The Newell Post

Today, Mariano Rivera will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It is fitting that Mo will be enshrined in the Hall the weekend America is remembering and celebrating the triumph of Apollo 11.

You see, more men have walked on the moon than scored against Mariano in the postseason.

Growing up in the Bronx in the 1950s, I was genetically predisposed to being a Yankee fan. The environment of the Bronx supported this predisposition, but it was the specific location of apartment 6 at 1261 Leland Avenue that provided no choice in the matter.

My brothers Johnny and Michael were already Yankee fans when I was born in 1950. My father, being the source of the Yankee gene for all of us, grew up when Babe and Lou were young sluggers winning  Yankee World Series in the new ballpark in the Bronx.

My Yankee life began with Mickey Mantle. There was also Yogi, Moose, Roger, Elston, Hector, and Clete.

Later on, Horace Clarke and Jake Gibbs would be the stars that I followed.

That was during the lean years when the Yankees weren’t winning games much less World Series. Still, you’re a Yankee fan no matter.

The Yankees were already on the mend when George Steinbrenner bought the team, but he sure helped bring them back to the glory days. Munson, Nettles, Chamblis, Guidry, and Reggie were among the new heroes.

Donny Baseball, Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill, were soon joined by Jeter, Pettitte, and Posada.

But, the Yankee that eclipsed them all was Mariano Rivera.

My father and I would often discuss his favorite Yankee player. One day it would be Ruth, but then he would switch to Gherig. The next day it was Dimaggio.

At the time, I didn’t appreciate his reluctance to identify the one player that was his favorite. Now, however, I see what an impossible thing it is to do.

I saw Mickey play. How could you have a player that was better than Mickey? But then when I started taking my oldest son to games, we saw Don Mattingly. You just had to love Donnie Baseball. Then, of course, Jeter comes along and how could you think he was better than Mickey…I began to see how you could.

The fact is we remember all these great players as equally great and equally historic in their own right.

But then there’s Mo.

One of the things that I always regretted is that I had taken Mickey Mantle for granted. You know when you’re a kid you have a bad sense of time and history. I always thought Mickey would be patrolling centerfield and slamming long home runs in Yankee Stadium. Because of this, I never had the urgency that I had better get to a game to see him while I still could. I went to games but not nearly as many as I wish I had.

I didn’t make that mistake with the modern-day Yankees.

I made sure that I got to games and that my children got to see these players while they still could.

It was a great run.

We would go to a few games a year and, starting in 1996, we were able to see five World Series teams. Now, it wasn’t as glorious an age as when I grew up, but for me, it was much more exciting.

Even the years the Yankees didn’t win it all it was exciting because you knew you saw a Hall of Fame team, a once in a lifetime team. And the hear of that team was Mariano Rivera.

More men have walked on the Moon than have scored against him in the playoffs.

I tried to impart the historic nature of watching this generational player to my son. We had a Saturday package that provided tickets to sixteen games, mostly on  Saturday. On this one occasion, we were standing outside with a beautiful view of the field as Enter Sandman echoed all around us. I started haranguing Bryan by asking, “Are you getting this?” I must have asked him five times. Finally, in frustration of the nagging, he replied, “YES! I’m getting it.”

You see, at that moment I was with my father and Babe Ruth was coming to bat. I never got to experience that, of course. But, on that Saturday with my son Bryan, I felt I was experiencing a similar event.

It occurred to me that Mariano Rivera was the Babe Ruth of his day. He was the Babe Ruth of Closers. He was the best at what he does, and we have never witnessed anyone like him before.

The sportswriters, who unanimously elected Mariano Rivera into the Hall of Fame agreed with this assessment.

Today, Mariano joins Babe Ruth, Lou Gherig, Joe Dimaggio, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Mickey Mantle.

Today, Marian Rivera is a Baseball Immortal.

The British Open is being held in Northern Ireland. Not too many years ago, this would have been unthinkable. Nothing to do with golf of course.

