The Revolutionary War Wasn't Necessary

A Treatise on American Aggression Throughout its History as a Nation

(also, a reference to today's circumstances as a nation, and to this holiday)

The colonies did not enjoy the best of all worlds in the late 1700s, but did the colonists have to wage war? Was that the viable solution? Was war the answer? Was this not an impertinent and irresponsible act against a stable government? Was the British Empire that evil? Didn't they provide stability and a systematic form of rule? Couldn't they have negotiated a better solution by peaceable means?

Not all the colonists were of English origin, but couldn't the Dutch and the others suffer this formality under a benign monarchy? Was the British king that despotic?

The French and Indian War of an earlier generation had kept the Franks at bay, as well many of the savage tribes of natives across the eastern seabord  and into the continental interior. Hadn't there been enough war and brutality?

Sure, many of the royal taxes and tarriffs were unfairly meted out by Great Britain to the thirteen colonies and its subjects, but was it worth fighting about? Bloodshed for reasons of money?

Many colonists were true Loyalists and Tories, like some of my own Clinch ancestors in Canada, who were members of  His Majesty's Loyal conscripts.

Colonials from New Hampshire to Georgia could be found opposed to this unneccessarily bloody "revolution". Violence was not a popular option, proved time and again during the actual war, year after year. Even some virulently opposed to the Crown disdained the war!

Really, war? And then it dragged out for too many years, starting in 1775 all the way into the early 1780s...

Bring our boys home! The fathers and sons drafted and volunteering for battle needed to work the homestead rather than spend a freezing winter in Pennsylvania with that alleged general George of Virginia. And end up getting killed and maimed for life. For what? Send the troops home! It lasted too long.

What a tragedy this war was! Thousands dead, for what?

OK, a new system of government. No more kings.

But was it worth it?

It only lead to the next war a generation later, the War of 1812.

And that would not have been an issue if the original revolution had not put us at odds with the European power that had virtually provided the United States with its provident way of life in the first place.

What was this war good for, but to make a Tennessee volunteer a household name and put him in the White House?

Andrew Jackson capitalized from a bloody war to spring into the top command of the land. From another unnecessary war. Blood on our hands.

And then came the Mexican-American War. Over what?

Texas? Texas was it's own place, let them worry about their own affairs! Mexico or United States, or just stay a sovereign Texas! Why fight about it?

What did the US gain from this conflict? Why sacrifice our lives and honor over land? Money? Such greed and selfishness.

Well, the West Coast became a fruitful acquisition, but at the cost of the blood of our men and that of the vanquished foes?

And then came the greatest unneccessay conflict we could imagine: the North-South travesty.

So what if half of the states divided the Union and maintained their old way of life! Slavery and human bondage?

Worth fighting about? We lost over a half million souls trying to resolve the issue of "one nation",  the Union following the capricious whims of Honest Abe in the District of Columbia. That was a slave region, to boot!

How hypocritical this country could be! He didn't even really care about emancipating the slaves anyway, until it became politically convenient. Honest Abe, indeed.

Which leads us to the Spanish-American War. It would seem the United States took lesson from its former ruler, the United Kingdom. We now have a new Empire, ladies and gentleman!

Goodbye, Spanish Empire, hello USA!

And more blood spilt, for what? A few more islands in the sea, and more naval superiority, a strangle hold on the world as the British had so long enjoyed?

Now the picture has turned full circle! Who was the worldwide empire now? Greed, greed, greed.

And then our interference in Europe in the "War to End All Wars". Yeah, right.

A lot of good that did us.  We lost hundreds and thousands every month that our dough boys were "over there". It was only a couple of years, but we lost more American soldiers in World War I than the Revolution, 1812, Mexican and Spanish Wars combined. And for what?

And, yes, for what reason? To incite the Germans into revenge a generation later so that we could lose even more men?

World War II was not just a bloody war in Europe, but we fought on the other side of the world against Japan as well.

