Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Panic in … El Paso?

Those of a certain age remember 1973 and “Panic in Detroit,” a David Bowie song describing the 1967 riots in the Motor City. The current Panic in El Paso seems different: made by and for the media, fueled by pandering politicians, and wholly related not to a “crisis at the border” but a major humanitarian/refugee crisis metastasizing in the Americas.

America has always been a land of immigrants, and the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty (Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free) are not in the Constitution but they represent a sort of bedrock set of American values. Our nation is wealthy, powerful, and prosperous thanks to healthy and copious immigrant flows. Nations that shut out immigration (think of Japan, Italy, Russia) don’t do well, economically, over the long arc of history.

Right now, the United States economy is in a labor deficit — we desperately need workers. And if you don’t believe us, ask anyone who owns a business. Or needs something repaired at home. There are approximately five million jobs that need to be filled, right now, in America. Why not create a reasonable, bipartisan bill to allow people who want to work, and who have passed a background check, the ability to do so? Presidents Biden, Trump, and Obama have been faced with the unregulated arrival of desperate people at our southern border and all three reacted via “executive action” — not exactly law, and subject to the whims and caprices of “the next” administration.

The American population is aging, our birthrate is low, and has been declining dramatically since 2007, and our populace is not so healthy. This means that, in order to sustain robust economic growth into the future, we need young people to come here and … work. We need nurses and doctors, but instead we get deceptive Canadian Ted Cruz at the southern border telling us we’re being invaded by immigrants. We need serious technological support and innovative solutions. Instead, we get vague mumblings from Chuck Schumer, a nice old man, leader of the U.S. Senate, who still uses a flip phone.

Looking at two neighboring nations — Mexico and Haiti— it becomes clear why we have people heading to the U.S. border. Technically, Mexican nationals are not seeking asylum at the U.S. border, but a drug war there, which began in 2006 and is largely financed by the U.S., has left an estimated 350,000 dead. The Mexican minimum wage is about 11 dollars per day, and there is literally no legal path for Mexican citizens with neither money nor skills to obtain a legal visa to travel and work in the USA. These people, then, are forced to migrate here in a clandestine and dangerous way, and the only ones who profit are the smugglers and other unscrupulous individuals who take advantage of this situation.

Haiti is a wholly different story. It has no functioning government since mercenaries murdered the sitting president about two years ago. Criminal gangs rule the streets of Port-au-Prince and the once proud nation — the first nation in the world to gain independence through a sustained slave revolt in the early 19th century — has descended into chaos. President Biden traveled recently to Canada to try and persuade Prime Minister Trudeau to tackle the Haitian morass: Both leaders walked away without an agreement or plan.

An alternative plan to the disinterest and handwringing of powerful nations is a local organization that has been supporting Haiti for the past 20 years. The “IC Haiti Outreach Ministry” is a not-for-profit that has focused on education, economic opportunity, and healthcare in a rural area of the Central Plateau — a 34-square-mile area consisting mostly of subsistence farmers. The organization, developed by University of Memphis professor and public health expert Debra Bartelli and Bob Lorsbach, MD, has hired a nurse and medical doctor for the region, and has provided dental, eye, and deworming clinics. They’ve also funded and trained a Haitian MD by supporting education opportunities in the U.S. and in Haiti. If the American government engaged in similar collaborative, innovative approaches designed to generate solutions rather than seeking to scapegoat suffering people for political points, the plight of the Haitian people would certainly improve.

This humanitarian crisis playing out at our southern border is neither new nor intractable. We need political action, we need people to tell the truth — including our friends in the media — and we need “real” information about the drivers of this situation. Sadly, many of us are manipulated by the media and our politicians. Tragically, a few take action while the rest of us sit around listening to Bowie songs from half a century ago.

Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Rogue Cops

General advice given to young people is to do their work well, lest they be fired from their job. Being fired holds a negative stigma and of course, for most people, can affect the likelihood of future employment, especially in the same industry.

