Brazilian Street Kid Publishes Inspirational Book with Help from American Professional Athlete

Brazilian Street Kid Publishes Inspirational Book with Help from American Professional Athlete

Pro-Choice Culture

www.theathleteshow.com/radio_shows/djs_column01.html

Once again, ESPN columnist Jemele Hill decided to write an over-simplified article with trite soapbox statements.

Ms. Hill wrote that Karl Malone has failed as a father and a man.  In addition, she suggested that Al Sharpton organize a protest outside of Karl Malone's house.  She went on to state that Roger Clemens' alleged sexual relationship with a 15 year old is nothing compared to what Malone has done.

Karl Malone grew up in Summerfield, Louisiana. Apparently, when he was 19 he had a sexual relationship with a minor who was 13 at the time.  The result of this relationship was the birth of a boy by the name of Demetrius Bell. Much to the perseverance and character of Mr. Bell, he became a great student and good basketball player, receiving a scholarship to Northwestern State.  Upon arriving, he was enticed to play football due to his size and athleticism (reminiscent of his father).  In 2005, he appeared in one game.  The next season was the beginning of 22 straight starts.  Bell became an All American, a first team All-Southland Conference selection, and now a proud NFL player expected to graduate this spring.

My first thought was, "wow!  Look what God can do!"  Demetrius' mother could have chosen from a number of options to avoid the responsibility of motherhood in her teenage years.  But she chose to assume that responsibility, and from that choice now her son is blessed with a measure of success at a young age. 

As I continued to read Ms. Hill's article I thought, "why not highlight Demetrius Bell instead of using this as an opportunity to tear down Malone?"

Reading further, my last thought was, "this is such a misguided, albeit relevant, article."

What are the details of this situation?  Was Malone in some way running from everything that he had known to be negative in his life?  That "everything" being Summerfield, which is high on poverty and low on success.  Was he running from the very thing that drove him to be one of the greatest power forwards ever?  One of the details that stands out is that once Malone made it into the NBA, he had the ability and/or resources to be a part of Demetrius Bell's life.  Was there something else going on here?  It had to be something deeper.

When I consider this story, so many unanswered questions, thoughts and emotions enter my mind.  What are we doing as a society to protect our families?  What makes a man desert his family?  What are we doing as men?  Is it a fear of responsibility?  Fear of financial bondage?  Fear of being controlled?  Difficulty to trust that the mother will act upon both the child and father's interests?  Fear of a legal system that seems to tear so many families apart?  Why would a man or woman walk out on his or her own child?

Is it really as simple as selfishness and a complete disregard for life?  These types of situations are rarely that simple, and many times even those involved never fully understand why they do what they do.  Perhaps that's why the temptation is so great for bystanders to weigh in with over-simplified judgments about the people involved.  

However, I would like to use this situation as an opportunity to focus more attention on the current laws and culture regarding parenting, adoption and abortion.  

Morally, it is wrong to neglect anyone, whether it's your child or not.  But as a person, it's your right to choose whether or not you want to be in someone's life.  Am I saying that Karl Malone was right?  No.  But he does have the right to choose and he has to live with his choice.

But consider the contradiction in our rules today.  If a woman gets pregnant and chooses not to have the child, she can abort, put the child up for adoption, or simply leave it at the hospital.  However, if a pregnant woman is assaulted, resulting in the loss of the baby, the assaulter can and will be charged with murder.  Furthermore, if a woman is pregnant and is murdered (remember the Laci Peterson case), the assaulter is charged with double murder - murder of both the mother and child. 

So why is it that abortion is legal?  In one situation it is murder and the other it is simply a "right to choose," without even identifying the baby as a child but rather as a fetus, possibly to remove all emotional ties from the child.  If you refer to it as a child rather than a fetus, it would force all involved to conclude that abortion is in fact murder.

However, if a man gets a woman pregnant and doesn't want to be a father, most often he is not given a choice.  If she chooses life, his choice will be to either suck it up and take responsibility for that moment of pleasure, or do what Karl Malone apparently did and run the risk of being chased down by a government entity and possibly publicly humiliated.  Lucky him, because the woman is left with possibly the most difficult decision she will ever make.

Why would a woman choose to abort?  What are we doing as a society, or more specifically as men, to leave a woman with that difficult choice?  What are we doing to leave a woman feeling so alone and frustrated that she ultimately chooses death over life?  There are plenty of advocates to help a woman choose death - but who will advocate for this new mother if she chooses life?  Who will be there for her when she feels as though she can't be a mother?  And who speaks for the baby - does the child have a voice?