Over 400,000 troops lost between both theatres!

Why can't other nations leave us out of things? Why do we have to wage war to solve our problems? Why do we have to be the the enforcer of freedom worldwide?

Why are they US problems in the first place?

Can't we leave good enough alone?

Let the other countries of the world worry about their own problems! So Japan would rule half the world, so they bombed our ships in Hawaii... The Hawaiian islands wouldn't even be an issue if we weren't such an empire in the first place.

All because of unnecessary wars...Unwanton violence and pure barbarity at the cost of peaceful dialogue. Can we not negotiate peace and stability through diplomatic means?

Korea? So what if the South Koreans wanted to be democratic?

We lost 40,000 men in another unnecessary conflict. And we are still there in the 21st century? All our tax money shelled out at the DMZ of the 38th parallel of a peninsula we have no business being in? When there are threats to our interests in other parts of the globe?

And Vietnam? We all know what a universal blunder and waste of life this was.

H0 Chi Minh was as benevolent ruler as King George III of yesteryear from the UK, right?

What did it prove? We lose face to the world while losing another 60,000 GIs and officers, plus the uncounted psycholgical casualties.

And we lost Democratic South Vietnam. They all fell under our vaunted foe of Communism, under the same autocratic system of the USSR, China and Cuba...

So unnecessary.

Liberate Kuwait? Why? Oil? Gas prices? Another 400 troops lost. Like the hundreds of Marines lost in Lebanon in 1983.

And then it leads to our current unecessary conflicts, with no end in sight.

Afghanistan and Iraq. Just more world empire attempts and endless greed for natural resources and enriching the wealthy elite oil company owners.

When will we ever learn?

So unnecessary! All this human loss and toil!

Like me joining the National Guard last year. I have college degrees. I can make a living in a number of comfortable lifestyles.

Am I just another greedy American? Do I want world conquest, like former US patriots of the past, bloodshed for the simple reason of human avarice and lust?

Don't I care about peace, dialogue, diplomacy?

What legacy am I leaving my children, now ages 7, 4, 2 and 7 months?

Am I the protypical American fighter, seeking blood and war for selfish and unnecessary reasons?

May it ever be so.

Happy Fourth of July, all.

2008.

Freedom is not free.

And sacrifice is required to enjoy our peace. At times, it requires hard decisons, tough commitments, and unfortunately the supreme sacrifice. And mistakes are made, without a doubt.

But the quest for peace and justice is not.

I hope you can read between the lines and sense the reality and the nobility of our past and present.

Errors in judgment have been made by our great land and its leadership for the past 232 years, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Not then, and not now.

God bless the USA and all our friends, across the planet at present and across the centuries.

And to our foes: consider well whom you try to challenge, and for what purpose.

Because I think that this country does. At least, this citizen does. The War of Independence is still being waged. And we will not back down from defending our freedom, our liberty, our nation, our families.

So, was the American Revolution necessary? Not necessarily, but it was right.

Was it necessary for me to join the military in 2007 at age 36? No, but I believe it was right.

And we hope to make peace to our dying day.

Peace.

 Clinch

Reasons to Like Mexico Uno Dos Tres

Recently I have had a talk with a few people that made me more aware of certain home grown Americans (not natives, but WASPS or maybe Anglo Catholics) as to how Mexicans in our country, of the illegal variety, pose such a problem. These associates hail from many parts of our great Union.

They have me thinking.

I don't see the glass so empty, really.

Obviously there is a problem when undocumented people are here in such numbers that it causes us social, economic and educational problems, but is that the way it is?

So here is my ABECEDARIO of the benefits of our great neighbor to the south.

A. (ah)They never capitulated to the socialists or communists during the Cold War. They avoided a lot of the problems of the rest of Latin America by being cool enough politically to do that.

!Viva Mexico!

B.  (bay) They have sent us millions of workers, legal and undocumented, who have worked in many industries helping our prices and employers and industries stay affordable and thriving.

