Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, August 15, 2020

12

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, August 15, 2020 


MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

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Patricia Colonello

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John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

CONTRIBUTORS

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LaQuetta Shamblee

JOHN MICEK

KAMALA HARRIS IS 

AMERICA AS IT IS NOW

If there’s a more authentically American story than the 
one of Sen. Kamala Harris, you’d have to make it up.

On Tuesday, the California Democrat, the daughter of Jamaican 
and Indian immigrants, became the first woman 
of color in American history to be named to a presidential 
ticket. And across the United States, Black women, who 
saw themselves reflected in Harris’ eyes, rejoiced.

“I’m so excited I can hardly talk,” former Philadelphia City Council member Marian 
B. Tasco told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “For us to have an African American 
woman be a candidate for vice president, that is just so exciting for me, having 
worked so long in the political arena.”

It’s long past absurd that America stands nearly alone in the industrialized world 
for never having put a woman in the Oval Office – and yes, Clintonistas, I hear 
you, the popular vote numbers in 2016 said it all. That does not mean Harris joining 
the 2020 ticket is any less epochal.

Harris, who enjoyed a close relationship with Biden’s son, the late Delaware Attorney 
General Beau Biden, survived a culling process that sometimes threatened 
to be reduced to a mere popularity contest as various contenders waxed 
and waned.

As The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty wrote, the very qualities that some believe 
hampered Harris’ short-lived presidential bid – that she is cautious and deliberate 
– are the very attributes that make her an ideal running-mate for Biden, 
who will benefit from her counsel should he win the White House in November.

But crucially, in choosing Harris, Biden picked a running-mate who will meet 
where the country where it is now: A multiracial and multiethnic republic, 
where the voices of Black and Brown people have been raised and are, rightfully, 
prominent.

Harris, like President Barack Obama before her, brings an intimate knowledge 
and understanding of that changing America.

During last August’s Democratic debate, she took Biden to the woodshed over 
his opposition to busing, forcefully arguing it was a ticket to opportunity for hundreds 
of thousands of Black children just like her. She and Biden later mended 
fences over that televised moment of confrontation.

While she’s not without her flaws, Harris is a living refutation of the crass and 
hateful nativism of the Trump administration. Trump will struggle to brand Harris 
in the same way he has found it difficult to label Biden, despite round after 
round of new ads.

That’s due in part to changing American attitudes about race and race relations 
(a majority of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement), but also 
because of the policy ground Harris has staked out during her time in the Senate.

Like Biden, a Senate veteran before his ascension to the vice presidency in 2008, 
Harris is largely a moderate Democrat who will defy Trump’s efforts to paint her 
as some empty vessel for the party’s progressive wing.

It’s also not likely Harris will wilt in the face of any presidential Twitter storm. 
Her questioning of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh reminded the nation 
of her prosecutorial bona fides. They were cemented with Twitter shade of her 
own, when she clapped back at Trump “Don’t worry, Mr. President, I’ll see you 
at your trial.”

Finally, though it seems grim to talk about it, Harris has the experience and expertise 
to step in if Biden, who will be 78 by the time of his possible inauguration 
in January, is incapacitated and unable to serve.

Biden has described himself as a “transitional candidate.” And in Harris, he has 
found an ideal partner to whom to pass the baton.

As much as Trump has tried to move the country backwards, putting up walls, 
withdrawing America from the world stage, and hearkening back to a segregated 
past, Harris is a living reminder that the arc of history is always forward-moving.

She’s America as it is now, and will be in the decades to come. Trump is an unpleasant 
chapter the country can’t move past quickly enough.

An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The 
Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. 


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?????????

RICH MANIERI

SPORTS HAVE BEEN HARD 
TO WATCH DURING THE 
PANDEMIC


American 
sports are in 
trouble. At least 
if I am, in any 
way, a representation 
of a typical 
fan.

I grew up in 
Philadelphia 
where following 
all four major teams is part of one’s DNA. 
As I sit here, I can name, without prompting, 
every member of the 1980 Phillies 
starting lineup. And the 1977 team – 1976 
too. I once won a Philly sports trivia contest 
where my savant-like recall stupefied 
the quizmaster to the point where he assumed 
I had to be cheating.

I once paid a guy to cut down a tree that 
was blocking my southern exposure so I 
could pay another guy to put up a satellite 
dish so I could watch the Eagles on Sunday.

I’ve bought every sports package available 
so I could follow Philadelphia teams 
wherever I happened to be living, and I’ve 
moved around quite a bit.

I listen to sports radio incessantly.

My friend, an Eagles’ season ticket holder 
since 1972, calls me before and after every 
game for predictions and postgame 
analysis.

I’m that guy. And I’m not just a spectator. 
I coach high school lacrosse. I do the 
play-by-play for my university’s basketball 
games.

Given my history, you would think after 
a five-month, COVID-19 sports hiatus I 
would have rushed back and embraced 
my teams and their sports as if they were a 
shipwrecked friend I presumed dead long 
ago.

And yet, there I was the other day, watching 
a basketball game for the first time 
since March and I couldn’t summon the 
energy to care. I tried baseball. Same thing. 
I’m not sure why.

Maybe there’s a certain fakeness in watching 
spectator sports being played in empty 
stadiums and arenas. Sports, at least for 
fans, is a shared experience. Those of us 
watching on TV are living vicariously 
through the people in the seats. Remove 
them and the whole thing – from the cardboard 
cutouts to the pumped-in crowd 
noise – seems fraudulent.

