April 2017 - Page 4 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar turns 70

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points and collected six championship rings.

I’ve been reading a book by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with Anthony Walton called Brothers in Arms, about a black tank battalion during World War II. It’s one of several books he has written, and I would have probably finished this one by now except I became ill.

During the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 2016, Abdul-Jabbar was one of the speakers. Someone I vaguely knew commented to another, “I thought he was just another dumb jock,” expressing surprise at how intelligent and articulate he was. Being familiar with his background, I was bemused.

He has been an eloquent spokesperson for his faith ever since he converted to Islam and changed his name from Lew Alcindor in 1971. From Wikipedia: “Abdul-Jabbar has been a regular contributor to discussions about issues of race and religion, among other topics, in national magazines and on television… In November 2014, Abdul-Jabbar published an essay in Jacobin magazine calling for just compensation for college athletes, writing, ‘in the name of fairness, we must bring an end to the indentured servitude of college athletes and start paying them what they are worth.'” In 2012, he was selected by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be a U.S. global cultural ambassador.

But I cannot forget the basketball prowess. Even as a kid in upstate New York, I read about him as a 6-foot, 8-inch player, leading the “Power Memorial team to three straight New York City Catholic championships, a 71-game winning streak, and a 79–2 overall record.”

Then “from 1967–69, he played under coach John Wooden, contributing to [UCLA’s] three-year record of 88 wins and only two losses… During his college career, Alcindor was twice named Player of the Year (1967, 1969); was a three-time First Team All-American (1967–69); and played on three NCAA basketball champion teams (1967, 1968 and 1969).

As a pro: “Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points and won a league-record six MVP awards. He collected six championship rings,… a record nineteen NBA All-Star call-ups and averaging 24.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per game… He is also the third all-time in registered blocks (3,189), which is even more impressive because this stat had not been recorded until the fourth year of his career (1974).

“In 2015, ESPN named Abdul-Jabbar the best center in NBA history, and ranked him No. 2 behind Michael Jordan among the greatest NBA players ever. While Jordan’s shots were enthralling and considered unfathomable, Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook appeared automatic, and he himself called the shot ‘unsexy.'”

Beyond all that, Kareem appeared in one of my favorite comedies, Airplane, where he played Roger Murdock; great first name, that. And the role has affected his real life.

Kareem was the celebrity JEOPARDY! champion on the episode that aired Friday, November 6, 1998. Why on earth would I know that without looking? Because my JEOPARDY! victory was Monday, November 9, 1998.

In 2016, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.Kareem Abdul-Jabbar turns 70 on April 16.

Number 42: Jackie Robinson

Today is the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first major league appearance.

Jackie Robinson’s importance to sport and society is enormous. But when this site Eyewitness to History states that Jackie Robinson was the “first Black player in major league baseball”, it is incorrect. As this site from the Library of Congress notes, there were Black players in the 19th century.

Jackie Robinson broke “baseball’s color barrier”, as the Baseball Hall of Fame put it, but it was a wall that was once down, then rebuilt.

Wikipedia writes that Robinson “became the first African American Major League Baseball player of the modern era in 1947”, and that would be correct, the “modern era” usually referring to the advent of the American League in 1901. However, Wikipedia’s list of first black Major League Baseball players by team and date would be more accurate if it indicated “since 1900” or another qualifying term.

This in no way meant to diminish the contribution made by and courage shown by Jackie Robinson, though I’ve long thought that he, needing to control his rage against the taunts he experienced when he broke the color line in Major League Baseball, shortened his life; he was only 53 when he died. Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first major league appearance. Dozens of players, managers and coaches will be wearing Robinson’s number 42, which had been retired two decades ago.

My father was a lifelong Dodgers fan because of Jackie, while I rooted for the Yankees, one of the last two teams, along with the Boston Red Sox, to have a black player in the modern era. My rooting interest came from geography, my father’s from history.

(CREDIT: “Jackie Robinson comic book.” Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, July 1951. Vol. 1, no. 5. By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s, Library of Congress. )

Reprinted from my December 21st, 2005 blog, with additional info.

Flying in America: it ain’t easy

There were more canceled flights originating from the Atlanta airport than any other airport in the WORLD

There were a couple stories about flying this month, one of which was very well-known, and the other which indirectly affected me personally.

Of course, the former air travel tale involved a video showing a man removed forcibly from United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville, and left battered and limp, after he boarded because United determined it needed a flight crew to be in Kentucky. He was, BTW, a doctor, 69, and Asian-American.

Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United, had recently been named PRWeek U.S.’s Communicator of the Year for 2017. But until he issued a stronger apology, calling the confrontation “truly horrific” and that “no one should ever be mistreated this way,” the responses from the airline were astonishingly tone deaf, using the word “re-accommodate” to describe the passenger’s removal.

Most interestingly, people used humor to define the situation more clearly.

“United! Putting the ‘hospital’ in hospitality!”

New photo of United Airlines asking for volunteers to deplane.

“United Airlines – No Inconvenience Too Large or Too Small!”

“United States contracts with United Airlines to oust Assad.” – from Michael Rivest. Assad, of course, is the Syrian dictator.