C. (say) They have provided us with an amazing variety of food that we munch on constantly, not the least of them are nachos and salsa. Who doesn't love making a run for the border, both cheap imitation and higher end cuisine establishments? Of course, the American way is to incorporate their styles and then profit from those ideas moreso.

!Viva los Estados Unidos!

D. (day) They play baseball, and help develop talent that adds to our American passtime, even giving a few gringos a few more chances at the big time, not to mention other Latinos.

E. (eh) There is enough cross-cultural swapping where they love our NFL. And they help populate our MLS leagues here, which actually has a native following in places like St. Louis and Columbus, major cities with no NBA or MLB, respectively...

G. (hey) One word. Boxing.

H. (achay) Why else would we all want to learn Spanish? Spain? Mexico helps us be more competitive internationally.

Latin America and Spain have a lot of people, goods and products to trade and profit from, and mutually benefit from.

Including athletes and teams.

Don't you think Kobe would say so? Mexico is our inside helper...To the world.

!Ole!

Clinch

So You Don't Like Baseball?

Obviously there is a disconnect.

But I ask: what are the reasons?

The game is too slow.

Too many cheaters and chemical enhancers.

Too much greed.

Too many spoiled egos.

Disparity in the budgets of the big and small markets.

The game is too slow.

The game is not fast enough.

Some players are fat.

Some scratch and sniff themselves.

The seasons are too long.

Some of these players are not real athletes.

Some guys don't even speak English.

It is boring.

It is so dulll...

But not to this soul.

No way can it be boring. There is too much intellectual depth.

Relaxing? Certainly. Refreshing. Steadying. Calming.

And ever stimulating, under its layers and levels and annals and pages that reach out to us, like a good classic novel from a tome in a musty old library.

I have heard many similar comments about history, desultory observations alike. And books. And stuffy, dull names who in actuality were dynamic heroes.

Comments of the unloving are arbitrary to me.

There are many "students" at all levels of education both formal and otherwise, who are not really by definition students, who complain of their lack of interest in studying history.

I definitely put this en par with appreciation of America's game.

Baseball is history. It is America, more than anything else that we possess as a culture.

Too boring?

I suppose maybe, to many.

George Washington, a face on a bill?

Babe Ruth, a candy bar?

Abraham Lincoln, a lanky man with a tall black hat?

Hank Aaron, a man of color who broke the Home Run record of the Babe?

Richard Nixon, a man who professed, "I am not a crook".

Barry Bonds, a steroid using megalomaniac. Literally.

If this is all you can sum up of history, particularly American history and simultaneously its pastime, then maybe you are doomed to miss the absolute sublimity of this sport.

And perhaps sublimity is not a word.

But in this case, it should be if it is not.

They say that Thomas Jefferson and others played this ball and stick game in the 1700s.

Abner Doubleday gets more official credit a century later for being the creator of the game.

And then came the slow march of history. Have you heard of  this phenomenon? Causes and effects over time?

Walter Johnson.

Ty Cobb.

Cy Young.

Shoeless Joe Jackson.

The Bambino.

Hank Greenberg.

Josh Gibson.

Ted Williams.

Jackie Robinson.

Joe DiMaggio.

Micky Mantle.

Sandy Koufax.

Bob Gibson.

Roberto Clemente.

Reggie Jackson.

Tom Seaver.

Pete Rose.

Ken Griffey Junior.

Greg Maddox.

Perhaps this list of names means little to you. Or bores you. Perhaps it evokes a little bit of nostalgia or some mythic quality of time like hearing stories of yesteryear from your grandparents.

But perhaps it doesn't really grip you at all. Check yourself.

Perhaps Ernest Hemingway and his novelette "The Old Man and the Sea" is not a real classic too you.

Perhaps names of the Revolutionary War and Andrew Jackson and the Civil War generals and the World Wars and past wars mean little to you.

