Day: July 11, 2013

I truly believe the short attention spanning 24 hr news culture of America makes it impossible for us to have real conversations about the country’s cultural and racial history. “That’s old news, so get over it” is so much a part of our culture now that we aren’t allowed to even think about the damage that has been done to groups and subcultures and how that damage affects us all even today.

Years ago Carson interviewed Richard Pryor and referenced Pryor’s use of the word, ‘Nigger’. Carson said the word almost conversationally–on late night TV–Pryor followed it with a joke and everyone laughed. It wasn’t a controversy. Just last month Paula Deen admitted to using the word, albeit in a different context, over a decade ago and lost her entire empire. We crack down now. We try to distance ourselves in order to reinforce the fact that we are supposedly a post-racist society. However, the quick reinforcement only shows that we are not past it. It is such a festering wound that is not being properly addressed that we are entering an age where hiding these proclivities is going to become the norm. That zero-sum game that is free speech has slowly eroded to a miasma of political correctness.

I don’t have any answers here, just reflections. The more I see us struggling to mask this idea that we still have deep seeded divisions in our country, the more I fear those divisions will fester and eventually tear us apart. I think the best example of that is the unwillingness of congress to engage on immigration reform. Republicans supposedly won’t engage, because it benefits democrats with votes and enrages their aging white base. Well, that sounds like the different sides are taking their ball and going home. That only points to more division in the long run, from which nobody will benefit.

I miss football. I miss it to the point that I’ve started prepping a playbook for the January season. The playbook prep led to research, which led to a deeper understanding of how to run the pistol, which led to understanding that I really don’t know the best way to coach a 5 man defensive unit of mixed skill players against a more talented group. That’s the flag coach dilemma right there, and a post for later on. This one is going to be about the pros.

I like pro football better than the college game, which makes me about as rare as a Red Panda. I’m extra excited about this upcoming season, because the Giants have a WR in a contract year. While the college theory suggests that college students play harder than the pros, that theory breaks down when it comes to contract year. This is the time where everybody plays like it matters, because it does. How you play in the contract year determines where you go (or stay) for the next few. Knowing the Giants have mercilessly released supposed pro-bowl caliber guys, Hakeem Nicks is going to play football like his hair is on fire. In fact it will be, because his buddy in the slot just nailed a huge extension. Nicks knows it is on.

Some Thoughts:

1. One should not write posts on little to no sleep. This usually ends badly and or incomplete as yesterday’s post suggests.
2. Big moment for me in the ‘back in the saddle of health’ drive. I was laying flat on my back watching bad TV and thinking about doing push ups. I did the push ups.
3. The amount of real numbers that can be squeezed into the space between two numbers–0 and 1 perhaps, is close to infinity, which means it is possible that our known universe occupies the space between 0 (nothing) and 1 (the next universe). Access to a black hole, the theoretical extra-universal pinhole, could prove this theory.