculiar thing happened as the case of Dylann Roof has unfolded. Mr. Roof has been connected to a number of racist symbols, prominent among them, the Confederate Battle Flag. While President Obama has lifted the mantle of firearms access when discussing this horrendous event, the rest of the political spectrum, especially conservatives seem engrossed in an inexplicable about face on the efficacy of what is casually known as the Confederate Flag. As a symbol, the flag has been considered virtually sacrosanct among Southern Conservatives for…well forever…since the virulent initiatives to put down the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.

The shameless song and dance routine that so many Southerners contorted themselves through while attempting to explain the supposed innocuousness of this venal symbol is at once laughable and sickening. The words heritage and history are most frequently used to defend and /or explain why the flag should fly over a Statehouse, or adorn one’s vehicle, or front door, or desk, or whatever. Of course none of that explains the perfect storm coincidental nature of the symbol emerging virtually simultaneously to the rise of the Civil Rights movement, and the apex of efforts of Klansmen and other hateful and bad actors to diffuse and defeat that movement.

The cynic in me is compelled to recognize that this sudden infectious spread of good will seems a lot like a case of making a sacrificial lamb of the flag, all in an effort to sidestep another serious battle over new gun laws. I see you!

Don’t get me wrong; I have no level of disappointment about the potential dislodging of the hate-infused symbol that is the Confederate Battle Flag. I would love to see it go away altogether. However, I am also mindful that any prospects of even moving the flag to less prominent stations, on any large scale, is still quite an iffy proposition. This is true despite the Pomp and Circumstance generated by Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and other politicos including Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Lindsey Graham, Chris Christie, Ben Carson, Rand Paul, Rick Perry, and John Kasich, Scott Walker, and Jeb Bush.  There are still holdouts.  Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, and Rick Santorum have hedged, and said the States should decide the issue.  Mike Huckabee has dismissed the issue.  For now!

In fact, in addition to South Carolina, Legislatures in several other Southern States, are currently engaged in some level of discourse about what to do about references (some subtle or not so well-known) to the Confederacy in their respective State Flags.  Included among these States are: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Kudos to businesses, such as Amazon, eBay, KMART, Sears, and Walmart, which have taken the position they will no longer sell Confederate Flag oriented products.  Although, I did take with a grain of salt, a statement by Walmart’s CEO, Doug McMillon, when he said he was surprised the products could be found on their shelves.  Nevertheless, I credit him with adhering to the right impulse, even if it took him a while to arrive at that point.  Moreover, a number of businesses, including NASCAR, Boeing, BMW, and Michelin have rallied to support Governor Haley’s initiative to remove the flag in South Carolina.

North Carolina and Virginia Governors have asked their States not to sell Confederate-themed license plates any longer. Even Mississippi is considering taking down the flag. However, govern any post-flag fantasies with caution. In South Carolina, for example, any measure to remove the flag still requires a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to pass, which I am certain, will be no mean feat.  In the Palmetto State, the flag is institutionalized to such a degree that, even though the United States Flag and the State of South Carolina Flag are flying at half staff, in observance of the deaths of the Charleston Nine, the Confederate Flag (Which no longer flies over the Statehouse, is, and must by State statute still flying at full staff.  Ergo, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  There is still work to do.

Indeed, it “may be easier” to remove the flag than enacting any kind of enhanced gun laws. I’m just not sure the issue is nearly as important. Meanwhile, we are left to contemplate “Carnage in a Charleston Church: Another Mass Murder!”