Yet this does not hold true for police officers, it seems. Time and again we see police officers engage in misconduct of all sorts yet remain on the force. Even officers who have lost their jobs are often reinstated due to powerful police unions that negotiate pro-cop contracts. Worse yet, officers who have lost their jobs have been hired by other police agencies as if they did nothing wrong. Most recently, Louisville, Kentucky, Officer Myles Cosgrove, who was fired in 2021 for the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, was hired by a neighboring county. Cosgrove fired 16 rounds after officers entered Taylor’s apartment for a narcotics raid on March 13, 2020. Her boyfriend, not knowing they were officers, fired back with his lawful firearm and officers returned the fire, killing Taylor in the hallway.

Neither Cosgrove nor the other officer whose bullet struck Taylor were charged. Because, sure, this makes sense — killing someone and failing to utilize the required body camera during a raid on her apartment should definitely guarantee one future employment as an officer. Ugh. But that is exactly what the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council voted in November 2022 to reinstate Cosgrove’s license.

The problem of officers remaining on the job or being rehired after engaging in terrible work-related misconduct is remarkably common. In August 2021, Wisconsin Public Radio reported that some 200 officers who had been fired or resigned amidst misconduct investigations were still in the state’s employ.

This is seemingly terrible decision-making on the part of the hiring agency, as studies, including one published in the Yale Law Journal found that cops who were fired previously are more likely to be fired again or to receive complaints of “moral character violations.” In another example, Timothy Loehmann, the officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland in 2014, had previously resigned from a suburban police force before being fired for numerous issues. The Cleveland Police Department evidently did not check his personnel file.

Eddie Boyd III resigned from his job as an officer in St. Louis, Missouri, after he pistol-whipped a 12-year-old girl in the face, then a year later hit another child in the face with either his gun or handcuffs and then falsified the report. No worries, Boyd was soon hired by a police department in St. Ann, Missouri, before moving on to — wait for it — Ferguson, Missouri.

Never to be outdone, Florida’s German Bosque, often called “Florida’s Worst Cop,” was fired for various misconduct than re-hired seven times. The last time Bosque was caught on body camera coaching a subordinate how to conceal the truth about a crime scene. Other allegations were for excessive use of force, misuse of police firearms, and stealing from suspects.

How is this possible?

First, there is no national database of officers who have been fired or who resign during misconduct cases, although it is clear in the case of Cosgrove that Robert Miller, chief deputy in Carroll County, was well aware of the officer’s past when he hired the man. In other cases, perhaps the hiring agency did a poor job of conducting a background check, however absurd that sounds when hiring for a position that involves the use of lethal force.

Additionally, as Ben Grunwald, a Duke University law school professor, noted, sometimes hiring agencies actually want someone with a “cowboy cop” reputation. For example, in 2020 in Brevard County, Florida, there was an advertisement seeking to hire rogue officers, with the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of the Police posting on Facebook specifically to the “Buffalo 57” and “Atlanta 6” that it was hiring. The Buffalo 57 were 57 officers who resigned following the suspension of two of their colleagues for pushing a 75-year-old protestor to the ground, and the Atlanta 6 were booked on felony charges for assaulting two college students who were Black Lives Matter protesters.

It is no wonder that community trust in police has been declining for years. A Post-ABC poll found in early 2023 that only 39 percent of those surveyed were confident that police are adequately trained to avoid using excessive force, the lowest level since polling of its sort began in 2014. Likewise, a 2022 Gallup poll found only 45 percent of surveyed Americans were generally confident in police, even lower than in the aftermath of the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

While there is much to be done to address the many problems with policing in the U.S., the fix here seems quite simple: Stop hiring and rehiring people who are not good at their jobs.

Laura Finley, Ph.D., syndicated by PeaceVoice, teaches in the Barry University Department of Sociology & Criminology and is the author of several academic texts in her discipline.

