The Dog Days of Summer
In last month’s column I wrote about “Barack Obama & The End Time” and some of you sent emails largely in agreement, for which I thank you. (Although one person wrote to say that most of the time my columns just annoy him but the Obama one he liked. Great.)
It was a long essay, over 1,700 words, and there’s no occasion here to duplicate that, it being “the dog days of summer” and all.
That expression, “dog days of summer,” di?s canicul?r?s in Latin, arose in Roman times, is one heard more on the East Coast than West, because the days are long and hot and sultry, but since a significant period of my life was spent on Capitol Hill in Washington, it is one I know and hence I use it here because the scribbling you will read hereafter arises, in part, from that mindset of summer, when one should slow down and avoid 1,700 word essays.
Thus the column for August will be briefer observations and notes:
HAVING ENDORSED BOB FILNER FOR MAYOR in these pages, having written that under no circumstances would Carl DeMaio be elected mayor, do I now have reason to pause and to reconsider my opinion? No. But I am conscience bound to write that Filner’s conduct before the city council in the matter of Irwin Jacob’s’ proposal to remove cars from the plaza in Balboa Park, was embarrassing. That Filner stood before the council and conducted himself in a manner more Mike Aguirre worthy than mayor worthy was shocking to me, and I’ve known Bob Filner a very long time. Even Dr. Jacobs would tell you opposing his proposal is fair and Filner could have stated his opposition with respect and civility and left it at that, but he went over the line in his remarks and he owes Dr. Jacobs an apology. There is also the politics of it, which I simply don’t get. I do not know why anyone would insult Irwin Jacobs. There are some wealthy people in our town that should be insulted because they are takers not givers but the Jacobs, Irwin and Joan, are the most generous givers in the history of San Diego. In any event it’s all rather bizarre to me and I’m disappointed in someone I care about and want as San Diego’s next mayor.
BASEBALL’S ALL- STAR GAME took place in Kansas City and if you’re a baseball fan, absent other pressing obligations, you watched the “mid summer classic.”
Since the game was a blowout, an 8-0 win for the National League, I have nothing of substance to add, save this:
In the field box seats behind home plate there was not a single person of color. In camera shots of the Kauffman Stadium crowd, I saw no one of color.
Fox’s game announcers, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, are white. Fox’s on-field reporters, Ken Rosenthal and Buster Olney, are white; Fox’s dugout reporter, a white woman.
The six umpires were white. The three official scorers were white.
A white male soloist sang the National Anthem; a white female soloist sang God Bless America.
The only people of color in the ballpark, it appeared, we’re on the playing field.
Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby broke the color barrier 65-years ago, but where was the evidence of that in Kansas City?
In the city that is home to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and of its founder, the late Buck O’Neill, one of the most beloved figures in the history of baseball, how was this possible?
True, one of Fox’s pre-game reporters, Harold Reynolds, is African American, but my point remains.
People of color play baseball but people of color do not watch baseball. But blaming baseball alone or Fox Sports would be disingenuous. Baseball’s challenge is a societal challenge.
It was evangelist Billy Graham who first said, “Eleven o’clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America”; a quote more often associated with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. than Billy Graham, but whether said by Dr. Graham or invoked by Dr. King, its truth remains.
To expect baseball or any sport at the management level to bridge a racial divide America’s churches have failed to heal is an unrealistic expectation. But that said, my observations about the All-Star Game arise out of disappointment that MLB and Fox seemed unconscious of the image they were sending America and the world.
SO A MAN NAMED KREEP WAS ELECTED A JUDGE in our county, beating a man named Peed.
If I said I paid much attention to judicial races that would be untrue. But this race was noteworthy because Judge Kreep elect is a right wing extremist.
I judge him such not because he opposes abortion or because he represented a U.S. Marine who had criticized President Obama or because he was legal counsel to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, all defensible philosophically, but because he is a “birther.” Meaning, he doesn’t believe Barack Obama was born in the United States of America.
Believing the president isn’t a natural born U.S. citizen is indefensible, if you believe that you’re an idiot. Judge-elect Kreep is an idiot.
“Idiot” is a word I invoke with great reluctance; disagreement with me does not an “idiot” make, except in this regard. If you believe our president wasn’t born in the U.S., you are an “idiot.”
But that doesn’t make judge-elect Kreep the biggest idiot in our land. No, sorry your honor, that distinction belongs to one person, Mr. Donald Trump himself.
So, how did this happen? How did Kreep get elected over a far more worthy opponent?
The only explanation I can think of comes from H.L. Mencken, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”
ROBERT CARO’S MONU-MENTAL BIOGRAPHY OF LYNDON JOHNSON, “The Passage of Power,” runs to 712 pages.
Sean Willentz’s review in The New Republic, “Efficacy of Democracy,” runs to app, 10-pages.
Even serious magazines seldom give their readers such lengthy reviews, but in the hands of Willentz, the brilliant Princeton professor, Caro has a reviewer worthy of his own talents.
I did not know Willentz until the great American historian, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., told me to read him. I have and he is by any measure, exceptional.
That said, here’s the link to his treatment of Caro’s book: http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/104205/sean-wilentz-efficacy-and-democracy.
BEFORE THE PADRES/NEW YORK METS GAME AUGUST 3 AT PETCO PARK, the Mets, who won the San Diego Adult League Baseball Championship, will be recognized and Jeff Marston, the former Republican State assemblyman and deeply committed citizen of our town, will have the honor of throwing out the first pitch.
The Padres will also announce that next year the Mets, who’ve been the Mets for 24-years, will play as the Padres; which makes sense, because the only reason we’ve ever been the Mets is due to Marston growing up in New Jersey and being a Mets fan, but he gave that up some time back.
And what contribution did I, the team’s senior player, make to our championship season?
In truth, very little, but I did lay down a text book perfect suicide bunt The Padres will also announce that next year the Mets, who’ve been the Mets for 24-years, will play as the Padres; which makes sense, because the only reason we’ve ever been the Mets is due to Marston growing up in New Jersey and being a Mets fan, but he gave that up some time back.
And what contribution did I, the team’s senior player, make to our championship season?
In truth, very little, but I did lay down a text book perfect suicide bunt that scored a run and since we won the game by one run and winning qualified us for the playoffs and winning the playoffs got us into the championship game, maybe my contributors was greater than I allow.
Maybe.
George Mitrovich
Category: Life Style