I’m done; holla back!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/20/why-republicans-were-quick-to-cite-religion-but-not-racism-on-charleston/?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article25112812.html

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/22/8824113/obama-n-word-maron

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/22/politics/barack-obama-n-word-race-relations-marc-maron-interview/index.html

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/20/8818093/confederate-flag-south-carolina-charleston-shooting

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/obama-deliver-eulogy-slain-s-c-pastor-clementa-pinckney-n379871?cid=eml_nbn_20150622

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/south-carolina-gov-nikki-haley-calls-removal-confederate-flag-state-n379801

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/dylann-roof-raged-black-guy-girl-report-article-1.2266378

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/06/dylann_roof_s_cousin_says_dylann_went_over_the_edge_when_his_girl_crush.html

http://wnep.com/2015/06/18/dylann-storm-roof-arrested-in-north-carolina-according-to-report/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths-about-why-the-south-seceded/2011/01/03/ABHr6jD_story.html?postshare=8031435009070693

https://instagram.com/p/4PpoPtSpky/

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/22/walmart-leads-pack-remove-confederate-flag-merchanidse.html

http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-charleston-eulogy-defining-moment-race-171823927.html;_ylt=A0LEVyhsA4pVKMcAm29XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEycTgwOTVxBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjAzOTVfMQRzZWMDc2M-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/22/christian-confederate-slavery_n_7638676.html

http://www.postbourgie.com/2009/04/29/the-confederate-flag-means-segregation/

http://time.com/3930464/south-carolina-confederate-flag-1962/

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/20/8818093/confederate-flag-south-carolina-charleston-shooting

http://www.rossde.com/editorials/edtl_conf_flag.html

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/6/23/mississippi-lawmaker-calls-for-removing-confederate-symbol-from-state-flag.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/22/us/charleston-church-shooting-main/index.html?eref=edition

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7639788?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000047

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/message-claim-confederate-flag-represents-heritage/

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3876157

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/22/civil-war-slavery_n_7639988.html?ir=Black+Voices&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000047

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/06/23/south-carolina-lawmakers-to-discuss-confederate-flag-as-debate-stretches-to-miss-va/?wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/22/politics/confederate-flag-walmart-south-carolina/

http://wn.com/president_obama’s_gun_control_speech_during_charleston_church_shooting_press_conference_full_

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/245422-obama-shooting-should-be-wake-up-call

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/us/church-attacked-in-charleston-south-carolina.html?_r=0

It’s time to Break It Down!

With wars, prison breaks, the NHL/NBA Finals, World Cup Soccer, a newly minted acronym (JEB = John Ellis Bush) presidential candidate, Democrats abandoning the President on the Trade bill, and a shark biting off an arm of two different teens off the North Carolina coast, the Rachel Dolezal saga hardly warrants a mention. That, however, is the beauty of having one’s own blog. Unlike LeBron, I don’t have to proclaim myself the best in the world to write about what I choose, and today, I choose Rachel; Ms. Dolezal, if you’re nasty. (That’s a cultural literacy/pop culture reference that you either get, or you don’t). Conduct a web engine search of Janet Jackson’s “Nasty,” if it escapes you. And yeah, I know the rule: The joke didn’t work, if you have to explain it. My blog; my rules.

In my view, there really isn’t a lot to say. To immediately frame this in a different, and sobering, if you will, light, simply imagine if, beginning today, I decide to “Identify as white.” OK, once you quit laughing, assuming you know me, really what if I did that? If, because I attended an historically white high school, matriculated and earned a graduate degree at a PWI (OK, another cultural literacy reference/Predominantly White Institution), spent a career working in majority white organizations, lived what some people would consider a middle class existence, and reside in suburbia, can I successfully commit cultural appropriation and declare, once and for all, I’m white; end of discussion? Can I? Really?

Before you spit out your coffee, or whatever your morning beverage of choice is, let me make it perfectly clear, I have no plans to either shed my locks, or begin any sort of bleaching treatment. I’m black; Ms. Dolezal is not. End of story!

Now, many folks smarter than me, and of much greater acclaim, have weighed in on this story. Frankly, I think it has taken up more time and space than is warranted. But we are a nation of excesses, so it is not unusual to immerse ourselves in flights of fancy while real issues go unaddressed.

Be that as it may, there are multiple issues at play here with the Montana-born, former Spokane, Washington NAACP President. They include, among others:

Is Ms. Dolezal black?

Did she misrepresent her race on various job applications?

Did she lie about whom her parents are?

Did she lie about whom her father is?

Did she lie about whom her child is?

Did she lie yesterday by saying she began identifying as black at age 5?

Has she done good work in her roles, while identifying as black?

