ATHENS — The righteous behavior of many professional athletes (NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball, and Major League Soccer) in boycotting their games on Aug. 26 in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin (as well as the epidemic of police killings of people of color in general) was in such stark contrast to the unreal events at the Republican National Convention the same night that further comment is unnecessary.
Suffice it to note that these same athletes are perhaps pointing to what all of us need to consider doing: boycotting the business as usual of our daily lives, participating in a nonviolent strike that states in our own ways what basketball star LeBron James voiced Wednesday night, “f-k this man!!!! we demand change. sick of it.”
Perhaps we do this once a week, at least at the start. Perhaps we come together in our parks or commons on Strike Day with music, food, fun, and most importantly, conversations and discussions. A celebration of right-on citizenship!
Perhaps it grows into something more, with people dealing directly with a government that imprisons children who are seeking refuge at our borders, wantonly tearing up our Constitution almost daily, and doing all it can to void the election that it rightly fears will express the will of the majority of us citizens by kicking the gangsters out of office.
Who knows what may happen once we, the people behave in the honorable, principled manner of these athletes? Might this lead to getting the honorable, principled government that most of us really want? Might common decency become more common?
Stay healthy, folks, in body and spirit.