Maybe it’s the infiltration of politics and 
virtue signaling into what has always been 
a pleasant diversion from both. There is 
something spectacularly ironic about an 
NBA player who makes tens of millions of 
dollars per annum and feels compelled to 
wear “EQUALITY” instead of his name on 
the back of his jersey. Clearly, based on the 
tenor of the coverage, ESPN, the NBA and 
its surrogates are wagging their collective 
finger at me. They don’t know anything 
about me but they continue to tap my 
credit card to renew my subscription.

Maybe I’ve simply learned to live without 
sports.

Maybe, given everything unfolding in 
the country, it’s just not that important 
anymore.

I’ve been a sports fan since I was 6 years old, 
when my father took me to my first Eagles 
game at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. I’ve 
hung in there through strikes, lockouts, 
decades of losing, colossal disappointments 
and epoch-shattering collapses.

Everyone once in a while, after an especially 
difficult Eagles loss, I would say to my 
friend – the season ticket holder – “I don’t 
know if I can do this anymore.”

“Oh, you’ll be back,” he would say. And he 
was right. The next Sunday, there I was for 
another three hours of hand wringing.

In Philadelphia, we always come back for 
more. We always get back up. That’s part 
of our character, our charm. That’s why 
there’s a Rocky statue in front of the art 
museum.

But now? I might be down for the count.

In a recent commentary about the state of 
the NFL, columnist and historian Victor 
Davis Hanson writes that the league is in 
trouble like never before.

“If the multibillion-dollar NFL decides that 
multimillionaire players have no obligation 
to stand to honor a collective national 
anthem, and that there will be separate anthems 
and politicized uniforms, then millions 
of Americans will quietly shrug and 
change the channel,” Hanson writes.

The NFL and, to a lesser extent, the other 
leagues, have always been able to count 
on the resilience of their fans. But at what 
point do fans run out of patience or worse, 
just lose interest? I never thought it was 
possible.

Of course, these days, many things have 
come to pass that I never thought possible.

Rich Manieri is a Philadelphia-born journalist 
and author. He is currently a professor 
of journalism at Asbury University in 
Kentucky. You can reach him at manieri2@
gmail.com.

MONEY VERSUS VIRTUE - 
WHICH PROVIDES THE 
MORE LASTING REWARD?

STUART TOLCHIN

 
The fact that too few have too much money 
and too many have too little is not good for 
anybody. I read somewhere that until the 
advent of agriculture there was no such thing 
as ownership or property. Nomadic hunter and 
gatherers did not want to carry around more 
weight than absolutely needed for the day. 
Excess amounts were given to other members 
of their group and probably made the most 
efficient hunter-gatherers very popular. Maybe 
there evolved a kind of specialization. Some 
were good hunters or gatherers, some were good at administering to those who 
had mishaps and were knowledgeable about the healing powers of plants. Some 
might have been particularly adept at taking care of plants, or of building the yurts 
or nests that were used at the end of the day. Maybe some were particularly good 
at taking care of the young ones of the group or at nursing infants or in assisting 
in births. Maybe some in the group were particularly adept at delivering sexual 
pleasure to others or instructing in sexual matters. Some individuals might 
be more popular than others; but overall there was a kind of equality which is 
definitely missing today.

 What we have today is a capitalistic society where the accumulation of 
more money is the only goal of many. This is the source of prestige and power. 
Money is the key to unlocking all the doors to power and status. Corruption is 
everywhere! The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I’m certainly not an 
economist but I have read that this vast gulf between the super-rich and the rest 
of the population is inevitable within a capitalist society. A simple question is 
whether there is an economic necessity that some small group of individuals be 
allowed to accumulate unlimited money and concomitant power to do whatever 
they please? Does a limitation on the amount of wealth that can be accumulated 
automatically deprive the society of any great benefits? Today while multiple 
millions and billions of dollars are made by our super-rich, many Americans are 
deprived of decent education, adequate or any housing, medical services, clean 
water, employment availability and necessary skill retraining. What has been 
established and maintained instead is racist caste system that limits individual 
opportunity by the accident of birth. 

 Please look around you. The single-minded pursuit of money has erased all other 
standards. America is awash in corruption. Senators, Governors, CEO’s, Prime 
Ministers, and Presidents, all have disregarded ethics, morality, legalities, and their 
responsibilities to fatten their wallets. Did you learn of the tentative Governmental 
deal with Eastman Kodak involving many hundreds of millions of dollars to a 
bankrupt almost non-existent company with no experience whatsoever in drug 
manufacture which is the alleged purpose of their governmental deal. Strangely, 
or not so strangely, the day before the deal was announced individuals obviously 
aware of the pending deal bought into the company and made millions of dollars 
in a day. This is a clear violation of insider trading laws and more importantly 
an offense against all common sense and all social mores. Meanwhile the basic 
governmental obligations are neglected and ignored.

 Today, there is nothing more important than the accumulation of money and 
whatever goes with it. I hope it is not too late for those in power and the rest of 
us to rediscover our true values. The hunter gatherer people, mentioned at the 
beginning of this article, found ways to survive using the specific abilities of an 
entire population and maintained a kind of equality. Their basic classless system 
survived for millennia. It seems unlikely that our present capitalistic system based 
upon unlimited greed will survive even for more than a few lifetimes. So what can 
be done? Perhaps an emphasis on virtue – an almost unknown word today.

 


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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com