I would assume that abortion is not a woman's first choice, nor her natural inclination.  Rather, it is a culture we have created in which women feel as though this is a viable, or perhaps the only, option.  It is a culture that no longer values the importance of children, mothering and, more significantly, fathering.  Having a child now represents loss of independence, financial burden, loss of youth, and many other negative concepts.  This is the culture our nation has created.  You can see it in the statistics, as 95% of all abortions are performed as a means of birth control.  Only 1% are performed because of rape.  1% are performed because of fetal abnormalities and 3% due to the mother's health problems.  So again, we are failing to reinforce alternate solutions.

Lord help us!  We are ALL HYPOCRITES... Oh, how we have failed our mothers.  Men, we are failing.

What would it take to provide adequate assistance for mothers to choose life without encouraging the mother and father to fight over finances, custody and other issues that ultimately divide the two most important people in a child's life?  When you consider the big business of lawyer fees, court fees and child support collections, you can see how the temptation to abort becomes so strong.  In reality, there is big money to be made in out-of-wedlock conceptions. Either by pushing abortions or by charging the non-custodial parent (typically fathers) for the governmental service of enforcing their parental duties.

So why would anyone want to fix this problem?  Is there any money to be made in reconciliation?  Would the long term benefits of encouraging marriage, teaching financial planning and perhaps providing relationship counseling outweigh the loss of revenue in the child support division?  Couldn't the Planned Parenthood employees and lobbyists cross over to encourage life and actually begin to help planning parenthood?

We can do better.  This "Pro-Choice" culture is simply not the solution.  We need more for our women and children.

Instead of focusing on Karl Malone's mistakes, we need to focus on our own.  We need to fix the contradictions in our legal system.  Maybe then we can send a message to fathers and mothers that there is no double standard - all will be held equally accountable for life and death.  And both will be equal participants without focusing on a dollar amount.

No, Karl Malone shouldn't get a free pass for running from his responsibility of parenting Demetrius Bell.  But neither should the 1.2 million women in 2007 who chose to abort their children, nor the men who helped father those 1.2 million fetuses that were aborted.

Lord help us.  We all have sinned and fallen short of your glory.  We must do better.

Thankfully the mother of Demetrius Bell had the courage to give him a chance at life.  Quite possibly we should be writing about her instead of Demetrius or Karl Malone.

"Barry Cheated, But What’s Really Going On? (Why I Hate Barry, Part II)"

Last Thursday, on November 15, Barry Bonds was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. I must say, my first thought was, isn’t this over and done with? How many other names have surfaced and faded since the BALCO fiasco?

Now Bonds could go to prison facing five years for perjury and ten years for obstruction of justice. This indictment follows a four-year investigation into steroid use by elite athletes. The same doggone day Barry was indicted, Greg Anderson, his personal trainer, was ordered released after spending most of the past year in prison for refusing to testify against his longtime friend.

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said, "the president is very disappointed to hear this. As this case is now in the criminal justice system, we will refrain from any further specific comments about it. But clearly this is a sad day for baseball."

WOW! A White House spokesman feels the Barry Bonds BALCO fiasco is important enough to comment on! This is really amazing, given all the important issues facing the U.S. and world today, that a Whitehouse official would find the time to comment about Barry.
I truly believe that the one thing BIG Brother wants is an unconscious, thoughtless, uninformed public. They (the media) seem to have an agenda to keep us distracted by irrelevant news, divided by racial issues and confused by religious inconsistencies that never provide us with an example needed to unite people of diverse backgrounds.

If we as people stay dazed by irrelevant news, like Barry Bonds or Paris Hilton, divided by racially biased media reporting that creates fear and anger and results in division, we will never see the real issues and enemies facing our country. The powerful elite, which is bipartisan, oppresses regardless of race. Its one goal is to keep the masses preoccupied with nonsense while more civil liberties are taken and more power is assumed by the elite.

Barry Bonds is irrelevant, and I am sure the Justice Department feels the same way. But nevertheless they decided to use your taxpayer money to bring down one individual who incites the right negative emotions (anger, jealousy, resentment) after four years of investigations.

Basically, Barry’s the perfect distraction.

We, the people, have a few Issues affecting our country that need to be addressed. So since a White House spokesman found it so important to make a statement about Barry, I figured we, the people, should come up with a few questions and/or statements of our own.