Categories
Fun Stuff News of the Weird

News of the Weird: Week of 05/18/23

Recent Alarming Headline

KOKH-TV reported that on March 12, a woman in Dickson, Oklahoma, was attacked by her neighbor’s pet monkey, Jack, resulting in her ear being ripped “almost completely off my head,” the victim, Brittany Parker, said. “He started grabbing handfuls of my hair and just ripped it out,” she added. Dickson police were called, and as they looked for the monkey, two shots were fired. “The shots came from the area of the victim’s residence. Officers went back to the house and found that a family member of the victim shot and killed the primate,” police said. Parker said she will need plastic surgery to fix her ear. P.J. Carter, Jack’s owner, is distraught: “I lost my best friend and pet due to it all,” he said. “He was my super monkey. I feel sorry for [Parker] and her injury. My friend and pet Jack lost his life over a massive misunderstanding and the lack of knowledge and education with an exotic animal,” Carter added. The district attorney has declined to file charges. [KOKH, 3/17/2023]

Creme de la Weird

The Mondaiji Con Cafe Daku (loosely translated: Problem Child Concept Cafe) in Sapporo, Japan, was forced to fire one of its waitresses in April after she was discovered to be adding her own blood to cocktails, the Daily Mail reported. The cafe owner called her actions “absolutely not acceptable” and said the establishment would close while every drinking glass was replaced. “We will hire a contractor to clean the store, change glasses, and dispose of alcoholic beverages that may have been contaminated,” he said. He called her actions “part-time job terrorism.” A local doctor said anyone who had patronized the cafe should visit a doctor and have a blood test. [Daily Mail, 4/13/2023]

It’s a Mystery

Over the last several months, Don Powell and his wife, Nancy, have been puzzling over uninvited inhabitants of their fancy mailbox in Orchard Lake, Michigan. USA Today reported that in August 2022, two small dolls, a miniature couch, and a small table appeared in the mailbox, which is custom-built to resemble the Powells’ home, with windows and a solar-powered interior light that comes on at night. The dolls were accompanied by a note: “We’ve decided to live here. Mary and Shelley.” Powell thought a neighbor might be spoofing him, but after exhaustive investigatory work, he’s no closer to knowing the source of the figures. Over time, the home gained a four-poster bed, a dog, a rug, and art for the wall. “The whole thing got rather whimsical,” Powell said. At Halloween, Mary and Shelley were replaced by two skeleton dolls dressed in black, and at Christmas, tiny, wrapped gifts appeared. Now, Powell is thinking of writing a children’s book about the mailbox mystery. “I think it creates a novel story,” he said. [USA Today, 4/13/2023]

The Continuing Crisis

Angel Footman, 23, a teacher at Griffin Middle School in Tallahassee, Florida, was arrested on April 7 and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the New York Post reported. The charges came after school administrators learned Footman was allegedly hosting violent brawls between students in her classroom. Naturally, she set down rules: no recordings, and no pulling hair. No screaming (draws attention). Fights must be limited to 30 seconds each. However, several sixth-grade girls alerted administrators, and video turned up showing Footman at her desk while students fought each other. She’s scheduled for arraignment in May. [NY Post, 4/10/2023]

Bright Idea

Drivers along Interstate 5 near Eugene, Oregon, were startled on April 11 to see $100 bills floating through the air, Fox News reported. In fact, many cars stopped along the highway to grab the loot. When the Oregon State Police tracked down the source, it was Colin Davis McCarthy, who told them he’d been throwing the money out of his car to “bless others.” He said he thought he’d dispersed around $200,000. The OSP later revealed that McCarthy’s family had been in touch; he had depleted a shared family bank account for his Robin Hood moment. [Fox News, 4/14/2023]

NEWS OF THE WEIRD
© 2023 Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Reprinted with permission.
All rights reserved.

Categories
Fun Stuff Metaphysical Connection

Metaphysical Connection: Beltane

Beltane is a holiday celebrated by many Earth-based spiritual traditions. It falls on May 1st and is sometimes referred to as May Eve, Walpurgis Night, or May Day. Beltane was originally celebrated by ancient Celtic and Irish people as a solemn fire festival. The Irish-Celtic would burn bonfires for protection and drive their farm animals around the fires to cleanse, purify, and protect their herds. Beltane and its fires symbolized the beginning of summer for those in the British Isles.

While its origin can be traced back to Irish-Celtic culture, the Beltane celebrated today looks much different than the holiday our ancestors may have honored. Many of the traditions we hold dear now come from May Day celebrations of the English and wider European traditions.

Beltane represents the heights of spring and the promise of summer. It is a seasonal expression of the abundance and fertility the Earth offers us, as well as a time to celebrate and be a part of nature, to play games, to be frivolous, and to enjoy ourselves.

