Dave Winfield remembers what Major League Baseball and WWII movies forget

Today is the anniversary of D-Day. The invasion of Normandy. And the major media barely takes notice. I mean in an environment where ultra-liberals are screaming that America turn tail and run away from Iraq, and cities slap insult after insult on our military – refusing to allow recruiters to do their jobs and hiding our Armed Forces in the back doors of airports if they let them into the ports at all [look up San Fransisco or Marines at VASS]– how do we expect more?

But America is not just forgetting to remember the sacrifices of the old and current soldiers that ensure the freedoms we enjoy without a second thought. In our luxury of sitting in our homes and the only bomb blasts occurring on our HDTV screens, we forget that 2302 days have passed without a single terrorist attack in America. If anyone thinks this is not because of our brave men and women, and their sacrifices, they are in my opinion fools and willfully ignorant.

America loves to forget the things in our past that don’t match with what we want to think of today. Like past wars and the soldiers that fought them. Like the decades it took for the Tuskegee Airmen to get the recognition they deserved, or the fact that beyond Spike Lee’s upcoming film I cannot name another major (or minor) movie that recognizes that African Americans served in WWII. Then again you would be hard pressed to find Hollywood mentioning that Blacks have served in ever war or conflict America has ever had including the American Revolution.

Along those same lines of forgetting selected parts of our past, there is an example of someone that is remembering. Dave Winfeild, former NY Yankee, has not forgotten those that came before him and enabled him (and every other non-White pro team athlete) to enjoy being the pinnacle of American major league sports. Who has he remembered that was forgotten? The players of the Negro Leagues.

The original National Association of Base Ball Players, formed in 1867, banned black athletes. In 1920 the Negro National League was formed. It would be another 27 years before Jackie Robinson would break the barrier created 80 years prior. But Jackie Robinson was not a man in a vaccum, nor plucked from some street corner. He was one player among a league of hundreds, a number of which are believed to have been equal or superior to Robinson – each of them denied solely because of the color of their skin.

Today there are hundreds of players that are of virtually every race found on the Earth in American major league sports. Yet even the most avid fans in the nation’s preimer sport are hard pressed to name more than 2 players from the Negro Leagues – Jackie Robinson and Saitchel Paige. Such a shun and a desire to ignore the racist and ill-concieved past of the nation and baseball is maddening. And while it’s many years too late, Dave Winfeild has made sure something is done about it.

30 members of the Negro Leagues, people that I doubt most sports fans have ever heard of – because the history books and stadiums were closed to them – are to be recognized in a way that at least symbolically ensures their place in baseball history. These men will be drafted by the major teams prior to the MLB amateur draft. Emilio “Millito” Navarro, now 103 and the first Puerto Rican to play in the Negro Leagues, will be drafted by the New York Yankees.

In a country finally celebrating the potential of the first African American that may become the President of the United States, finally recognizing that African Americans fought and died as bravely in every war we ever fought, finally recognizing that Blacks have been as integral to the foundation and growth of this nation as any (and perhaps more) other group, I say that such recognition is beyond long overdue.

The major media may feel such events are cursory. They may feel that focusing on a fist bump by Senator Obama on the night he locked the Democratic Presidential nomination is more news worthy. But I will not allow my blog to miss these important facts. I remember those that came before me, I thank them. And I will share that acknowledgement. If nothing else, it’s the very least we can do.

Don’t you agree?

What if they took away Black History Month? - 2.29.2008.1

What if Black History Month was removed? Would anyone have noticed? Would anyone complain?

It seems not.

Why would I say this? Because I just learned that the school system in Endicott New York has removed all Black studies in the curriculum. There was nothing discussed in this past month about Black History, not even Dr. Martin Luther King, because the entire subject was deemed unimportant.

Hello, stop and read that again. Unimportant and having no place in the minds of any of the children, including those that are African American. And this was all done without a single word to the parents, a single complaint from ANY of the students. It was just wiped out without a concern as if it was no more than a piece of errant string found on a piece of clothing.

Why am I upset? What if the school decided not to discuss the Holocaust, or Native American history? What if all the history about England was removed, or France, or Ancient Rome? What if history in schools forgot about President George Washington, just not ever mentioning what he did, or the Constitution?

People would be up in arms. Parents would be inflamed. Jewish communities would claim its anti-Semitic, Native American Indians would say it’s a slap in the face. Whole communities would demand a reason why their rich pasts were being denied their children. Cries that the fundamental based of what is America was being corrupted.

And I ask, in what way is this different? How are the lives and blood of the African Americans that helped build and shape this nation any less important than anyone else? I am not just talking about the Slaves that literally built the foundations of the nation, but the inventors that created thousands of items we use every day, like the stoplight, or save millions of lives, like blood transfusions. How can we value the lives of soldiers like the Tuskegee Airmen, or those that fought in the Civil War, or the American Revolution with any less honor than every other American.

I don’t know how we can equate those lives and contributions as less, but obviously this town in Upstate New York has. I’m willing to bet that they aren’t the only ones. What are the odds that kids in Montana, or Florida, or Ohio, or any other State have no idea about these inventions or people? How many believe that being a slave, less than a dog or piece of furniture, was no different than having trouble getting a job? I know there are more than a few as I’ve read comments that insist that the trouble the Irish had in getting a job was the same as working 20 hours a day for your entire life, with no days off or concern for your health, without pay, and with the reality that at any moment your entire family may be sold away from you and that you can be killed for no more than amusement or the crime of looking at the wrong person.

If we can allow these schools to just toss away a piece of American History, a history of an essential people that helped found and defend this nation, what will go next? Dr. Martin Luther King’s Holiday? A holiday that over half the nation fought from coming into existence, and many still ignore? Maybe the laws dealing with segregation could be next. And if we get that far, why not restate Jim Crow? Hell, just bring slavery back and make it national.

It’s not that crazy. Slavery was just 5 lifetimes ago for some families. Jim Crow was just 2 or 3. Segregation was just 1. And a people without a history aren’t really a people are they?

And this was so important an issue, that not one child mentioned it. Not one parent noticed. Not one meeting was held. It was just understood that it was ok. As long as no one spoke about it, and no one asked why.

So as long as no one asks you if you are Black, or Hispanic, or whatever color, religion, or background you claim, you are nothing. And you can’t hurt nothing. You can’t defend, offend, steal from, brutalize, rape, murder or anything to nothing. And in Upstate New York, that’s what they are equating being African American with. Perhaps the Jews will be next?

Are you nothing? Is your history, your family nothing? Are you sure?

“Don’t learn Black History because of what you know, learn it because of what you don’t know” – C. Miller

I don’t have children. I’m not a teacher or involved in the school system. Maybe that’s a cop out, maybe not. But I am now aware, and so are you. Part of my responsibility is to let you know, and ask for your comments. What will you do?