Because of the sectarian violence that has scarred much of recent Irish history, it just wasn’t feasible for The North to host such an event. It took the Green Dragon of the Republic, I believe, to bring people to their senses.

I do not wish to open those wounds as that would not be helpful to me on a beautiful hot day in sunny Bradenton Florida.

Nevertheless, I wish to use the Irish issue as a metaphor for what we are facing in America today.

In addition to the intercession of the Clinton administration and the hard work of  George Mitchell, Clinton’s envoy. But one factor I believe that finally got the two sides talking was economics. The North was not benefitting from the Green Dragon.

Economics is a stronger motivating force than morality. It may be cynical to believe this but isn’t it economics that is keeping Republicans from speaking out against Trump?

Maybe economics can convince these same Republicans to speak up?

We know many farmers could not survive without migrant laborers. Crops would rot on the vine as American workers would never work as hard for low wages as the migrants. There has to be a precise economic impact study outlining an economy without immigrant, legal or otherwise, participation.

It should have examples of what the products that the middle and lower classes would have to pay for basic needs.

The same analysis should be made for other ethnic groups.

People contribute to the commerce of this nation in so many ways.

The tax laws are rigged in favor of the super-rich. Corporate welfare is acceptable but not individual welfare. The theory is that corporations will create jobs if they are encouraged to invest in their own business by favorable tax incentives.

I never understood this argument. You would think that profit was enough motivation and that making money requires that corporations invest in themselves. We tell students who borrow thousands of dollars in student loans that investing in yourself will pay off with a promising career with a substantial profit in the form of a salary. Why do corporations need anything more than their own profits to believe in themselves?

When I was selling Kool-Aid when I was ten years old, my buddy PJ and I would sell enough to pay for our initial investment. Then we would drink up the profit. Our motivation to sell Kool-Aid was so that we could drink up the profit.

No one subsidized us, well except for PJ’s mother who provided the water and sugar to make our product. We never required other financial assistance.

We operated as a real corporation, however, in that we never filed taxes.

The point is Democrats, especially The Squad, should provide, in simple terms, in words Republicans can understand, so that voters can appreciate, exactly what workers of all faiths and ethnicities contribute to our beautiful country.

NFL, MLB, NBA, and even NHL sports franchises could never afford to field a team were it not for the players and fans of our diverse country.

This President could probably issue an executive order to ban different groups from attending sports events. We have a Cowardly Lion for an Attorney General and a stacked Supreme Court who would look the other way. But then Mr. Trump would get a phone call or two from his one-percent friends to let them know precisely how much money they would lose.

Maybe we should start with sports and entertainment moguls?

That’s an easy analysis to do. Billions of dollars would be at stake and some of its tax revenue, rendering the national debt bigger and worse than ever.

FOX News would even abandon the President as they would be losing as much money as any corporation.

The list is endless. Surely there is an economist who has already started this review.

We wouldn’t need Mueller or any of the other witnesses set to testify.

Money talks louder than law, order, and morality.

Fifty years ago today, the United States launched Apollo 11. A few days later Neil Armstrong would utter those famous words ” (for which he would, no doubt, be railroaded today), “That’s one small step for (a?) man, one giant leap for mankind.”

The “a” is added parenthetically because Armstrong vehemently asserted that is what he said despite the audio evidence to the contrary. Speach and audio analysts have examined the recording, and some make the case that many from Armstrong’s native Ohio often combine the words “for a” to “fora.”

The fact that I have to describe this is more a commentary on the era of the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing than the day the event occurred.

Back then, there was only the beginning of the Great Divide that marks our society today.

But that is not the point.

What is of more significance is that the moon landing took place a little over a year removed from the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, and the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

The war in Viet Nam was still raging in 1969. Because the Democrats were so divided in 1968, Nixon was President in 1969. Race relations were abysmal, and the women’s movement was in its infancy.

Life was not pretty in 1969.

Nevertheless, for one week in July, our nation forgot its immediate past and marveled at its future. Landing humans on the moon was a historic First Step. There would be many more exciting achievements ahead. Colonies on the moon, voyages to the planets and all the good things that science promised were at our doorstep.