Jimmy Kimmel Creates A Brutally Honest New Commercial For United Airlines

“And he wasn’t even wearing leggings!” – a reference to some United passengers, who were related to employees and thus flying for free, recently not allowed to board because of their apparel.

There are more on Twitter.

United Breaks Guitars- Dave Carroll, a goodie from a few years back that was revived

It was also an informative time:

How airlines like United choose who to kick off a flight

The Deeper Scandal of That Brutal United Video: The footage is shocking. So is the law.

The United Story Isn’t About Customer Service. It’s About Class Warfare. “When corporations can openly beat their customers and deny them service, why would they even bother trying to be nice?”

United should have used the Asoh defense.

I found a couple apologists for the airline, suggesting that the overbooking happens all the time to keep prices down, which may be true. And yet it’s no excuse for the treatment the man received. Nor is the victim’s criminal record an issue.

The other flying problem involved Delta Airlines. There was severe weather in the Atlanta area on Wednesday, April 5. A good friend of my wife, Dee, was trying to fly to upstate New York the following Saturday with her husband and son, but their flight from Atlanta to Albany was first postponed then canceled. They tried a couple more flights – they actually had tickets for one leaving in FIVE MINUTES -but they were thwarted.

I checked the weather for ATL and it was clear, yet I hit on a website that indicated that there were more canceled flights originating from Hartsfield-Jackson than any other airport in the WORLD. The reason, I discovered, was the same as the United situation times dozens; flight crews were not where the planes were taking off, even three days after the bad weather.

Eventually, our friends did fly into Newburgh, just north of New York City. They drove up to Catskill, we drove down to Catskill, and we all had a lovely meal together.

United decided to deplane a customer, by force. Delta, with a larger issue, canceled flights. Airlines are having real difficulty flying in the US this month.

We’ve been friends now for so many years

I’ve been in particular need of the connective tissue of friendship.

I recently discovered that a friend of mine from my college days had, as a result of taking clindamycin for an infection, suffered a stroke late last year and nearly died. She is a few years younger than I, healthy and trim. She’s had to relearn do the basic things, such as eating and walking.

Except for our respective birthdays, which we remember – hers is really easy – we’ve not been in much contact the last couple years. But she has been important in my life, for a variety of reasons. So we’ve been emailing back and forth, although it’s difficult for her, and I called her this past weekend. The small bit of good news is that she’s not at work, which has become a toxic environment.

My best friend from college I hadn’t talked to much in the past year, but he and I have sent a wave of emails back and forth in the past couple months.

Here’s a story about a sick teenager. I’m friends with her stepmom, and I debated politics with her dad on Facebook all last fall.

I’m glad to see that Krys, wife of Greg Burgas, one of the very first bloggers I ever “met”, is home from the hospital.

Some of my best blogger buddies haven’t been posting much lately, because of illness, depression, severe weather, and other factors, and I’ve missed them. I must admit that I really enjoy it when my blog generates a blog response – see Arthur@AmeriNZ’s I’ll be your substitute, e.g.

My niece Rebecca Jade lost her father-in-law, Ricky Curtis. My former JEOPARDY! opponent Amy lost her dad, as did Jack in my church choir. Condolences to those families.

My wife has been in touch with her far-away friends this month. One who’s now in Arkansas, who she knows from college, she spent two hours on the phone with this past weekend. A childhood friend now in Georgia we saw because she was up for her father-in-law’s burial. They were both in our wedding, so I know them as well.

This year, I’ve been in particular need of the connective tissue of friendship. I think it’s partially tied to the death of my friend Norm, who I would have used as a sounding board for a lot of issues.

Friends is the title song from the Beach Boys 1968 album, written by Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson and Al Jardine.

We’ve been friends now for so many years
We’ve been together through the good times and the tears
Turned each other on to the good things that life has to give

We drift apart for a little bit of a spell
One night I get a call and i know that you’re well
And days I was down you would help me get out of my hole

Listen to Friends – Beach Boys

Patriotic Tax Day Protest Rally, 4/15 in Albany

We demand that President Trump release his taxes; it’s now a matter of national security.

From Bethlehenm (NY) Indivisible:

Bethlehem Indivisible, a newly formed community action group, will be leading their first action: a Patriotic Tax Day Protest Rally in Albany NY. The red white and a blue rally will be held on Saturday, April 15, 3:00-5:00 p.m., At the NYS Capital, Capital West Park, Albany NY.

Bethlehem Indivisible is a group of citizens that have banded together in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. We are organizing to resist the President’s hateful agenda and to pursue a more progressive platform.

In solidarity with tax day protests all over the country, we will demonstrate on Saturday, April 15 to make three clear points.
1) We demand that President Trump release his taxes; it’s now a matter of national security.
2) We believe taxes are patriotic and that it is almost treasonous for Trump to think only losers pay taxes. At our rally, we will wear red white and blue and wave and carry flags.
3) We’ll rally in support of the pending NYS legislation (A04072 and S00026) referred to as “Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public Act,” (Also known as the T.R.U.M.P. act) which states that to be on the ballot for office in NYS, one must be willing to release the previous 5 years of returns.

Speakers include:
State Assemblymember Phil Steck
State Assemblymember Patricia Fahy
Mayor of Albany Kathy Sheehan (question due to family tragedy)
Albany Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin
Citizen speakers

Music by members of the HS band The Conscious Club