Perhaps.

Maybe poetry and literature aren't your cup of tea.

Or history.

But if you are a true student of the game, you just might understand.

I am trying to, and will continue these attempts the rest of my life.

And I am enjoying the game.

My team is down 5-0 in the ninth, but it is the march of history, the supernal nature of the spectacle and the humility of the grass roots that make every day a good day in baseball.

162 games per year. And a few more if you can last till the fall.

I hope I can make it again, just like that one cagey veteran who will not put down the glove or the bat.

Have you heard of Jamie Moyer?

Jim Edmonds?

Julio Franco? Omar Vizquel?

If you have not, you are missing out on what the lessons of life, history the United States of America offer us all.

And I know we are blessed, and it has been prophesied.

Baseball is a sport of destiny and glory.

Ask Japan. Or Cuba.

All of us understand the beauty and pageantry, the pathos and the pleasure of history.

Clinch

what day is it? saturday. good. it's light outside, it's warm, and i want to check the internet for news and my sites...i need to help others of my family get up so that we can leave the house by seven thirty...i wanted to be up by six, but it is now close to seven...

what a luxury to wake up this late...i usually have to get up at four, always dark, or maybe five thirty, which has been light lately but early and i have to get to work...things to do, even homework...

i am in school but it is my paid job...i go by a tight schedule most of the time...this weekend we are going to our temple and the kids have a special program...my wife will hang out with them as i do special ordinances for the ancestor of my hometeacher...lingo that is common to me but uncommon to most other human beings...

i looked at peegs.com to see goings on of the indiana hoosiers...terry hoeppner to be inducted into the college hall of fame...good for him and his wife and his family and his former players and schools...

i didn't think of the pittsburgh quarterback, but he is one of them...from university of miami...ohio...don't ride motor bikes without a helmet...i am afraid of motorcycles...and combatives (a form of Brazilian jujitzu)...my left shoulder still hurts...i hope it isn't serious, it does seem to be getting better...

i check the blogs and check  mine...i think i did some comments...what time do the cubs and white sox play?

1:05 eastern standard time...i will be in the temple, after driving a ways...gas is too high but we have a mostly full tank...my wife didn't use up too much of the tank this week, thank goodness...

my little boy woke up without too much crying, that is good and unusual...he was sick this week and he went through a lot of diapers with diarrhea and vomiting...he drank a lot of fluids...it tired my wife out and me a bit but we ended up not taking him to the emergency room, good thing...

my two daughters are done with the school year and it is warm this summer...my wife took them to a cool pool yesterday, indoor...it was unusually hot yesterday, 95 at least, which is really hot for here...

i listened to about five innings of the cards versus the red sox on 1050 am...on the way home, air conditioning pumping...we saw lighting ahead of us to the south, and some smoke from some fires...

it is dry and hot, but not as hot as yesterday...we like air conditioning, and drive through restaurants where we buy lunch for seven and change, sixteen cents to be exact...

white sox lost to the impressive cubbies eleven to seven...they are now ahead of the streaky twins by just a few, who beat their opponent, come to find out...

i like baseball...i like it, love it when my internet works...

and this is just a small fraction of my streams and flow...

but enough for now...

clinch

Dudski
Feb 5, 2007
6:12 PM OK, how does it work? Witness...

  Here we go, ladies and gents, I think you might know what to expect with this blogger...or then again, maybe not! Enjoy! the quickness, with which we...get along!

21 Questions to the man we call Dudski

#4 in a series by Doctor Clinch, aka yours truly

1. Looking back now in 2007, what were the biggest sporting events or athletes/sports figures that impacted you in your first 10 years of life? Watching the singing clam on the Ballentine Beer commercials during the Oriole telecasts as a child made me see the endless possibilities in life, in addition to making me deathly afraid of shellfish.