While it is easy to lament our lack of achievement, to do so would be a mistake. For one thing, if I had Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia in 1969, I wouldn’t be here to write this. My wife would probably not have survived back in 1969.

Chemo and other therapies have been developed and have saved thousands if not millions of lives. Science has delivered.

Are there challenges that remain? Of course. Are we capable of facing these challenges? Yes, we are.

First, we have to accept our humanity. We are not pronouns. We are not a race. We are not a gender. We are not a sexual orientation. We are not a color. We are not a hairstyle.

If people want to limit us to these characteristics, shame on them, don’t let them do it. See each other in the total humanity of our being.

Talk about a small step and a giant leap!

First, we have to accept our humanity. We are not pronouns. We are not a race. We are not a gender. We are not a sexual orientation. We are not a color. We are not a hair style.

If people want to limit us to these characteristics, shame on them. Don’t let them do it. See each other in the total humanity of our being.

Talk about a small step and a giant leap!

Is that the best Trump could come up with? I mean he could as well have said. “Fuck you and the horse you came in on.”

I am not sure what the statute of limitations is for “going back to where you came from” or how many years you or your family have to be here before you are no longer included in the group so directed.

I might be in trouble.

My mother came to this country in 1926, but she did not come through Ellis Island as immigrants of that time did. Instead, she came under a visitor’s visa, and she was supposed to go back to County Sligo.

I often think about what America was like for her when she first stepped off the boat. It was the Roaring Twenties after all. (Oh yeah that will be a topic next year.) She had two sisters and a brother already here, and she soon met my father, and there was no way in hell that she was going to use that return ticket.

We think this may have upset her brother back in Ireland, but the Irish are a tight-lipped people, and no one talked about such things.

The point is she wasn’t an immigrant, but we think she was what they called a Registered Alien. Even that is not a certainty.

Would she be considered an illegal if this happened today?

Would The ICE men be knocking on our door at 1261 Leland Avenue?

Or would they simply send a letter telling her to go back where she came from?

What’s next? Will this group of miscreants in government decide to edit Lady Liberty’s plea to the nations of the world “Send us your huddled masses…until we get sick of them”?

We are all children of immigrants, some of whom were not immediately welcomed into the melting pot of these United States. That is not an excuse to haze these new immigrants. Instead, it should be a warning that we remember to remember the lessons of the Good Samaritan.

Evangelicals? How do you look yourself in the mirror with what you have allowed?

Thousands of immigrants were probably afraid to enjoy a Sunday stroll in the park or to go to the beach, or maybe go see the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays.

ICE agents were ordered by the President to round up illegal immigrants and, given the way many have been treated at the border, I would have stayed inside too.

We should all be very scared.

This isn’t exactly what we all learned about truth, justice, and the American way.

It seems Lady Liberty can be accused of false advertising. When she proclaims to the countries of the world to send their huddled masses, was the jailing of men in cages what she had in mind? Was this the opportunity these people were looking for when they came to this country? Maybe she only wanted huddled masses from Norway?

Some of the targets of this  ICE age have children who proudly serve this nation in foreign wars, the like of which Trump avoided as a fat college student with bone spurs.

Look, I think many of us would agree that something has to be done to improve our borders. We don’t want criminals and rapists; we have much too much of them already, some are wealthy supporters of our leaders and maybe even in our government. But nothing has come out indicating anything to link these immigrants with any crime except not having the right card in their pocket.

When I lived on Long Island MS 13 was a significant concern and responsible for many deaths of high school kids. The Suffolk County police created a task force to address these crimes. I don’t remember ICE getting into the picture. It wasn’t viewed as much an immigration problem as a crime problem.

The Irish are drunks; the Italians are in organized crime; the Jews are corrupt money changers. Who else should we attack?

That’s why we should be scared.

Back when I taught American History and the topic was World War ll, I began my discussion on the Nazis stating that they were Christians and loved their families and celebrated Christmas. My students had a fit an immediately yelled at me. “Mr. Newell, you saw those movies. You saw how they tortured and killed six million Jews!”

