The first story was in today’s New York Times.
Joakim Noah, the Knicks center, said he had skipped a team dinner at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., on Thursday because he is against war.
I found this short article quite inspiring. It reminds me of the story about the third person on the podium at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Peter Norman. Most people know about Tommie Smith and John Carlos with the raised black fist salute. However, very few know about this story. Just a quiet protest, that means a lot.
It’s hard for athletes to stand up for their non-sports-world beliefs. Its hard to sit when others stand, to say “my country is wrong” in going to war, and say it in a very public place. I congratulate them.
The other story that got my attention is that of the practice of Peter Angelos (owner ) playing ”This Land is Your Land” at Baltimore Orioles home games.
In a tradition that dates to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, “God Bless America” is played in major league ballparks around the country, including in Baltimore, during the seventh-inning stretch of Sunday games.
I hate “God Bless America”. I just bothers me. I always sit politely through it.
But Baltimore is the only major league franchise to regularly play “This Land Is Your Land,” which it does at Friday home games. And the song, long considered an anthem of the left because of its populist themes, is meant to be more than a Camden Yards singalong. It is a subtle, yet intentional, message from the Orioles’ management that at the intersection of sports and patriotism, one size does not have to fit all.
This article by Ben Strauss also in today’s New York Times told me a number of things I didn’t know about the two songs, including the fact that “This Land is Your Land” was written my Woodie Guthrie in response to ”God Bless America”.
4