2.How much of an influence did your immediate family and extended family have on you towards sports? What else did they imbue in you? (That is a correct verb, yes?) My dad was a wonderful guy, big sports fan. He played high school football in Pennsylvania in, as he would put it “real football weather”. He was good enough to be offered scholarships but ended up in the Navy. I was born in a Naval hospital in Texas, so I ended up a fan of Navy football, the Cowboys, and the Astros. My mom and I would watch the Orioles (and the singing clam) on TV in Portsmouth while he was at sea. She’s 79 and we still watch the Orioles when I visit, and the Ravens (the Baltimore thing).

3. Any comments on outstanding mentors throughout your life? My high school civics teacher was the football coach and he talked me into learning the plays and keeping a stat sheet they reviewed as they watched film of the games. That ultimately got me deeply interested in sports and then into radio for 9 years. Not really a mentor, but one of those great guys who threw away remarks that had a lot more to them than it seemed at the time. For example, he always said that nothing anyone else had in life took anything away from you.

4. How much has region and ethnicity affected your attitudes? Grew up around the military and the South. I doubt being Southern means as much now as it did, but at the time it meant you were free to be yourself, but obligated to live up to what you should be. Can’t explain it, but you can feel the South, all the history good and bad, just like any part of it was only awhile back. It isn’t just where you’re from, it’s a big part of who you are. Same with being a Navy brat. Never served, but the lessons of doing the right thing and taking responsibility stick.

5. Why do you count the Army-Navy football game as quintessential? Does it make you emotional? Why? It’s what college sports should be. Real students playing hard because they love the game, not because there is a shoe contract waiting.

6. Which authors, sportswriters and other artists do you emulate and admire? Who would you interview? I'm just a hack, I throw it together fast and hope for the best. I suppose everyone takes bits of what they've read, but no one particular influence. Writers-Shakespeare, BLEEP [Rick] Francis, Colin Dexter, Douglas Southall Freeman. Sportswriter-Jon Saraceno of USA Today, because he isn't predictable. Can't think of any athlete in particular I'd want to interview, they are all practiced at not saying anything.

Dudski
Feb 6, 2007
6:54 PM

7. What years of your life do you consider for yourself the most "athletic" or physically gratifying? After college I played a lot of pickup basketball. I had “delusions of Maravich”. A 6’4” guy who wanted to dribble behind his back, throw no look passes, and pop long jump shots.

8. How much has diet and physical upkeep been a part of your lifestyle? Favorite exercise or game to do?  At fifty, it’s down to walking. I have a baskeball goal. It mocks me.

9. Major philosophies and beliefs, axioms or mantras? I am a Christian, and very aware of my flaws and shortcomings. I wish I kept more constantly in mind that every single person I meet is loved by God. If I did, I’d understand what Jesus meant when he said “Love thy neighbor as thyself” and be more likely to act accordingly.

10. Prior to blogging, how and where did you vent your thoughts? On comment cards in cheap restaurants.

11. If you could research and write a book on one decade (a 10 year period of your choice, say for example, from 1983-1993), what would it be? Why? 1900-1910. The beginning of our modern era, just before the wheels fell off. If you look at almost any geopolitical problem today and it’s roots trace back to World War I. It would be interesting to consider how they could of played it differently. Either that or 1963-1972 to see if civilization could have turned back before the centuries other great catastrophe, the designated hitter.

12. If I gave you 2-4 million dollars to only "travel with others", where would you go and who would you take? Who are these “others”, exactly? Sounds ominous. Shameless pandering to the two or three people that are reading this and haven’t fallen sound asleep-I think it’d be fun to go to a baseball game with the FOX bloggers. It’d probably be fun, there might be fights, and surely no hotel would ever let us come back. Nobody would be like we imagined.

13. Do you feel that modern conventions/big money surrounding athletics are corrupting and/or degrading the integrity of sports and public competition?  I sure hope so. If it didn’t what would we write about?