“Yes,” I replied.”That is the point. Good people, who should have known better followed orders and committed those atrocities.”

Today, good people are putting up with Trump and the miscreants who want to make America white again.

That is what this attack on these immigrants is all about. That’s what the gun issue is all about, too. That is why there is no Republican with the moral courage to stand up to this nonsense.

This is what the Democrats should be addressing not sniping at each other.

We should be scared because the tide could turn in the blink of an eye. Maybe Democrats and liberals will be the new target of hatred and bigotry?

Being white in America may not be enough to protect you. If we continue to let purveyors of racial hatred spread their disease, being white will not protect us from the wrath of God.

To those with a sense of morality, there is no other choice than to resist the haters.

Like most people, I have always aspired to live a comfortable life. I wanted a nice house. I wanted to travel. I tried to raise my kids in a beautiful setting. I wanted them to go to good schools. I wanted enough money to do these things and more.

I guess I got enough money but not nearly as much as I wanted.

But now I am thinking that was a blessing.

When you see two recent examples of billionaires gone mad, you should realize that money is a curse. Money in the amounts that the ultra-rich possess is not just the dollars in their investment, it’s the hubris in their moral life account. It’s the feeling they can do anything, and it can’t be wrong, no matter what they choose to do. Morality is for the poor, after all.

We had one billionaire accused of going to a massage parlor which had been implicated in sex trafficking. Then, you have another who had been charged years ago, given a ridiculously light sentence only to be arrested on new charges when he got off his plane in New Jersey. This guy, “likes them on the younger side,” according to one of his well-placed buddies, the president of the United States.

But this billionaire is bipartisan in his friendships as former President Clinton is also counted among his pals.

If there was any concern about restricting free speech by curtailing the ability of the wealthy, individuals or corporations, to donate uncontrollably to politicians, perhaps now is the time to get over it.

Do we want pedophiles to have a role in determining who is elected to serve the people? Do we want pedophiles to be protected from prosecution and detection by these same politicians?

I guess the Supreme Court does because they had a chance to restrict money’s hold on politics and politicians but resorted to protect the rich and fuck the poor.

How many times has the fall of the Roman Empire been evoked when discussing life in America in the Twentieth Century? Now, here we are in the Twentieth-First Century, and the demise of the American Experiment seems possible.

While Democrats discuss bussing in the ’70s, immigrant children are being held in prison away from their parents because they are from Latin America and not Norway.

Guns are out of control as is the NRA, but God forbid we have a rational gun policy.

It’s all about money, which is power. It’s never about what is best for the nation. It used to be said that what is good for General Motors is good for America. Those were the days.

Now, as long as we all get a good return on our IRAs and 401Ks, these crazy politicians can do what they want. Religion can no longer supply the moral guidance to help us identify right from wrong. Religion has lost its appeal and ethical foundation. Whether it’s the power of the Catholic Church concentrating on its own damage control necessitated by its own sex scandals or the Evangelicals who have been co-opted by its own narrow focus on abortion and the Supreme Court. There is no great American Moral Leander anymore.

ROI has superseded GOD.

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

I guess the shortest definition of triggers is events in our past that cause us to relive the pain of their occurrence. You relive the trauma, and the pain of something that happened long ago seeps into your consciousness.

It can be compared to PTSD, I suppose.

The topic of triggers was first brought to my attention as a concern that universities had with including specific issues in the classroom, which might serve as triggers for students.

Not everyone was agreed to this institutional sensitivity, and we began reading about “Snowflakes,” students who were fragile and “not as tough as we were.”

The trouble is that I just turned sixty-nine and I may be a Senior Snowflake.

I don’t know what it is, but I can shed a tear at the drop of a hat.

Yankee Old Timers Day was getting to me. Of course, the fact that the Yankees scheduled Old Timers Day for my sixty-ninth birthday may have had something to do with it.

