A Thank You Letter To Bob Ryan

Dear Bob,

Thank you so much for reminding me. A day after a historic inauguration and affirmation that this is the greatest country known to man, one that provides unlimited opportunity for all; your article in the Globe today made sure that our original sin stiil hangs on us. The sin that only the martyrdom of the white male liberal and his resurrection in the halcyon days of the 60's have we been spared from Judgement Day. The sacrifice you made Bob, you and your grey haired aging hipster friends to make sure that we must never forget that black people are first and foremost Black.

Being born in 1977 Bob all I knew was Bill Cosby and the couple of black kids I was friends with in school as an examples of black Americans. Problem was, I was ignorant to the fact that there was a difference. People like you educated me man. Ignorant as I was I just thought they were kids like me and Bill Cosby was an actor like Ted Danson. Stupidly I thought the only difference was that they and I, being Italian and Greek, did not need as much sun screen at the YMCA pool in Peabody as some of the other kids with red and blonde hair.

But the baby boomers saved me Bob. The baby boomers saved me from ever forgetting that there was a difference. Through the 80s we almost forgot. But when one of your own, a pot smoking, Free Love loving, True Beleiver became President in 1992 we were educated on how awful we had been. He taught us that there was no way that we could look past their color and just treat them as equals; pushing quotas, affirmative action and hate crimes. And as a testament to his, and other liberals, commitment to discourse on the issue, he encouraged an almost zealous penchant for decrying Speech as Hateful at every turn.

That beautiful discourse and what we are allowed to say comes through so perfectly in your piece. Free Non Hate Racial Speech is almost dictionary definined on your appluase of the NBA for its commitment to a color blind society that is truly post racial. In being one of the most skewed demographical percentage in its hiring practices it takes the 6% of the population that is black males and makes them 90% of the employes in that facet of the company. Where a bigoted person would use color blindness to state that only if the NBA was 6% black, 67% white, and 15% hispanic as they do in such insignificant areas such as police, fire or senator and Supreme Court positions, the NBA gets it right by making white males inferior, black males superior and show us finally the greatest example of racial progress and color blindness that America has ever seen: The black dominated workforce.

In George Orwells 1984 there is a passage that we all agree with:War is Peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength. To add to that passage: Racism is colorblindness, to wit, only through obsessing on race can we truly be color blind.

And it takes men like you Bob to put is in the situation we are in now. To remind us that truly only an NBA type country, black superiortiy, white infeiority can be the end-game. The only true levling of the playing field.
And you did it the way you children of the 60's did. Born to men who won WW2, you knew you could do it better than that generation. You shunned the big name papers and gave up your salary to the little people. You sold your home in your beautiful town and traded it for a family in Dorchester in the name of diversity. You realize that your pay check is justified by nothing. You know that in life sports is the playground and obviously not worth as much as teachers and police and firefighters. So you've given your share to the community and allowed for your pulpit to be that of the people. Free to all. You baby boomers, the teenagers of the late 60's did not give up your morals, your view on life. You never would wear suits, drive that fancy car, be a part of that facist corporate structure.

"Does this mean we are now post-racial?" you ask in your article. No so fast, thanks to people like you Bob. Thank God you are there, to remind us that to get to being color blind we must first and foremost realize that we are defined by our color.

Thank You;

Big Brother

Finally.

Finally.

Since 2004 baseball has pretty much been dead. Sure as a Red Sox fan I celebrated in 2007 after the sweep of Colorado's Triple A Affiliate but something was missing. The next day I went about my business, saw the parade on TV, bought my Papelbon jersey etc...
But I don't think my heart rate ever went above 4.

I loved the Cleveland series in '07, don't get me wrong, but I didn't hate Cleveland. I always love beating the Angels, as they did this year, but they are just Pittsburgh Steeler-esque "The Best Team Lost" paper champions.

(sidenote1: Where was all the "The best team lost today" garbage when the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl? I mean the classless, pond scum Patriots lead by their disrespectful scumbag of a coach surely would have at least risen to the level of a John Lackey or Jerome Bettis, no?)
(sidenote 2: I cannot wait until they lose to the Chargers this weekend.)

But I don't hate Cleveland, I don't hate the Angels.
I only hate one team. The only one that matters.
Yesterday standing in front of the cameras with his big dumb 200 million dollar smile Mark Teixiera conjured up the most bittersweet of emotions. Was I pissed, yup. Did I love it? yup.
Darth Vader rebuilt the Death Star. The machines have sent back another Terminator, Moriarty has devised another devious plan.
The Yeankees are back.
And nothing makes this Red Sox fan happier.