14. If you could have a day long conversation with three separate people from any time, (like Lincoln, Caesar, Adam, etc...) who would they be and why?  A day? Ceasar [sic] would be begging Lincoln to stab him and put him out of his misery if he had to talk to me for a day. Mr. Ed comes immediately to mind of course, of course, and Will Rodgers to see if I could change his mind about never having met a man he didn’t like. Possibly Groucho Marx, or Karl Marx, but only if I could talk to them at the same time.

15. Gastronomy, palettes and cuisines. Any thoughts, caveats? Bookbinders in Philadelphia, any J.W. Marriott, and Italian from any place on “the Hill” in Saint Louis.

16. I had a spare hour at work today, so I am handwriting (I was handwriting) these questions: does this seem long and drawn out to you? How many hours per week do you read? Write?  Not as long as it will seem to anyone who has to read my responses. I read about four hours a week, write about six.

17. What are your proudest professional accomplishments? Personal? What goals do you have in either department?  Professionally-that I have flirted with success but never went all the way. Personal-that small children and dogs like me. I have no goals.

18. Can you put a scale of 1-100 on your favorite sports, like MLB 95, NASCAR 2, tiddlywinks 0.5, etc...  It’s baseball 100%. Everything else is tied for second.

19. How is the best way to invest your time and money?   Nobody can tell anyone else that, with one exception. You definitely don’t want to give a 42 year old outfielder $15 million a year, if you have that sort of spare change around the house.

20. Tell us which Foxsports bloggers impress you and why...Current athletes? (Known or unknown...)  There’s so many. A few examples; Demoncicume [sic] has an edge to his writing, but challenges your preconceptions. Con Chapman is very, very funny with Gerbil Sports Network. People like Sleepless in Seattle, Rivjo, SoCal, NorcalFella, and others write well and their personality comes through very clearly. CarolynT is probably the most likely suspect to ever write for a living. And there are dozens more.

Athletes-Derek Jeter for being a baseball player’s baseball player. Pat Day (jockey, now retired) for being the coolest customer under pressure in sports over the past 50 years. Annika Sorenstram, the best combination of competitiveness and humility I can recall. Wayne Gretzky, who made people sit on the edge of their seats when he touched the puck. And, an unpopular choice, Barry Bonds, who I think probably is the best pure hitter since Ted Williams.

21. Your epitaph and auto-eulogy, in your own words...avoid epithets. (I think it is funny we make second or third graders do these; it could be taken as morbid but I do like the concept).  You can’t answer that without sounding pretentious (as if thinking people want to hear your answers to 21 questions isn’t bad enough). With all due respect, pass.   

Feb 6, 2007
8:05 PM

All right! There she goes. As always, everybody else is welcome to answer one of the above questions...

IN THE COMMENT STRING BELOW!

Let me see how you do, Signor Dudskierino...

And it's in the can! Thanks, kind sir! A few of these definitely made me laugh out loud. The Marx brothers...Did Lenin enjoy the music of Harpo, by chance? I suppose that is a malaprop, but you got great stuff, hehehe. I am a mere observer of the "Good Wit".

Let me be pretentious enough as a grateful co-blogger to tell you that this will be cherished by many; thanks for obliging the indulgence, it is a new thing of mine. I think Demonicume is next (# 5). Speakingswhich, if you see your two errors or so and wish to edit them, do so and let me know later. See how transparent this process is? Painful, even.

My epitaph for you: We laughed, we cried; we kissed two bucks good bye out in Covey's Cove; Jack Johnson is the real Muhammed Ali and some people can be funnier in one sentence than others in a whole lifetime of goofs and gaffes.

Yes, epitaphs and eulogies are best written by others, and you are far from being gone/eulogized from this arena. Out of 20 Foxbloggers, I told my wife, 12 would pick you as the best writer.

Them ain't bad odds, Texas Dudskeroo.

Peace and good luck; best of wishes, and muchas gracias otra vez.

I am the Luckiest

I was born of cool parents, and I had two cool sisters growing up.