Many modern celebrations include a Maypole with a Maypole dance, fires, feasting, and flowers. A Maypole is a large pole (originally a wooden post but modern celebrants get creative with their supplies) decorated with colored ribbons and usually topped with flowers. Participants are typically divided into two groups, where each take a ribbon and dance around the Maypole in opposing directions, wrapping the ribbon to it as the dance proceeds. Historically, the Maypole was simply an obvious landmark that was easy to find at a festival and made a good place to gather. As time went on, people began to hang out at the Maypole, dancing around it and eventually bringing flowers and ribbons to decorate it.

In our current Beltane celebrations, the Maypole represents the axis mundi, or world tree that connects and supports all planes of existence, as well as the fertility of the Earth. Dancing around the Maypole is a fun, and often silly, activity, but it is also done with the intention of aiding our manifestation work and bringing abundance into our lives. Symbolically, the Maypole and its ribbon dance can also be considered a binding, since we wrap the pole with ribbons or streamers. This act represents tying up the past and looking into the future. You can even write on your Maypole, or attach a note to it, with something you would like to bind into the past and move on from.

By the end of April and the beginning of May, many flowers and trees are blooming, and the Earth is much more green than it was just a couple of months ago. Beltane makes uses of the natural bounty, and flowers play a big role in most traditions. People often wear flower crowns during their celebrations or decorate their home with flowers and greenery to bring nature indoors.

Beltane and spring are considered by some to be the season of the Fae. With nature in bloom again, some think fairies are more active and will leave offerings to appease them or sometimes to try to bargain with them. You may have heard the idea that the veil between our world and the spirit world is at its thinnest around Halloween, and some believe this is also true at Beltane. During Halloween, we use the opportunity to honor our ancestors and loved ones who have passed away from this world. At Beltane, the thinning of the veil means that communicating with fairies and other nature spirits may be easier.

Many see spring as a celebratory time of year, and because of that, Beltane has become a holiday focused on things that are joyous, such as being outdoors after the winter, the green Earth, fertility, games, and fun. If you feel called to do so, I encourage you to embrace the changing of the seasons as we move into May, get outside, and soak up the sun and the energy of life returning. Have a blessed Beltane season!

Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.

Categories
Editorial Letter From An Editor Opinion

May Flowers

Editor’s note: Flyer writers will occasionally share this space.

The stormy spring season has thrown a wrench into my carefully crafted plans this year. Power outages, lost internet connections, new patio furniture hurled from my balcony thanks to strong winds, and rained-out soccer games have been April staples (although my hamstring is grateful for the last one). But as the old saying goes, “April showers bring May flowers.” April has indeed been a bit of a wet blanket, but it’s set to usher in some other notable moments for yours truly.

One such moment is May 12th, a day I’ve had circled on the calendar for the better part of this year. That day, as I’m sure most of you readers are aware, is the official release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, in which the intrepid hero Link will continue to traipse around the wild expanse of an open kingdom of Hyrule. That big mountain off in the distance? You can go there, if you want. The ocean stretching off into the horizon? Go build a boat and sail. Or just fly around the floating island in the sky, soaking up the joy of unparalleled freedom in digital format.

While the game and its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, do capture a freedom unlike anything else in the medium, such wanderlust was a big part of my live, non-digital time growing up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The views from our patio unfolded endlessly into an expanse of snow-capped mountains, infinite blue skies, and rollicking fluffy clouds. And the recurring pastel sunsets, I must inform you all, put Memphis’ to shame. That little peak jutting up way in the distance? Well, odds are that you can probably head over, hike up to the top, and catch a different view of the sunset.

I picked up a friend before heading to the Porter-Leath Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival this past weekend, and she stopped by my car trunk for a few beats. “Why do you still have your New Mexico license plate?” she asked, with a mixed look of both interest and distaste. And that proved to be an excellent question. This summer marks the start of another year in Memphis and as a citizen of the Mid-South. And I don’t regret a second of it, learning about the city, finally having a professional basketball team to root for, and having close proximity to the best kind of barbecue. But as I’ve settled into the humdrum routine of life as an adult in a city that requires a car for traversal, it has sometimes felt like a balancing act of absorbing the influences of my new city and holding on to that fleeting feeling of freedom from my Santa Fe years.