Iraq War: Over three trillion dollars is missing from the U.S. budget, all as a result of the D.O.D. (Department of Defense). How many people could we educate and motivate with that chump change? Is the media willing to do its job and hold our officials and representatives accountable? And let’s talk about the 80 percent Army desertion increase since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. Is the media willing to ask the government to address the growing sentiment against the war by our own troops? Whether you’re for or against the war, these questions need to be answered.
Blackwater Worldwide – The definition of a mercenary is a person or party who takes part in an armed conflict (war) for the desire of private gain, be it monetarily, politically or otherwise. Backwater Worldwide is a private military firm formed by former Navy Seal, Erik Prince, that has close to 40,000 privately trained mercenaries, some U.S. citizens and others foreign nationals, at its disposal. Blackwater Worldwide is under contract right now with the U.S. Department of Defense. Blackwater has recently come under investigation by the FBI for smuggling weapons into Iraq and firing on unarmed Iraqi civilians. An anonymous U.S. military official was quoted as saying that Blackwater's guards opened fire without provocation and used excessive force. The U.S. D.O.D. has paid some fifteen billion dollars to companies such as these. This is big business. Will the media do its job as the constitution instructs us to and ask the questions that need to be asked? We, the people, want to know.

North American Union – This is a plan that will ultimately undermine the U.S. constitution and our civil liberties. Basically, this includes uniting Mexico, Canada and the U.S. to what would be called the North American Union. This includes a highway from Mexico through Texas to Canada, one currency, and modern day slavery – just say CHEAP LABOR, which is the Mexican people. Lou Dobbs of CNN is the only mainstream media person that seems to be concerned. Oh, and one last thing, the removal of our Constitution, which is what makes America the land of opportunity. Will the media do its job? We, the people, want to know.

Katrina Survivors – Still a mess… need I say more? Who will be the voice? We, the people, need a voice.

These are just a few issues I know of that our more important than Mr. Bonds, who I seem to grow more impatient with as he is just one of the many media topics they use to keep us distracted and uniformed.

Regardless of our background, we must come together in love to save the impoverished, cultivate the youth and fight against the evil that seeks to destroy us.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing” – Anonymous

Until next time, don’t stop the swagger!

Don Imus... The Next Great Hip Hop Star?

After the debate surrounding “nappy headed hos” and recent firing of Don Imus for these comments, many now suggest that rappers need to face the guillotine. Many argued Don Imus is only repeating what rappers say in their music. Many continue to stay away from the core statement and issue surrounding Don Imus’ statements and point to a double standard that exists among rappers and Don Imus.

Hey, if a double standard exists and rappers continually use the word "bitch" (which seems to be the point of reference for most media pundits), then it’s important to note that at least 75% of all hip hop is purchased by Caucasian teens. So who exactly is being called a bitch? African American women? White women? Or is it just watered down word within the rap community to place an exclamation point on a statement?

We might need a Hip Hop dictionary for this. To bring it into context, we may need a “rap-ologist” or expert in the area of translating hip hop lyrics!

This is not to give rappers a free pass because they certainly share some community responsibility. The community needs role models who can demonstrate how they’ve overcome obstacles and developed entrepreneurial skills. But they need to reevaluate some of the music that is hitting the airwaves as to what level it benefits the community. The difference here is that Don Imus is a real show that leans toward politically based content, including guests John McCain, who still planned to come on the show after the remarks based on Imus’s apology, and Cal Ripken, who decided to cancel his plans to come on the show for fear people would associate him with Don Imus’ remarks. Imus receives millions of dollars because of his political influence. Don Imus Show is real, based on real topics and humor biased toward innocent people who have no means of defending themselves.

Hip Hop, on the other hand, is fictionalized form of expression that is sometimes based on personal experiences. Hip Hop illustrates over hyped characters fantasizing exaggerated lifestyles. If this were not the case, the police could and would arrest every rapper who has spoken about a criminal act. The problem with most people in the public and even the so called media elite is that we can not and will not discuss race and athletics in an intelligent forum. Most people still do not understand what constitutes racism.

Very clearly, racism is when a person and/or persons use their personal feelings to impose, control, enact violence, obstruct one’s means of making money, limits opportunities and/or creates a hostile environment by use of rhetoric and stereotypes.

The problem with Don Imus’ statements begin with him having a real show dealing with real topics. His guests include government officials, like Arizona Senator John McCain, former Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" and Democratic political strategist James Carville, and Senator Chris Dodd from Connecticut - all of whom participate in setting policy for this country. Do all of these people share the same beliefs? His 360,000 listeners must share his same humor. Where exactly does it stop? The people want to know…

Me being a radio host myself, I would have much rather see him keep his job. At least we know where we stand with the guy. It’s more difficult to pin point when people share racist beliefs but never come out and say what they believe – they just manipulate, control financial opportunities and set policy for this country based on beliefs that lack any real understanding.

Don certaintly has the controversy piece for Hip Hop figured out. But selling records would be another issue.