The bottom line here is, not that hard to decipher. Moreover, I’m not writing any of this to persecute the woman. There is a lot to like about black culture and the African American experience. A number of people have been appropriating it for many years for that very reason. To that end, despite the fact Ms. Dolezal is not black, misrepresented her race on job apps, lied about who her parents are, lied when identifying someone who purportedly was her father, lied by saying one of her adopted brothers was her son, and lied yesterday when she said she began identifying as black at age 5 (according to her parents), she has apparently done significant and good work in roles afforded to her as a result of her various deceptions, misrepresentations, and lies. To that, I must say, she may have been able to do all those things by asserting that as the white woman she is, she was committed to advancing society in the same ways she did, in those same positions.

I applaud Ms. Dolezal…for her goals and the aims that she achieved while pursuing those goals. Her tactics and methods; those leave something to be desired. And I would add, those tactics and methods proved to be the instruments of her undoing.

There has been a lot of airtime and web space devoted to how much black folks disdain Rachel Dolezal. That may be true; but I am not one of them. I think she made a number of questionable judgments, employed a series of deceptive practices, and she may be, as her parents have contended, delusional. In fact, as I make mention of her parents, it is essential to note, it was they who exposed her canard. And while it seems to me, they are really the people most angered by all this, they only responded to questions posed by the media after the media sought them out and posed direct questions, to which they could have responded truthfully, declined comment (further intensifying the inquiry), or lied…as their daughter had been doing.  Some would say, to their credit, they chose the honorable option.

Ultimately, if an accusatory finger points at anyone, sadly, it must be pointed at Rachel, herself. I’ll say this, her journey already has the makings for a book, movie, or TV deal…”Black Like Me: The Rachel Dolezal Story!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/16/us/washington-rachel-dolezal-naacp/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6GyV_rcLV8

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/rachel-dolezals-brother-refutes-her-claims-ezra-121684154470.html

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/15/opinions/rich-rachel-dolezal/index.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/rachel-dolezals-parents-hope/story?id=31771932

http://abcnews.go.com/US/rachel-dolezal-naacp-leader-questioned-race-parents-reportedly/story?id=31714836

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/us/rachel-dolezal-quits-naacp-in-spokane.html?_r=0

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0613/Rachel-Dolezal-Does-it-matter-if-she-is-black-or-white-video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/12/rachel-dolezal-black_n_7573930.html

http://yourblackworld.net/2015/06/16/kareem-abdul-jabbar-black-community-better-off-because-of-rachel-dolezal/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me

It’s time to Break It Down!

Sadly, but necessarily, my focus for this post is the next installment of what seems to be an endless procession of, shall we say, “unfortunate” interactions between citizens and police officers. In this instance, like many, if not most of the ones preceding it, the majority of the citizens in question were African American.

According to most accounts, teens decided to throw a pool party at a local neighborhood pool in McKinney, last Friday. McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city’s 2010 population was 131,117, making it second in size to Plano, among cities in the County. It is the nineteenth most populous city in the state of Texas, and is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. McKinney is located 31 miles north of Dallas.

Among cities with more than 50,000 people, the Census Bureau cited McKinney as the fastest growing city from 2000 to 2003, and again in 2006. In 2007, it was listed as the second fastest growing city among cities over 100,000 in population, and in 2008, the third fastest. In the most recent estimate, as of January 1, 2015, the city’s population was estimated at 155,142.

So right away, it is clear, the dimensions, and likely the character of what used to be a small town has been altered significantly in the last decade and a half. With that in mind, it is certainly conceivable that homogeneity has gone by the wayside, and with it some degree of tolerance. I cannot say that the resulting changes caused Friday’s incident, but it almost surely contributed.

Just what happened in this swanky burg outside Dallas? Here’s a youtube video of the incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpWP8aMcOo8.

By Sunday, a number of variations of the video above showed a police officer most viewers, including the Brass at the McKinney Police Department, thought was out of control in his efforts to respond to a call to curtail the actions of a raucous crowd at the pool party. The officer, Eric Casebolt, though not named initially, was quickly placed on administrative leave.