No longer can I step outside and immediately set foot onto an interconnected series of complex mountainous hiking trails or turn to my left and see someone walking their llama up a dirt road. The yellow license plate, complete with the requisite Zia symbol in the middle, has always been a pleasant reminder of the sky-blue desert days before I begin a journey to work Downtown that requires nimble maneuvering through myriad speed bumps, construction zones, and our patented potholes. This might all sound a bit negative, but I love my new city. I wouldn’t change a thing about my time here and hope to have many more memorable Memphis years.

But my pieces of Santa Fe have been drifting away in the past couple years. My New Mexico driver’s license disappeared along with my entire wallet at a Grizzlies playoff game last year (still worth it), and now this summer, the state of Tennessee is insistent that my NM license plate finally be replaced with one of their own. The dilly-dallying of our county clerk has given me a little extra time with my beloved yellow plate, but my last material connection to New Mexico isn’t long for this world. It’s been a steady companion over the years, as I’ve navigated some mild fish-out-of-water feelings while functioning alongside many friends and colleagues who have personal and long-standing connections to Memphis and the Mid-South. I’ve always wondered when I can truly call myself a Memphian, or perhaps that benchmark was passed long ago. Again, I love being part of the 901 and all it entails. But letting go of the yellow license plate has just been that little bit harder than I thought.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Hypocrisy in High Places

Most folks are honest; this tricks them into a belief in the bedrock honesty of others, especially those who make bold public statements. How could someone lie in a public statement? Most folks know they would not want to live with that embarrassment when the truth inevitably came out. And yet we get fooled again. And again. George Santos claimed his mother died in the 9/11 attacks. She did not. He claimed his grandparents survived the European holocaust. As we all know, his shenanigans have been extraordinary.

From Trump’s incessant and continuing lies to the fictions spun up on Fox News, we are awash in a gaslighting culture from the right that cannot seem to stop its relentless daily “flooding the zone.” But this is the chop on the surface; what about the current underneath? Where does the political left join the political right in framing profits as patriotism, bloodshed as glory, immiseration as inspiration?

Here we are in yet another crisis of our own making (well, made by the people we freely elected), the debt ceiling debacle. At the actual nut of the problem is the military budget. Why? Because it seems to be literally more sacred than the money the government takes out of your paycheck for your retirement, Social Security. Just ponder the headlines. Forbes: “Republicans Plan To Cut Social Security — Will Voters Let Them?” Time magazine: “How Biden Got Republicans To Run Away From Their History of Pushing Social Security and Medicare Cuts.” The fight is on, even as your paycheck shows the deductions made to the Social Security fund. That is your money, not Congress’ to play around with. And yet it’s a public debate now.

On the other hand, find me the politicians who are calling for cuts to the biggest budget item by far in the pool of your tax dollars that we do give Congress the right to divide as they see fit, discretionary spending. That would be the Pentagon budget, of course. There is pretty much radio silence on that topic. Where there are minor quibbles it’s usually about how much to increase it, not whether it should be cut.

Back in the day, Ronald Reagan’s head of his Office of Management and Budget, David Stockman, in an interview in The Atlantic, talked about the defense contractors and noted, “The hogs are really feeding now.” Fast forward to today and those hogs are breeding and feeding, gorging on your tax dollars, and yet the Pentagon is so reckless and eager to spend that they cannot pass an audit, year after year. So the bloated Pentagon budget, some $816 billion officially, is far more than every hostile foreign power combined, and yet in reality is much more than that, since military costs are also absorbed into other budgets, such as Veterans Affairs, Dept. of Energy, and NASA, amongst others.

Into all this comes the fatuous self-inflicted threat of a default to the U.S. full faith and credit because Republicans won’t honor past expenses they voted to make. If a dad does that he’s a deadbeat dad. If a contractor does that to a subcontractor, expect a lien. Do that to a neighbor nice enough to sell you an appliance that you never paid for and he’s going to see you in small claims court. Deadbeat Republicans never met a weapons system they wouldn’t vote for but now that the bill is here they want to dip out. Gullible Democrats also voted for those military boondoggles but at least they want to honor those debts.

