UConn Job

Much attention was – and is still being – paid to that post-game press conference tirade of University of Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun. Some scribe provocateur asked Calhoun how he justified his $1.6 million state salary when Connecticut is running a deficit of nearly $1 billion.

            Before losing it on camera, Connecticut’s highest-paid employee pointed out that the UConn hoops program makes $12 million for the university. That was a good, legitimate answer. Intercollegiate sports at that level are very much a part of marketplace dynamics. What his salary says about skewed values, however, remains relevant.

            However, an even more relevant question, given Calhoun’s track record, would have been a query about what his UConn graduation rate is.

Fed No Feeding Frenzy

Speaking of the media, anyone else get nervous when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks?

He’s getting better at it, but when the Fed chairman speaks — at a time when the country is mired in a spiraling recession — his every word is subject to instant analysis and parsing. And that reality — as markets founder on fear — is underscored by the superimposed Dow box ticking away as he speaks.

And while I wouldn’t want our Fed chairman to be under wraps and not publicly accountable for Fed policy and expert analysis, I’d be really, really prudent about the venues.

Capitol Hill is a given. And a necessity.

But I admit to cringing when I see him taking questions at the National Press Club in Washington. It’s not just the possibility of an ill-timed facial tic or the inadvertent verbalization of unintended policy nuance. It’s facing — all too often — preening journalists too enamored of their gotcha questions.

That journalistic approach can work wonderfully well with the usual disingenuous, political suspects. They deserve each other.

But I really don’t want a thrust and parry with the Fed chief right now.

A Moment In Time At Steinbrenner Field

            Call it Floruary: Florida in February.

Temps well into the 70s. A need for sun screen. A hint of a breeze. Cold beer. Hot dogs in their quintessential element. Lots of dads and sons. Plenty of guy sports-talk. An absence of cell phoneys and blue teeth. Eclectically fun, up-tempo music – from “Hava Nagila” to “Runaround Sue.”  

An afternoon baseball game at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

It isn’t, of course, the “House That Ruth Built” but the 10,000-seat, mini-Yankee Stadium replica that the Tampa Sports Authority built. And it’s totally cool – down to dimensions (318’ to left, 408’ to center, 314’ to right) identical with the original Bronx version. For one who hadn’t been to the erstwhile “Legends Field” before, it was a treat.

And a nostalgic bender.

Ogling the outside plaques that commemorate Yankees who have had their numbers retired. Trying to identify players from a large photo of the 1956 team – and succeeding with Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Moose Skowron and Elston Howard.

And, without warning, an odd mix of baseball memories comes cascading back.

Encountering the mystique that was going to a big league game at Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium. And recalling that for the longest time, I had no idea that “booing” wasn’t anything but proper baseball deportment…Meeting my father’s friends from the Army, Ken Heintzleman and Eddie Waitkus. They would later play on the 1950 Phillies’ “Whiz Kids” team that won the National League pennant, but lost to the Yankees in the World Series…Having Phillies’ shortstop Granny Hamner live two blocks away on Magee Street. Introducing Hall of Fame Phillie Richie Ashburn to my mother in Clearwater and having her say, upon introduction, “Oh, I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.” And then, upon reflection, hearing her say: “I don’t believe I said that!”…Remembering when my father and I umpired American Legion and college games as a tandem around Philly. He’d be on the bases; I’d take home plate.

What a rush. “Play ball.”

Minnesota Twins up first. A quick look around the Yankee infield.

Alex Rodriguez at third.

End of reverie.

“Crawl” Overkill

            The “crawl” at the bottom of our television screens is now a staple of the industry. No viewer should be update-challenged. On balance, it works. It’s what an instant-communication medium should be doing.

            But ever notice how often it’s more distracting than informative? Whether we’re watching sports or generic news. Too much stuff goes crawling by that’s relatively unimportant, absolutely unimportant or important but redundantly so. Or sometimes just depressing and mood altering.

            Just because you can, you don’t have to.

            Case in point: when the president is giving a press conference or making a speech. Can’t the networks at least accord him enough respect to let him speak in a crawl-less context? It’s hardly a news blackout. Moreover, how about some consideration for those viewers who – quaint concept that it is – may just want to focus on what they’ve actually tuned in to?

