Month: May 2004

STEADY LEADERSHIP?

One day after Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld fell on his rubber sword over the torture of Iraqi detainees President Bush thanked him for his pains. ” You are courageously leading our nation in the war against terror,” Bush said. “You’re doing a superb job. You’re a strong secretary of defense and our nation owes you a debt of gratitude.”

A superb job? By what standard of normative judgment has anyone in the Bush Administration, Donald Rumsfeld included, done a superb job where Iraq is concerned? It’s been a solid year now since our President swooped down on the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln and declared that our military action in the Persian Gulf was complete. If someone–anyone–was doing a superb job in Iraq there should be some kind of evidence by now, shouldn’t there? But there’s none. Zip. Squat. Instead there are bigger and bigger body counts, and pornographic photos of American soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees. Perhaps President Bush, forever at odds with the English language, is merely befuddled by the meaning of “superb.”

First there is the Bush doctrine of preemption to consider: A policy of paranoid aggression sold to a shell-shocked America as the only antidote to mushroom clouds in the heartland. It’s a policy much of the world condemned because the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, outside an extremely tight set of extenuating circumstances, sets a damn poor precedent for the rest of the world to follow. Unless, of course, the invading country’s reasons for aggression prove to have been both honorable and understated, rather than entirely false. If anyone in the Bush Administration had been doing a “superb” job we would have discovered an Iraqi nuclear program only minutes away from having the bomb. We would have found vast stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. We would have discovered photographic evidence of Osama giving Saddam the Blue Dress treatment. Or there is always the possibility that, if anyone was doing a “superb” job, we’d have never invaded Iraq in the first place. If deception of the American people in an attempt to seriously downgrade America’s moral standing within the world community was Bush’s goal, mission accomplished. It’s not “superb.” It’s not excellent. It isn’t even good. It stinks like a bag of severed limbs sitting in the Baghdad sun.

After it became apparent that there were no WMD to be found, and no serious connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda, the Bush Administration continued to justify itself on the grounds that an unquestionably moral America had liberated the Iraqi people from Saddam the Butcher. How many times did our President use the term, “rape room,” to strike fear in the hearts of Americans? And now we have evidence suggesting that American troops may have raped an Iraqi detainee with a light bulb. We’ve seen images of many atrocities, and we’ve been warned at the highest level that the worst is yet to come. Whether or not this is the kind of thing that Americans “would do” doesn’t matter. It’s something we did. The Geneva Convention has never been about protecting the bad guys. It’s to make sure that everybody–our guys included–gets humane treatment. When the world’s only superpower, lead by a highly secretive cabal of radical right-wing boobies moves the moral bar so very low “superb” is not in any sense an appropriate adjective. “Abhorrent,” perhaps. “Unconscionable,” maybe. Certainly not “superb.”

“Steady leadership in times of change.” That’s the President’s reelection slogan, and it may be the only totally honest statement to ever emerge from the Bush Campaign. The Bushies have been, if nothing else, “steady,” a generally positive word tainted by an excess of confident rigidity. Steadiness is a quality, not a virtue, and often a debit during times of upheaval. The Titanic, presumed unsinkable by experts of the day, fell victim to a combination of overconfidence and “steady leadership.” Changing times requires flexible leaders, able to think on their feet: a quality, by his own admission, our President does not possess. And if he genuinely believes that “superb” is an appropriate adjective to describe Donald Rumsfeld’s dubious military accomplishments he possesses no standards either.

HERE’S TO YOU, MR. ROBINSON

Among the most endearing qualities of our heroes is that they never age, at least not in our hearts. Especially when the hero is an athlete, he or she is always in peak form when we recall and share the stories of heroism.

When congestive heart failure claimed the life of Ronnie Robinson last Saturday morning, the cause of death couldn’t have been more ironic. For it was Robinson — along with his lifelong friend, Larry Finch — who represented the heart of the 1972-73 Memphis State Tiger basketball team. That squad, we well know in these parts, reached the championship game of the NCAA tournament, only to lose against the juggernaut from UCLA. Simply put, there’s no way that team — a band of athletic heroes unlike any other this city will ever see — gains the immortality it did without the all-too-mortal Ronnie Robinson.

One of only four players in Tiger history to score 1,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds, Robinson was Sundance to Finch’s Butch. Having cultivated their partnership on the hardwood of Melrose High, Finch and Robinson (always spoken in that sequence) became a battering ram of sorts, knocking down barriers — social, racial, economic — as they brought a region together. Indiana had Milan High . . . Memphis had Finch and Robinson. Their jerseys are two of eight that have been retired by the University of Memphis.

So with Robinson’s death at age 53 we’re reminded that, yes, our heroes are mortal. And this not even two years after a severe stroke confined Finch to a wheelchair. Two men lifted to the highest of heights, their names an automatic “smile” switch throughout the Mid-South. The same two men later struck so mercilessly, and so young. Since when did the fates become so two-faced?

Last year Ronnie Robinson took time to briefly visit with me for a story in MEMPHIS magazine celebrating the 30th anniversary of his fabled team. He spoke as if 1973 were yesterday, and the kick in his voice as he remembered that team’s “one shining moment” is what I’ll remember most about our chat. I’ll give him the last word here, as he remembers a time and place the way we all should. We’ll miss you, Ronnie.

