By Ronald N. Guy Jr.
Recent sports headlines have been dominated by an all-star
NBA forward from Maryland. No, not the
‘Skins fan from Prince George’s County.
Oh he’s gotten plenty of run after snubbing the Wizards, crushing dreams
in Oklahoma City and inking a deal with the Golden State Warriors, the NBA’s
first non-LeBron-James Evil Empire in years.
Pause The Kevin Durant Chronicles for a moment; a former resident of Baltimore,
the land of orange, purple and Natty Boh, stirred up far more important
publicity last week.
I’m not a fan of New York Knicks forward Carmelo
Anthony. Yes, he’s a big-time scorer who
can flat out drain the orange. But he’s
an obligatory defender, his effort is questionable and there’s no evidence that
he makes his teammates better. One
dimensional. Generally overrated. Not my cup of tea.
That’s Anthony the player. But Anthony the man and unexpected political
activist? That guy has my
attention. That guy has my respect. In an overwhelmingly sad week that saw police
shoot and kill Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and Micah Johnson kill five
officers in Dallas, Anthony took to social media to express his outrage. Here are his paraphrased thoughts (the post
is worth reading in its entirety):
“We need to steer our anger in the right direction…towards
the system. Shooting 11 cops and killing
5 WILL NOT work…we need to come together more than anything at this time. We need each other. I’m calling on my fellow athletes to step up
and take charge. There’s NO more sitting
back and being afraid of tackling and addressing political issues anymore. THE TIME IS NOW. DEMAND CHANGE.”
When confronted with domestic or international turmoil,
I often turn to Fareed Zakaria’s book “The Post-American World” for solace. In it, Zakaria argues that, by historical
comparison, we occupy a peaceful world, one whose cultural and economic
interconnectivity largely mitigates dangerous political discord and
ill-intended personal or national ambition.
The evidence is convincing: We’ve achieved unprecedented levels of trade
and economic prosperity; cultural barriers are reduced by travel and information
exchange, and; large scale war between superpowers, the kind that results in
massive casualties and global instability, doesn’t exist.
Still, with alarmingly frequent terrorist attacks and
senseless killings, it is difficult to remain hopeful in humanity’s grand
earthly coexistence, despite Zakaria’s logical, fact-based counterpoints. Human nature as it is, it seems that stereotypes
will corrupt the small-minded, greed will infect the ambitious and religious
zealotry will distort the worship of a god into an instrument of pure
evil.
The tendency for decent, loving and well-intended
individuals is to respond to social calamity by controlling what they can – personal
attitudes and actions and the world view of youths they influence – and steadfastly
remaining part of the solution. The development
of strategies that promote the world’s safety, progressive international
relationships and the infrastructure for social fellowship and equality is deferred
to a nation’s leaders, a term often synonymous with politicians.
Given the scope of today’s challenges, that is mostly
an understandable and defensible reaction.
For what happened in Minnesota, Louisiana and Texas during America’s
Independence week, it isn’t enough. The world
has a common opponent who is terrorizing free, peaceful people around the globe. Yet here we are in America, the allegedly
most diverse, open and tolerant nation in the world, struggling with senseless internal
violence. We have to demand better of
ourselves, resist shameful stereotypes and appreciate and promote our common
humanity.
That is part of Anthony’s point. The added layer is that while sports is a
fun, joyous reprieve from the ugliness of everyday life, there comes a time
when it should be more. Anthony’s fed up
and willing to use his NBA platform to be a change agent; he’s challenging
colleagues to do the same. We should all
applaud his courageous activism and stand behind him, Knicks fan or not. Otherwise we’re just individuals left
rereading books or returning to other familiar outlets to soothe the pain of
the latest crisis and retain hope in our flawed species. For me, Anthony’s crusade is well-time; I
need more than Zakaria’s wisdom to maintain faith in this world.
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