Teens Put Onus On Adults

            Too bad Attorney General Eric Holder, the first African-American to hold that position, didn’t contact either Faith Woodard or Tariq Sharrieff before giving his infamous “cowards” speech as his contribution to Black History Month. He could have used their perspective.

Both Hillsborough County teenagers showed refreshing maturity and insight in their recent presentations on the contemporary American black experience. They weren’t dealt grievance cards, so they weren’t playing any. They addressed reality as they saw it and lived it, whether it was politically correct – or racially safe – or not.

            Woodard, a 14-year-old eight grader at Rogers Middle School in Riverview, spoke at the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs’ annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast. She spoke of King and Rosa Parks and quoted Robert F. Kennedy, Aristotle and Maya Angelou. She faulted her contemporaries’ rebellious attitudes and challenged parents to do a better job of combating a popular culture that was a large part of the problem.

            “With the advancement of technology, hip-hop, rap music and TV have paved the way for the African-American youth to pick up thuggery as a way of life,” said Woodard. “Rebellion is idolized, crime is glorified and education is criticized.”

            Sharrieff, a 14-year-old ninth grader from Tampa’s Jesuit High, gave the keynote address at the Black History Month celebration at Middleton High School. He also called out adults to act like, well, adults.

            “Believe it or not, I have some friends who tell their parents what they will do and what they won’t do, and basically run the home,” noted Sharrieff. “If you adults don’t see this as your responsibility, …then society as we know it will cease to exist.”

            These certainly weren’t the voices of cowardice. They were the voices of a generation who see irresponsibility and dysfunction where others see ravages of slavery and historic grievance.

            They are the real, audacious voices of hope.

Crist’s Cuban Opportunity

            Granted, the Obama Administration has a lot on its domestic-agenda plate right now. An unprecedented, historic amount.

            So, it’s understandable that, except for Iraq, Afghanistan/Pakistan and Secretary of State Clinton’s sortie to the Orient and the president’s Canadian cameo, foreign policy is a lesser priority than it would otherwise be.

            Latin America, for one, largely remains ignored.

            Cuba, specifically, is being addressed gingerly, even though that island represents the administration’s best opportunity for early, high-upside success. As in economic and geopolitical benefits. As in humane considerations.

            Legislation is now coursing through Congress that will essentially undo what President George W. Bush did to tighten travel restrictions to Cuba – for those of Cuban descent. It’s thought that the move likely presages others later in the year that would involve broader travel opportunities and some easing of the economic embargo.

            Here’s hoping Gov. Charlie Crist takes off his Cuba blinders and finally grasps the significance of ending that 47-year-old Cold War relic. He needs to apply his well-honed opportunism skills and fully leverage his support for the administration’s stimulus package. The cause is worth it: the Florida economy.

            Here’s what he can do. Tell lame duck Sen. Mel Martinez to take an early hike. Then “the people’s governor” needs to align himself with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Republican, Richard Lugar. The Indiana senator wants to rethink the Cuban embargo.  

            The timing would be propitious for the Sunshine State.

            According to a study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an end to the Cuban embargo would be worth at least $1.2 billion in U.S. exports, a sizable chunk of which would accrue to Florida. And not incidentally, to the Port of Tampa.

            Among those who would really appreciate some leadership from Crist on Cuba: local Tampa officials. The Tampa Port Authority, which includes Mayor Pam Iorio, awaits a green light from Washington to get aggressive about trade possibilities with Havana.

            The embargo is going to end sooner or later. And sooner makes much more sense during a brutalizing recession.

            Locals need political cover, and Crist is in position to help provide it. And it wouldn’t hurt if some members (or at least one) of this state’s Congressional delegation would finally show some guts and jump on board. Why should the Obama administration hurry to do the right thing and end the counterproductive embargo when Florida’s own politicians still act as if they’re intimidated by the grievance-clinging, clout-diminished Cuban exile community? That’s not even “smart,” self-serving politics any more “Insane,” is how Port Authority Commissioner Carl Lindell described U.S.-Cuba policy.

            Indeed, now more than ever.

All that’s at stake are jobs, Americans’ right to travel freely and the opportunity for America’s standing in the world to be immediately improved.

Cell Phoning And Driving

            And while we’re on the subject of cell phones and the role of parents and school administrators, let’s not forget the Florida Legislature. As noted, this state doesn’t ban cell phones in schools, but leaves their regulation up to local districts.

