Abraham Lincoln

The Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln. What do you think President Lincoln would think of President Trump?

In this morning's Sacramento Bee sports page, Ailene Vosin asked who'd you'd take in a Golden State Warrior's Coach Steve Kerr and a Donald Trump standoff? Kerr, hands down. Kerr would take Trump and Bannon one on two, and beat them into the ground, hands down. Bigots are crap athletes. The KKK and Neo Nazis couldn't field a team in any sports that could compete at any level, kindergarten included.

Hooray for Eric Reid, "won't kneel but won't stop talking." He's right, there is a huge amount of support for Colin Kaepernick in American across every spectrum of our society, except for a small segment of white males over fifty, mostly those who are under-educated, (and some younger white bigots they've brainwashed, Add to this group aging wealthy whites who are  frightened of people of different colors.

Speaking of colors.  Did you happen to see all the different and wonderfully diverse colors competing against each other at the World Track and Field Championship in London. Shades of skin color is the future, Trump and Bannon, take note. Pure white is on it's way out. Pure any color is on it's way out. We will be a bi-racial world not too long in the future. If you have any doubts, you might want to check out television advertising: biracial couples all over the tube selling products. When it comes to the bottom line, the ad biz is always ahead of the curve.

Joe Kapp     by Tom Meschery

For years I've enjoyed telling the story
about Joe Kapp refusing to run out of bounds
in a crucial game after gaining enough yards,
as all quarterbacks are taught to do to save
themselves from injury. Kapp, a Mexican-American,
said to reporters after the win: Only gringos
run out of bounds. I'm thinking of this moment
in sports while driving home having just
hired a Mexican worker to help me finish
my patio. He is a strong looking man
from Vera Cruz with a wife and four children.
He doesn't look at all like Kapp and the years
between Kapp's game and my unfinished patio
are many, so I'm trying to decide why Kapp
came to mind. Something to do with toughness
I decide.Since growing old I've hired
Mexican workers and always been amazed
at how hard they work the most back breaking jobs,
and I think of the Conservatives complaining
about our borders not being strong enough,
and I'm willing to bet those same Republicans
in a crucial game, with angry linebackers
bearing down on them, would run
out of bounds to save their asses, which
I'd love to explain to the worker who tells me
his name is Jimmy, but Jaime in Spanish,
but I don't speak his language well enough. 

Adam Silver for President of the United States

Adam Silver, the Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, banned Donald Sterling, the owner of the LA Clippers for life and fined him 2.5 million for racist remarks, and our President, Donald Trump doesn't even have the courage to name by name the evil hate mongering Neo Nazi and white supremacists who threaten our democracy. Well, Trump has made David Duke, KKK leader very happy. Birds of a feather. No doubt!

Huge news in sports, but not on the front page where it should have been: Allyson Felix tied Usain Bolt for total gold medals won in the Olympics and World Championships. THAT'S HUGE. And guess what, she's going to run in the next Olympics. Can't wait.

I'm agree with Coach Jack Del Rio that it's important to stand for our National Anthem. I like to think of our flag as symbolic of our best ideals, in the hope that they will one day be fully realized for all the people who live within the boundaries of our country. 

So now we have Marshawn Lynch sitting as the National Anthem is played. Del Rio is right to respect Lynch's belief. But what exactly is it? He just said he was being himself. What does that mean? I prefer the courage of Kaepernick, who made it absolutely clear why he was kneeling. And, frankly, I prefer kneeling to sitting. Kneeling is a stance taken while praying. To pray for a more just system of laws is a good idea. Sitting, that's just resting. It carries no symbolic meaning. Sitting is not courageous. Not naming things by name is not courageous. Kap is out of work because the NFL owners are pretty wussy when it comes to courage. Sort of like Donald Trump. 

In honor of Allyson Felix, a track poem about my daughter who was fast for a while.

Middle School Track Meet

            For Janai

My daughter is signed up to run the 100 
and 200 meter dashes. She is fast but not as fast
as the girl warming up next to her. I'm trying
to decide what to say to my daughter
on the drive home about coming in second,
which I often did in sports. And with women
and hated it. My best friend Ned always came in 
first with women, and they found me later,
a shoulder to cry on, which is something
I don't need to tell my daughter, but has,
for reasons best confessed to an analyst,
always rankled me. I could say that being
first doesn't mean you're a better person.
It only means you reached the tape
before the rest of the runners. That effort
is all that counts in life, which I know
to be a lie promulgated by people
who inherited first having never run a race.
This will not comfort my daughter
as she is too young to be interested
in the inequities of society. Crouched
at the starting line, she's waiting for the gun.
She'll give every ounce of her strength,
out of the blocks and down the track.