“I think everybody in America saw that [championship] game. That’s the furthest Memphis State has ever been. It was a good game, an exciting game. It was like going up against Muhammad Ali. All that basketball history . . . back then, that’s all you really heard about: UCLA. Once that ball gets tipped, though, you forget about all that.

“I always reflect back to the night before the game. You know, it was such a tense moment, unbelievable that you’re getting ready to participate in the [final game]. Butterflies everywhere. That team was special . . . we all kind of gelled toward the end of the season. We wanted to win it all, and we came pretty close.

“I hate to see some of the things that have happened to Larry recently. But you know, Larry’s a fighter . . . he’ll fight back. Spirit-wise, he’s doing pretty good. I think he’ll be all right.

“Butterflies still fly when I walk into The Pyramid and see [my jersey number, 33] hanging from the rafters. I still feel like I’m getting ready to play a game.”

THE REST OF THE STORY

Media coverage of two big pending federal court cases — one involving former medical examiner O.C. Smith and one involving football booster Logan Young — again failed to note the significance of the latest developments.

In the Smith case, a fellow medical examiner concluded that the Shelby County Regional Forensic Center is unresponsive and handles evidence carelessly and that Smith, accused of faking a bizarre attack on himself in 2002, made statements under oath with professional certainty that were actually “opinions” and “speculative.”

In Young’s case, a judge promised to act within a month on a motion to dismiss the case. In a related case in Alabama, two University of Alabama officials gave affidavits about the NCAA investigation of the Albert Means recruiting case that suggest that it may be a house of cards.

The Commercial Appeal, heavily invested in the credibility of Smith in general and in the NCAA and state and federal prosecutors in Young’s case, ignored key elements of both stories.

Taking the Smith case first, Smith’s apologists put a positive spin on Nashville medical examiner Bruce Levy’s report last month, in which Levy agreed that Philip Workman fired the gunshot that killed Memphis police lieutenant Ronald Oliver in 1981. Workman is on death row.

Governor Phil Bredesen asked Levy to review Smith’s testimony in clemency hearings for Workman in 2000 and 2001. (Smith is under federal indictment for giving false statements about the alleged attack on him.) Last year, Bredesen issued a stay of execution for Workman pending completion of the Smith investigation. When the feds called Smith a liar, the governor asked Levy to review his Workman testimony.

“I am not at all surprised by Dr. Levy’s opinion,” said Shelby County district attorney general Bill Gibbons. “It is what I expected. Twenty-two years ago, a jury of citizens decided that Philip Workman deserved the death penalty. É It is past time to carry out that decision.”

Levy’s report, however, should give pause to any prosecutor dependent on Smith. It is anything but an endorsement. On the contrary, Levy was critical of Smith on several counts, including his work on the Workman case. “There was initial difficulty locating the original autopsy materials” from Smith’s office, according to Levy. Levy requested materials from Smith’s office in February but was told that they were missing. “They were eventually located after my fourth request, reportedly during a search of the basement of the Shelby County Regional Forensic Center on or about April 2, 2004. They were reportedly in an unlabeled evidence bag behind some boxes.”

Levy said he is “concerned about the obvious violation of the proper handling and storage of autopsy evidence and materials, especially given recent allegations of other missing evidence from the forensic center.”

The “missing evidence” is body parts. Smith also allowed the professional certification of the office to lapse. The highly secretive office was as sloppy and unresponsive to the governor as it was to local media. And in Workman’s case, “Although the recovered bullet could be the bullet that killed Lt. Oliver, Smith’s opinion that it is the fatal bullet to the exclusion of all others is speculative,” Levy wrote.

This is the medical examiner whom Gibbons and fellow prosecutors have relied on in hundreds of close cases that are matters of life and death.

In Logan Young’s case, U.S. District Judge Daniel Breen said last week he will rule within 30 days on a defense motion to dismiss. Such motions are commonplace, but this one plausibly argues that even if Young gave money to former high school football coach Lynn Lang, it wasn’t a federal crime because it would not have corrupted Lang in the performance of his public duties as a football coach. Defense attorney Robert Hutton says it is analogous to a parent paying a teacher to tutor a child as opposed to bribing a teacher to give a child a high grade.

Breen has already affirmed an order of U.S. magistrate Diane Vescovo requiring the NCAA and University of Tennessee football coach Phil Fulmer to produce tapes and records. Federal prosecutors have appealed. The next court date is May 24th.

Meanwhile, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Circuit Court, university officials Gene Marsh and Marie Robbins were dismissed from a related case because the plaintiffs decided they were “used and misled” by the NCAA and the university in the investigation of Alabama’s football program. Marsh is a law professor and a member of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions. Robbins is associate athletic director. The plaintiffs are former Alabama football coaches Ronnie Cottrell and Ivy Williams.

Marsh says in an affidavit that the NCAA “failed to share information they had received with us and failed to allow us to take efforts to prevent impropriety from occurring” in the Means case.