Republicans are, as usual, aiming to cut programs that really serve human needs, but the budgets they seek to eliminate are so small the Pentagon would regard them as rounding errors. They want to cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)? No food for poor kids! More caviar for Raytheon war profiteer executives!

It is long past time to really pare down the DoD budget. We should not have sophisticated weaponry all over the Earth, under the seas, and in space while families are living in tents in the snow on sidewalks and while healthcare is still not available to all. Can we unite for peace and prosperity?

Dr. Tom H. Hastings is coordinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University, PeaceVoice senior editor, and on occasion an expert witness for the defense of civil resisters in court.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

The Battle for Belle Harbour

Editor’s note: Flyer writers will occasionally share this space.

They came with the first wave of warmish weather that washed over Memphis this year. It started with the briefest rustling of the blinds near my apartment window, occasionally supplemented by the soft fluttering of wings in the dead of night. But then, slowly, spots of red and orange hues began to appear everywhere, taking over my living space and making themselves at home.

The ladybugs had returned. And they didn’t even offer to pay rent!

Although, according to Google, these aren’t your run-of-the-mill ladybugs. This other species that has set up shop with me over here on Mud Island is likely a family of Asian lady beetles, a more invasive variety that simply can’t stop helping itself to prime suntanning spots on my windows and buzzing around some of my lamps. I don’t really mind bugs, but these ones kind of unnerve me, with their little tails (ladybugs shouldn’t have tails!) and their occasional propensity for extra wing flutters as I lie in the dark trying to sleep. That’s not okay, bugs.

Maybe the rest of you Mid-Southerners are used to this. But not me; where I grew up, in Santa Fe, we got used to centipedes, millipedes, prowling tarantulas, and even the occasional bat hanging from the veranda. So my battle for the last week has revolved around a single-minded goal: to get rid of these scarlet squatters and restore peace to my abode. Okay, sure, they’re pretty harmless, and I could wait for my pest control work order to kick in, but by golly, I can occasionally be obstinate and have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to interlopers.

At first, it was simple enough to coax the bugs onto a sheet of paper or a book cover and deposit them back outside to enjoy the nice weather we’ve been having. But mine was a persistent foe. As I clacked away on my keyboard, helping to edit some of the great columns you’ll read by the talented writers here in the Flyer, my ears would pick up an occasional rustle or another flutter. A quick peek at the window revealed one … no, two, wait, four more ladybugs hanging around? And is that another one hanging out by my bookshelf? How vexing.

The ladybugs occupied my obsession for a week, an unwanted distraction next to real responsibilities that actually matter, like turning this column in on time and getting the issue off to the printer. But this is a problem that I chose to focus on. And as my internal clock ticked past 30 years of age last year and the feeling of old age began to settle, the idea that I needed to more carefully select my battles has never seemed more appealing.

The outrage machine both online and off never even sputters these days, throwing up weird controversies that demand an emotional outpouring of fury and rage. Gas stoves? M&M’s mascots? More stuff about England’s royal family?

To be blunt, on certain days it feels like I can’t care anymore. Maybe a decade ago I would don my armor as a soldier of the Twitter wars, but engaging with a too-online rando who might clearly be a troll now is just, well, a waste of time.

Some days, my brain hurts trying to wrap itself around nonstop vitriol surrounding mundane problems. Not when there are real issues that demand our attention. Not when our governor is trying to police gender or paint scarlet letters on drag performers. Not when innocent people are beat to death in the street.

Direct your outrage towards real issues that merit it, and have some leftover brainspace for the little things important to you. Maybe one of my friends thinks a specific local beer is the best in town (it’s not). No problem, he enjoys it, it’s not hurting me, I’ll save my incredulity for something else. And maybe I’ve wasted time dealing with a bug problem that requires a professional hand. That’s okay; working more actively to tune out all the excess noise means that the smaller issues that pop up week after week won’t become the proverbial straws that break the camel’s back, and I remain motivated for the real challenges that still lie ahead.

But the battles continue. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got another bug to squash.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Like Caged Birds

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
— Maya Angelou

I recently stopped at Petco to pick up some treats for my three pups. I usually go straight to the shelf, grab the package, and head right to the checkout counter. But on this particular day, I was called, quite literally, to the other side of the store.