What it needs to re-think is that Florida has no law that prohibits — or even limits — cell phone use while driving. That obviously includes texting teenagers. That’s obviously an increasingly scary scenario.

            The National Safety Council now equates cell phoning while behind the wheel to drunken driving. It’s that dangerous. The NSC estimates that cell phone use while driving increases the risk of an accident fourfold. The Harvard Center for Risk Analysis attributes more than 2,600 deaths and 12,000 serious injuries a year to cell phone use by motorists.

            Chances are, this won’t be the year that the Legislature finally gets revenue-raising religion or helps everyone’s property taxes “drop like a rock.” We all know the politics of that.

But banning – or at least restricting – cell phone use while driving? What exactly is the constituency for enabling behavior that is the equivalent of drunk driving?  Especially for novice drivers.

            It seems fitting to accord the final word to Janet Froetscher, president of the NSC.

            “When our friends have been drinking, we take the car keys away,” she reasons. “It’s time to take the cell phone away.”

Hear, Hear: School Bans Cell Phones

            Well done, Learning Gate Community School. Adults acting like adults.

            At LGCS, cell phones have been banned on campus. Students must either leave them at home or at the front office.

            Appealing to reason or just rules – given the ubiquity of cell phones in the culture – hadn’t worked. Text-messaging and calls during class were incompatible with a serious learning environment. And it wasn’t just adolescents being envelope-pushing adolescents. Too often it was their parents on the sending end of those less-than-emergency calls.

            And, of course, the ban pre-empts “sexting” at school, which speaks volumes about the challenging times we live in – and a whole separate, disturbing topic.

            LGCS did what every other county school should also do.  

Currently, Florida law permits students to carry cell phones – with the proviso that local school boards can regulate their use. As a result, Hillsborough County schools have adopted a “see and hear no evil” policy: Students generally can carry them, but they must be turned off and out of sight.

As if.

            To no one’s surprise, students see such a half measure — bring it, but resist the temptation to use it — for what it is. An obligatory, token attempt by out-of-touch adults to rain on their cell phone rite of passage. As a result, when they bring them — it’s hardly for non-use during school.

            And, no, we don’t need to keep over-reacting to Columbine. We can all agree that cell phones during a lock-down with killers on the loose would be helpful. But let’s not countenance the travesty of ongoing, academics-undermining intrusions premised on the unlikely possibility of a Columbine sequel. 

            (Meaningful, pro-active measures – from bullying and dress-code guidelines to more responsible monitoring of at-risk adolescents with unconscionable access to weaponry – should be the focus on that issue.)

            Frankly, it would also help if more parents would complement the efforts of schools by focusing more on cell phones — and their use and misuse – than cell towers.

Gaza Debate: At Least It Was Collegial

            They’ve done this before. The vehicles vary, the subject doesn’t.

Jack Ross and Ahmed Bedier — each speaking truth and reality as they know it. About Jews and Muslims. About Israelis and Palestinians. About blame.

In the end, they don’t agree on enough, but they do personify hope. That’s because Ross, a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Bedier, the Muslim president of the Tampa/Hillsborough County Human Rights Council and radio talk-show co-host, are as collegial as they are articulate.

They both agree that the violence and resultant human suffering – in both Gaza and southern Israel – are deplorable. They both agree that peace is a goal.

End of agreement.

But this, of course, wasn’t the frustrating, tragic crucible that is Gaza. This was the eminently civil political forum that is the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa luncheon at Maestro’s, comfortably ensconced within the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

Bedier went first and decried the “collective punishment” meted out by Israel over the actions of a few “criminals” and “terrorists” in Gaza. He labeled such disproportionate response as “Nazi-like tactics.”

Israel, underscored Bedier, has “habitually and consistently used violence to get its way….They’re the most powerful nation in the Middle East…The actions of its military and hardliners have furthered the radicalization of the Palestinians.”

What they’ve done in Gaza, stressed Bedier, “doesn’t send a message of peace. When you treat Palestinians like animals, you’re going to get animal behavior. Palestinians don’t hate Jews. They hate the treatment. They hate what they see. ‘Never again’ should apply to all people all the time.”