It’s not just the crying, which can be embarrassing when you are flying home from New York, and you have your headphones on listening to your summer playlist and reading the book that your daughter gave you for Father’s Day. It’s also reliving a sanitation truck broadsiding you while you are driving and trying to remain calm and collected. Cool is out of the question in Florida. Currently, 95 as I type.

The thing is we all have triggers that cause us angst if not downright emotional upheaval so let’s go easy on the kids. I don’t know about your Millennials or Gen Ex-ers, but mine are special people, and I love them dearly.

Sorry, I have to go now…no tissues by the computer.

A Father is the guy who took you to your first Yankee game and sat you in the Bleachers because that was where Mickey Mantle played.

A Father is the guy who just couldn’t wait until December 25th to give you your first set of Lionel Trains and so he gave them to you in October.

A Father is the guy who that same Christmas gave you your Santa Fe diesel three days before Christmas.

A Father is the guy who didn’t get you those Mouseketeer Ears you wanted so badly but came home with the most beautiful red two-wheeler you ever had in your life.

A Father is the guy who didn’t always give you what you wanted but made damn sure you got everything you needed.

A Father is the guy who never uttered a profanity in his life until that day you went missing, and he had to search the neighborhood looking for you.

A Father is the guy who answered ‘steak’ to the question ‘What’s for dinner?’ that you yelled to him up at the window when he was calling you in for dinner because he didn’t want the neighbors to know we were having meatloaf.

A Father is the guy who took you to Ferry Point Park on evenings after he worked all day and then had to flag every fly ball that went to the opposite field he was playing.

A Father is the guy who couldn’t tune a ukulele without breaking a few strings but could sing Ain’t She Sweet like no body’s business.

A Father is the guy who made a weekend without electricity the most magical weekend of a kid’s life.

A Father is the guy who was called The Tasheroo Kid and never explained what that meant.

A Father is the guy who didn’t know the definition of a sick day.

A Father is the guy who saw you sleeping on his living room floor and went out and bought a sofa bed the next day.

A Father is so much more than all the things I have listed, and I am only one of his five children, and if you have been blessed with such a Father, then you have been truly blessed.

Universities are reducing, some eliminating, Liberal Arts programs in lieu of career oriented programs. The mantra of STEM, Science Technology Engineering Mathematics has rendered History English Sociology Art as quaint subjects that we can no longer afford to invest any time or money.

Well, that may be a little harsh. Still, the astronomical cost of a higher education necessitates that graduates encumbered by burdensome student loans focus on their marketability in the pursuit of a job. While there used to be a time that a college degree in any major was valued and respected by potential employers, today’s job seekers must demonstrate that they are prepared, competent and meet the employrer’s immediate needs.

The days of learning on the job are no more or at least the number of days devoted to such training are limited. It’s not good enough to be articulate and well read. It’s better that you can handle a computer and manipulated data and develop logarithms than to be able to wax poetic about Moby Dick.

The trouble is that not studying history or reading the classics has serious consequences for the nation. There used to be a time when Civics was part of an elementary education. Math and Science have taken over as the overreaching concern for educators. Standardized testing emphasizes competence in these subjects and while reading is an important factor in achieving a passing grade, unfortunately it is not the type of reading that translates to reading books.

The shocking lack of the knowledge of history is what truly worries me. It is not uncommon for recent college graduates to mis-identify the century in which the Civil War was fought.

There was a story not too long ago in which it was reported that a WWII veteran was introduced to an elementary school class as a veteran of World War ELEVEN!

Who uses Roman numbers anymore except editors of crossword puzzles? But, the failure to know that we have not had ELEVEN WORLD WARS is a little much to take and bold indictment of our failure as a nation to recognize the value of knowing our history.

Today, John Dean is testifying in Congress regarding Watergate supposedly to enlighten Congressional members what obstruction of justice looks like. One commentator on MSNBC, a member of the written press, declared that this is a bad idea as no one today knows who John Dean is. Most were not alive when he was a key figure in the Nixon investigation.

Alvin Toffler you were right, the Future IS Shocking.