Later my parents became attached to two cool step parents. My step mom has two children who are cool, and they have cool spouses.

I have a cool wife and two cool daughters, and a fun son and another child on the way. Maybe two?

I was born in one of the most blessed countries on the earth.

Great state of Indiana.

Attended cool public schools.

And colleges.

Spent two cool years down in Chile on a church mission.

Spent two semester abroads out of the country as a BYU student.

Returned to Indiana after the Utah experience for two cool years.

Taught two years of high school in California, and met my wife in that time. We also had our first child at the end of the second year.

Attended two cool years of Masters program at UCLA.

Spent another two years teaching adult school in San Bernardino.

Have had a great time moving about the country since.

Chile again, Virginia, two training times away from the family in Missouri and Arizona.

And my teams keep me entertained, if not winning championships.

And my knees are healthier than the most dominant sports person in the world, and I am 37.

And I am grateful. And lucky.

And the Celtics are too.

Clinch

The Jazz and the Pacers and other Ill-fated Projects...

While the rich get richer, i.e. the Celts and/or the Lakers, us poor have gotten poorer.

I grew up in Indiana. I still root for the Pacers.

I lived in Utah for five years. I liked the Jazz even before I moved there. I like them as much if not more now.

Alas.

At least the Pacers had there glory years and three championships in 7 years of the NBA.

The Jazz? Swiped by MJ.

You have seen the replays.

So as I do hope KG and Allen and Pierce get their first for themselves and 17th for Beantown, while Kobe stays on 3 and the Lakers at 14, I can't help but wonder if the Pacers of Granger and Dunleavy or the Jazz of Wiliams and Boozer might ever...

Wow.

One for the record books.

Don't complain San Antonio or Chicago. Even Houston and Detroit got two.

Clinch

Today is my dad's birthday. He is now 71!

That seems kind of old!

And we are coming up on Father's Day. I am a father of two girls and a boy and an unknown snookums on the way.

My dad has been pretty good to me and my sisters and my step-siblings.

I hope to be good to mine.

I bought some baseball equipment lately and I have a goal to play with them this summer. My wife also signed them up for a "tumbling" class.

Good mom.

I love them all.

I love you all and I realize that the military will separate us phyically and emotionally at times, but spiritually I am here, and I feel you linked to me always.

Your presence and memory of you and us together is always a warm, happy thing.

Love,

Papa Clinch

PS: I'll keep trying to be good. Like my dad.

Southern Resentment, Human Bondage and this Freedom Thing

And some basketball, too?

I kind of feel like maybe I am going to exorcise some demons here.

Or not.

Perhaps I am simply trying to open up a can of worms. And perhaps if enough people read this, maybe it might. Jason Whitlock I am not. But I have some cultural or racial or societal questions to grind as well.

Let's see if any of this makes sense to anyone else.

So here goes.

I grew up in southern Indiana, an hour south of Indianapolis, mere blocks from Indiana University. My parents are "Northerners" from the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

They are typical Massites in the sense that they are good at being color blind. Or should I say, they both base their estimations of others on the merits of their character rather than the color of their skin or other ethnic characteristics.

They lived in West Africa in the 1960s and always conveyed a love and appreciation for the people that they knew there, regardless of tribal differences, religious variants or economic disparites.

People are people world wide and we are "Born Free", like the sentimental film about the lions.

I honor them both for that example that they have left for me and mine. I honor all humanity everywhere, based on their honorable merits.

Growing up where I did, a mere 2 hour drive from former slave state Kentucky, and also surrounded by many southern Hoosiers who talked and often acted "southern", I did develop a prejudice against what had been the Southern United States, and briefly the Confederacy. 1861 to 1865.

A notion that "southerness" was negative.

I apologize. I was a kid. I know a lot more about the honor of the American South now, but it took me a while.

So, what got me thinking about the South lately?

The NBA. The league that I love.

Don't you?