And while he found “condemnable” the acts of civilian-targeting “terrorists” and “un-Islamic” suicide bombers, Bedier found more moral culpability on the Israeli side. “Yes, these (Gaza residents) are terrorists, and I personally condemn what they do,” he insisted. “But that’s (Israelis) a government. We expect more.”

What the Palestinians have done, countered Ross, is to continually miss  opportunities – going back to the Oslo Accords of 1992 and through the Camp David compromise that Yasser Arafat walked away from in 2000 – for a realistic, two-state solution. They instead, said Ross, chose an Intifada strategy and elected Hamas, which sponsors terror and has refused to recognize Israel. The predictable result: A deal-breaking “land for insecurity” reality that Israel cannot countenance and has been forced to combat with its land-air-sea barrage.

Ross cited “truce violations by Hamas” and the “10,000 missiles fired from Gaza to southern Israel over the last three years.

“There’s a pattern,” emphasized Ross. “They re-arm during cease fires. They provoke a military response. Until they take responsibility, this won’t end.”

And, yes, the amorphous subject of a “solution” inevitably came up.

According to Bedier, any meaningful sense of a solution would have two prerequisites. First, a halt in “killing Palestinians and treating them like animals.” Second, a “return to pre-1967 borders.”

Ross: “But who do you talk to who can deliver?”

                                                       

                                                   Bedier Outtakes

Afterward, Bedier elaborated on a couple of points.

*He had indicated earlier that a Muslim version of a “Reformation” – along the lines of those experienced by Judaism and Christianity – could, indeed, occur. But if so, he averred, it would likely be propelled by Muslims living in Western democracies.

“The Muslims there (West) are a bit more detached from the ongoing political situation,” explained Bedier. “They enjoy the freedoms of democracy. They can express themselves more effectively. Remember that Muslims in America responded to the Danish cartoons differently than in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Here, there were no protests. They wrote letters to the editor.

            “The people in the Middle East are too close to the action,” added Bedier, a native of Cairo, Egypt. “Politics is closely mixed with religion.”

            *Bedier then addressed the issue of outrage. The word is all too applicable when referencing the Middle East. He has been consistently outspoken in his condemnation of terrorist tactics.

            But where was the global Muslim outrage – as expressed by massive crowds, burning effigies, government-controlled newspaper editorials and key, influential leaders – over the INTENTIONAL targeting of innocents from 9/11 to Mumbai to southern Israel? Where was the in-the-streets outrage over sadistic beheadings and the cherry picking of the Koran to justify the world’s division into believers and “infidels?” Why, candidly, did Dutch cartoons elicit more of a response in Muslim countries than mass murders?

            “The area is evolving,” said Bedier. “Absent any Gandhi-like leaders in that part of the world, there are still signs that people are speaking out. Especially in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt. There have been protests against suicide bombers in the West Bank. There have been peace demonstrations. Especially in Iraq.”

            The problem, maintained Bedier, is context. Israel and the U.S. are seen as occupiers who have ceded the moral high ground.

“It’s hard for peace demonstrators to be empowered when, for example, Israel has a policy of political assassination, and they will bomb a whole block to get one terrorist,” noted Bedier. “This is what undermines moderates.”

But where there is dialogue, there is hope.

And where the word “martyr” doesn’t get sacrilegiously invoked, there is hope.

And wherever George Mitchell takes his “special envoy” portfolio, there is hope.

That will have to do for now.

Birth Of An Indignation

          Whether you voted for President Obama or not. Whether you like his stimulus and mortgage plans or not. Whether you think we are too politically correct or not.

            That cartoon in the New York Post was unconscionable. The one that obviously likened the African-American president — as the writer of the stimulus bill — to that crazed chimpanzee recently in the news.

            The First Amendment, of course, permits the tasteless and the unfunny. It can also countenance the racist masquerading as parody. And, alas, it can give cover to the sort of knuckle-dragging journalism the New York Post is notorious for. It was the Post’s perfect storm.

            Then the Post made it worse with its PR 101 “apology” when reaction exceeded what it had expected — and desired — from its intentionally provocative black stereotype. It reiterated that its purpose was merely to mock the stimulus bill, but “to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”

            In other words: “We draw the cartoons; you’re free to draw the wrong conclusion. If you weren’t hip enough to get it because you’re some thin-skinned, politically-correct,

diversity-cuddling, knee-jerk liberal who doesn’t read the Post anyhow, we apologize.”