A seven-minute YouTube video shows a police officer using profanity and aggressively throwing a 15-year-old girl in a bathing suit to the ground, facedown. He then appeared to pin her down with his knees.

The girl can be heard screaming, “I want to call my mom. He hit me.”

As is common, there are conflicting views of the matter. One version of the sequencing of events involves an assertion by Tatiana Rhodes, 19, who maintained that she and some of her friends were enjoying themselves at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool when conflict with a white neighbor ensued. Ms. Rhodes said:

“This lady was saying racial slurs to some friends that came to the cookout. She was saying such things as ‘black effer,’ and “that’s why you live in Section 8 homes.’” More insults followed, according to Rhodes. One neighbor said, “Go back to your Section 8 home.” Then, by Rhodes’ account, “A white neighbor came up to me and smacked me in my face. That’s when both of the women attacked me,” said Ms. Rhodes. A photographer recorded the statement and uploaded it online.

Conversely, Brian New of CBS Dallas reported that “Many McKinney residents say that Casebolt was justified because the teens were ignoring his orders.”  Well, there you have it! Comply, or face unmitigated wrath, language and physical assault by a police officer.

In the video, Officer Casebolt was recorded pinning a teen girl to the ground, handcuffing her, pulling her hair, pushing her face to the ground, and holding her down with both knees on her spine. He was also shown drawing his weapon and pointing it toward several other teens.

Yesterday, Corporal Casebolt resigned from the McKinney Police Department. Chief Greg Conley said the officer resigned voluntarily. He stated at a press conference:

“Officer David Eric Casebolt’s actions were “indefensible, but he was not pressured to quit the force.”

Chief Conley also said:

“Twelve officers responded to the report of fights and a disturbance at the pool party at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool in an affluent area of western McKinney. Eleven of them performed according to their training, Casebolt did not. He came into the call out of control and the video showed he was out of control during the incident.”

The Supreme Court has held that it is legal to record police officers executing their duties. There are some states and jurisdictions that frame that right in strict parameters. However, it is crucial to note that the recent trend of video-recording such encounters has provided an incredible array of enlightenment. Thanks to a revolution in technology, i.e., virtually everyone has a video-capable cellphone; the public has regularly become party to an eye-opening series of developments when citizen and police have what devolve into brutal encounters.

The good news resulting from the McKinney incident is no one lost a life, as a result of the encounter. We can all be thankful for that. Moreover, let us hope that, in as much as a picture is worth a thousand words, we can reach a national consensus that videotaping such incidents is a good thing for all involved.

In this particular incident, it brought to light the errant ways of, what for the duration of that incident at least was, a rogue cop. Conversely, it illuminated the commitment to departmental protocol of eleven other officers. That ought to be deemed a huge and compelling benefit. And while we are contemplating the power of hope, let us hope I will have a long respite before having the need to elevate another event such as this. I doubt we’ll be so lucky, but one thing about which there is no doubt is this; “McKinney: Like It or Not; They Got Next!”

I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com or http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.

To subscribe, click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.

Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/09/us/mckinney-texas-pool-party-video/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpWP8aMcOo8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinney,_Texas

http://mckinneytexas.org

http://gokicker.com/2015/06/08/what-we-know-about-the-racially-charged-pool-party-conflict-in-mckinney-texas/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/07/texas-police-officer-suspended-gun-pool-party/28651179/

http://news.yahoo.com/behind-tension-over-texas-pool-party-seismic-shift-205849024.html;_ylt=A0LEVx2fkXdV1L4AmLFXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzbzdqbzlsBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDVklQNTA0XzEEc2VjA3Nj

http://www.fox4news.com/story/29270610/mckinney-pool-party-incident-sparks-protests

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/us/mckinney-tex-pool-party-dispute-leads-to-police-officer-suspension.html?_r=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5nwVllNZvM

http://www.vibe.com/2015/06/pool-party-officer-resigns/

http://www.courtroomstrategy.com/2012/11/supreme-court-upholds-legality-of-videotaping-police/