Anyway, I was reading my fantastic book, "The Official NBA Encyclopedia". In the jacket of the front cover, it breaks down the years of ALL the NBA teams since 1946 until the year 2000.

One- year short stint teams were mentioned like the Indianapolis Jets in 1948, the Anderson Packers in 1949 as well as the Indianapolis Olympians the same year, or the Sheboygan Redskins, etc.

There were at least a dozen teams that came and went, some of them even more memorable, like Fort Wayne and Syracuse and Buffalo.

And then it hit me: a common thread ran through all of them.

They were all Northern. None in the south. OK, Baltimore, Louisville, DC and even St. Louis come close to being southern.

But much closer to the north. Especially when it comes to the American Civil War.

And yes, the American north was always more industrial and populated, one of the distinctions of the disjuncture between the two massive regions, a grand part of their differences leading up to their internecine conflict.

Cultural, economic and demographic differences, not to  mention climatological.

And I always resented the south for most of these differences.

I was born in 1970, at the beginning of the boom of the south we know today.

Now there are NBA and NHL teams across the south.

And industry, for that matter. Urbanity and cosmipolitanity.

Good sign.

We are one strong nation, under God.

And Garnett, product of the great state of South Carolina, represents the Boston Celtics.

The colonial town where Crispus Attacks was an American and black martyr of our land.

I call that irony.

I call this freedom, sweet freedom.

My mind is now unencumbered of most of the resentment I once held for my neighbors to the south.

I live in Northern Virginia. I am a southerner! Sort of.

And I love my freedom to love all my brothers and sisters, no matter how they talk or where they live.

Kobe is from the City of Brotherly Love (Philly), and even though I root against him, I am not slave to antipathy for him or the Lakers.

That would be sad. Wrong. Immature.

But I still want the Celtics...

Why? There is a ring involved, it symbolizes victory and liberty, freedom from bondage and defeat. Ray "Jesus Shuttleworth" Allen, Paul Piece et al...

Free KG! And I mean that on all levels.

Peace. Clinch.

Boston Celtic Legacy: The Ainge Impact

Most people who follow professional sports know that the Boston Celtics have won a total of sixteen championships during their stay in Beantown.

And I would rack up most of the credit to the visionary architect Red Auerbach. He was the coach and then general manager of the famed Celts, famously smoking a cigar upon adding ring after ring in the the 1960s, all the way to the last three of the 1980s.

Bird was the word.

But let me advance two other names that Auerbach foresaw that perhaps have forever changed the game:

Bill Russell and Danny Ainge. Among many other great players, of course, such as Havlicek and Cousy, KC Jones and Dave Cowens, Parrish and McHale...

Red made the big man, nemesis of the late great Wilt Chamberlain, his player coach. Bill Russell. Goateed court wizard. 11 rings.

Player. COACH.

Wow. I call that trust and foresight, visionary madness and greatness.

11 rings later, it proved prescient indeed.

And don't forget: Russell was a black man in Boston in the 1950s and 1960s. Think about that.

Fascinating. A real historical hallmark of our nation, in my opinion.

And what about Danny Ainge?

Surely Larry Bird was the keystone of the Boston renaissance of the 1980s.

But the last two had a lot to do with the feisty 6'5" former BYU guard and Toronto Blue Jay outfielder, Danny Ainge.

He was a perfect compliment to the best front line of all time.

He had the heart and will of a champion.

As he has now proved as the heir apparent to the late great cigar smoking Red.

And ironically, as life so often turns, Ainge is a teetotalling tobacco eschewing Latter-day Saint, i.e. Mormon.

And he is stormin' with KG, Paul Pierce and Jesus Shuttleworth, and a host of other role players.

Can he add number 17?

Or is it up to Kobe and Phil?

Phil wants 10. LA/Minneapolis have 14 in all.

Kobe has three. Bird has three. Ainge has two.

What drama.

I love the NBA.

Clinch.