As the doors swung open, the cheeps and chirps of the birds kept in the corner hit my ears, and, as if pulled by some homing device, I floated over to them. Normally, I steer clear of that area; seeing the feathered beauties behind bars brings me down. How many of them make their way to new homes? How many spend their entire existence under harsh fluorescents in the back of a pet shop? And even if they’re bought, they’re forever in captivity. It just doesn’t sit well with me.

Anyhow, I was particularly drawn to the parakeets, their vibrant blues and greens and yellows, lovely creatures — like paintings come to life. As I stood simultaneously admiring and mourning them, an older gentleman walked up. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” he asked. I agreed, of course. He started telling me about his new puppy. How he works long hours and wishes he could make more time for it. How cute and fluffy and rambunctious it is. How he came to get some flea powder, but figured it’d probably be expensive, like everything else these days. He didn’t say so, but I sensed his loneliness, his urge to speak to a stranger in Petco just to make a small connection.

We pointed out which birds were our favorites. The pale peach one, the one with the bright teal hue — we’d never even seen such rich color before. We agreed it was sad to see them there, perched in a line like unpicked fruit, yet living, breathing, stretching out their wings with nowhere to go. Before we parted, he said, “What’s that saying about the caged bird? It makes you think, if they can still sing like this, what are we worried about?”

All in all, it was maybe a four- or five-minute encounter, but it left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Because amid all the noise in the news — from underground (the Earth’s core may have reversed rotation; what does it mean?), outer space (a solar polar vortex; is that a big deal?), nearer skies (spy balloons and UFOs), the nation (the toxic train derailment in Ohio), the city (another shooting spree last weekend; a separate shooting which claimed the life of a local beloved bartender) — the impression is that there’s a lot we could worry about. And that’s just scratching the surface. It’s enough to make you feel boxed in, caged without much reason to sing.

The curious part of that brief meeting was that after we talked, I made my way to the treats and then got in line to pay, but that nice gentleman who’d come for flea meds didn’t get anything at all. He walked away from the birds, and instead of browsing the aisles, went straight for the door. Maybe he forgot his wallet. Perhaps he changed his mind. Or maybe he got exactly what he was looking for: a moment of human connection, however fleeting; a small escape from his own lonesome cage.

We are all tired, weary of the worry. Not unlike those birds, wings clipped, clustered in cages built by the world, our government, our own minds — longing for freedom.

Consider, though, that the cage door is open. You’re not alone in this lonesome mess. We need only to sing — and fly.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

The Exchange: With Tayshaun Prince, the Grizzlies sacrifice star power in pursuit of better team play.

Tayshaun Prince defends the pick-and-roll in his Grizzlies debut.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Tayshaun Prince defends the pick-and-roll in his Grizzlies’ debut.

A new era of Memphis Grizzlies basketball dawned last weekend when the team played its first home game without Rudy Gay on the roster since spring of 2006. Gay leaves having played more games in a Grizzlies uniform than anyone in franchise history and while there are many angles — both short- and long-term — to the trade that sent Gay out of Memphis, the simple starting-lineup swap of Gay for veteran small forward Tayshaun Prince will have the most immediate impact.

The contrast, at least stylistically, could be dramatic, on both ends of the floor.

Gay, at 26, is one of the NBA’s great athletes. But, while he’s always been productive, Gay’s combination of dribble-blindness, on-and-off motor, and erratic outside shooting and defensive focus has — to this point, at least — prevented him from reaching the all-star level for which he’s long seemed destined.

Prince, who will turn 33 later this month, is a 10-year vet on the back end of what’s been a fairly illustrious career for lifetime role player.

Physically, Prince is both longer and lighter, a slender 6’9” with one of the NBA’s most eye-popping wingspans. Where Gay’s game is predicated on leveraging his athletic advantages, Prince’s game is all about the combination of length and savvy.

Prince’s wingspan allows him to play well off shooters to deny drives and yet still contest jump shots. It allows him to handle the ball on the block while keeping it away from the prying hands of post defenders. It allows him to shoot over opponents, especially in the paint, even without Gay’s ability to jump over them.